Christmas Music

I've been a lazy blogger lately. I've got plenty to write about, but it's all late. I was in New Orleans for a week learning about oil production in the Gulf of Mexico from Shell Oil, but I've already uploaded photos to facebook and DeviantART, I'll post about that later in between preparing for my January through May internship with GeoSearch Logging.

Meanwhile, I'll post about Christmas music and later probably about Christmas movies/stories if I feel like it, even though it's already Christmas Eve and there's not a whole lot of time to enjoy the music. A good friend of mine asked me if I was going to put Christmas music on my blog playlist, and I said no, since then I'd be taking it off to make it the normal playlist again. I've decided, though, since I have somewhat different tastes in Christmas music just like in other music, to post a new playlist with a few of my very favorite Christmas songs. Here's the list (Google Reader users will have to go to my actual blog to see it):

Now, a little about the list. I've decided that the "Arabian Dance" from "The Nutcracker" is probably my favorite Christmas song. Sure, it doesn't have a message or anything, it's just a brilliant piece of music, and is part of a Christmas story, so they play it at Christmas time. I've found my two favorite versions and included them in the list. "Winter in Cairo" is the best, kind of jazzy with strings, from a Christmas compilation published by Windham Hill. The other one is by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and is a more traditional version of the song.

Then of course there's a bunch of Mannheim Steamroller. It's just not Christmas without Mannheim Steamroller! Rush Limbaugh even throws them into the bumper music rotation on his show a couple weeks leading up to his vacation. "Hark! the Herald Trumpets Sing" is a very cool trumpet fanfare based on "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing", and has some super high piccolo trumpet notes that are very cool. Their version of "O Holy Night" is by far my favorite, just for the piano part. "Stille Nacht" is of course "Silent Night" (it's a German song), and again their version is one of my favorites, especially the violin solo. Another good version of this is "Oiche Chiun", which is "Silent Night" in Gaelic sung by Enya. Sadly, I can't find a good file of this online that doesn't skip. "Los Peces en el Rio" (The Fish in the River) is a Spanish Christmas song, and Mannheim Steamroller's is the only version I know. "Pat a Pan" is a great song, and theirs is the best version, gives it a very military feel and makes you think of soldiers away from home risking their lives so we can be free on Christmas (the original is supposed to be shepherds playing simple instruments like flute and drum). There are more great Mannheim Steamroller Christmas songs, but that's enough for this list. Aside from their piano interludes, their Christmas stuff is their best material, and the only stuff that is consistently good. Definitely buy their albums if you haven't yet!

If I get around today or tomorrow to posting about Christmas movies, you'll hear about the best one: The Nightmare Before Christmas. Meanwhile, enjoy the "Overture" by Danny Elfman, and "What's This", performed by Danny Elfman as Jack Skellington, who stumbles out of Halloweentown into Christmastown and is overwhelmed by what he sees.

One of my all-time favorite Christmas recordings is The Canadian Brass playing "O Come, Immanuel" and "I Wonder as I Wander". They play only one verse of the first, then segue right into the other with the addition of a harp.

"The Coventry Carol" is one of my favorite classical Christmas songs, and "Lullay Thou Tiny Little Child" is a different take sung by The Boston Camerata, as kind of a medieval chant with interesting harmonies.

Finally, I've included a song by the Irish group Anúna (which is my favorite choral group) called "Winter, Fire and Snow". This isn't really a Christmas song, but a winter-themed song, but it's so good I put it in the list anyway.

Stuff you won't ever see in my Christmas playlist on iTunes: annoying garbage like "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", "Jingle Bell Rock", "Silver Bells", "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and other shallow pop songs with insipid lyrics. I prefer the minor-key type (though it doesn't have to be) reflective songs that have actual substance to them.

Merry Christmas!

School is Out!

I made it through this semester.... barely! I finished Intro to GIS okay. I did alright with Structural Geology. Stratigraphy/Sedimentology finished me. But it's all good now!

Thursday night was the annual geology faculty Christmas dinner, and I was asked to put together a music program for it. My brother and I both play the Trombone, and my dad does, too, though he hasn't for about 25 years or so. So I put together a short, simple Christmas program consisting of mostly Trombone trios: Personent Hodie, The Coventry Carol, Bogoro Ditse Devo (a Russian song by Rachmaninov), What's This? (from The Nightmare Before Christmas, the best musical ever, I played this as a Trombone solo) and finally O Come, O Come Immanuel. It was a lot of fun, and turned out really well. Also there was good free food.

Another highlight of the semester was at the end of my GIS class, when the end result of a particular map project turned out rather interesting. Our last lab was to complete some of the official "training modules," essentially tutorials, on the official website of ESRI, the company that makes ArcGIS. The final map we had to put together in the first module was of drainage patterns in south Florida Bay. I'm posting the resulting image below. It's nothing bad, just the southern tip of Florida and the Keys, with a border showing the limits of water drainage; but I'm posting a very tiny thumbnail because it grosses some people out apparently. I don't know why. Right-click on it and open in a new window if you want to see the interestingness of this map.

This next week will be a lot of fun. Early tomorrow morning I am flying down to New Orleans with my geology friends Tyson, Dan (from Canadia, we call him Canadidan), Clint and Annelise. Shell Oil is hosting a week-long Drilling and Production Camp, which is basically a more detailed, expanded version of the short course they taught at the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous last September. The event should be a lot of fun as well as informative, plus I've never been that far south before. I'm looking forward to seeing New Orleans, and hopefully I'll get to eat something interesting, like alligator, while I'm there. I'll try to take lots of pictures.

Meanwhile, I've been "tagged" by Rebekah, so I'm going to fill out one of those surveys. I'm not going to tag anyone else, though. Here it is:

Four jobs I have had:

1. Teacher's Assistant at BYU-Idaho

2. Assistant Manager at Gandolfo's Deli in Rexburg, ID

3. Bookseller at Barnes & Noble in Springfield, MO

4. Stockroom guy at Target in Orem, UT

Four movies I have seen more than once:

1. Children of Men

2. Fight Club

3. Serenity

4. Back to the Future

Four places I have lived:

1. Boulder, Colorado

2. Rolla, Missouri

3. Springfield, Missouri

4. Rexburg, Idaho

Four TV shows I watch:

1. The Office

2. The Venture Bros.

3. Metalocalypse

4. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Four favorite places I have been:

1. Smithsonian Air & Space museum in Washington, DC

2. Yellowstone National Park

3. Boulder, Colorado

4. Dan's Bake Sale. Yep, I was there. Heard Rush Limbaugh speak and everything.

Four of my favorite foods:

1. Steak

2. Pizza

3. Macaroni & Cheese

4. Chili

Four places I would like to visit

1. Iceland.  Duh.

2. The Alps

3. New Zealand

4. Alaska

Four things I am looking forward to in the coming year:

1. My internship with GeoSearch Logging (not logging trees, logging wells looking for oil).

2. Field Camp.

3. Possibly graduating at the end of the year.

4. The next Harry Potter movie, the one that was supposed to come out this year but Twilight did instead.

Luminescent 'Shrooms

I found these pictures the other day, and thought they were extra awesome. They're a somewhat recently discovered mushroom in Japan (there are some in South America, too) that uses the same luminescent chemicals used by fireflies to glow in the dark. The theory is that since these 'shrooms are found in areas with very little wind, they rely on insects to spread their spores and attract these insects by glowing. These pictures are the variety called Mycena lux-coeli. I've looked for more info, but I can't find out if they're edible, deadly poisonous or psychedelic. I think it would be an awful shame, though, if glow-in-the-dark 'shrooms didn't give the most awesome visions.

Remember Pearl Harbor

"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." - George Santayana, The Life of Reason.

67 years ago today, on December 7th, 1941, the United States was attacked by terrorists. It was a surprise attack on Sunday morning at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the a total of 2,402 Americans were killed, 57 of them civilians. We lost 5 battleships, 2 destroyers, and 188 planes, while only sinking 5 Japanese midget submarines and shooting down only 29 Japanese planes. The goal of the Empire of Japan was to take us out of World War II before we had joined it, so that we would not interfere with Japan's conquest of China and nearby islands. Fortunately, while it was a clear and decisive tactical victory for Imperial Japan, it was a bad move in the long run, as it awakened the "Sleeping Giant" of the United States and led to the ultimate downfall of the Japanese Empire. We've since rebuilt their country (as well as all of Europe, for a fraction of the cost of this so-called "bailout" of the auto industry, but that's another story), and Japan is no longer a threat.

Have we learned from history? Kind of. We were attacked again quite recently. Apparently it only takes 60 years to forget history. The attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 caused more casualties than Pearl Harbor, but they were all civilian. Both attacks were preventable had we been more aware and prepared for an attack. Even worse, in both cases conspiracy theories sprouted that the President knew of the attack in advance and did nothing so that there would be an excuse to join the global conflict without instigating the war. At least after Pearl Harbor, none that I knew of said the President planned the attack.

Fortunately in both cases the United States has given the appropriate response, and "stayed the course" even as public opinion, temporarily united against a common enemy, turns to opposition to the war (yes, there were protesters during WWII, too). After Pearl Harbor as well as after 9/11, the enemy expected no counter-attack. Both times the ultimate result was a complete destruction of the enemy's ability to wage war. The Japanese war machine was completely dismantled, and at least 90% of Al-Qaeda's military force has been destroyed, though you won't hear that in the mainstream news. In fact, we've won thoroughly enough in Iraq that Bush has time to safely withdraw troops before January 20th, when our country officially falls into the hands of Socialists. There will always be terrorists, but regimes have been toppled.

Fortunately, then and now, we've had the right leader in place at the right time. As disappointing as Bush has been these past couple years, at least on the most crucial issue he has led brilliantly, as did most of our leaders during World War II. It helped to have a victory six months later at Midway Island.

The events at Pearl Harbor have been made into many books and movies, but unfortunately the best-known one today, though named "Pearl Harbor," is probably the worst of them all. I can't definitively say that, since I haven't seen many, but it is extremely bad, and has almost no historical merit. Don't watch it, ever, because it sucks. Roger Ebert said (paraphrasing) that it was a movie about a Japanese surprise attack on an American love triangle. That's the best summary. It's the only movie ever where I've felt ripped-off enough to want my money back from the theater, but on principle I never ask for that since I sat through the whole thing.

Afterward I went home and popped in a much better Pearl Harbor movie: Tora! Tora! Tora! This movie pays much better attention to historical accuracy, and is probably the best retelling available. I highly recommend it.

Also, here is the text of Franklin Roosevelt's speech to Congress after the attack, and here are some pictures:

St. Anthony Sand Dunes

I've got a lot I want to blog about - some political topics, music, I even survived the entire Twilight movie and want to talk about that - but with one week left of school and far more schoolwork left to do than can be fit in a month, I don't have time yet. I want to post something, though, so here are some more photos I took for my photography class, this time at the sand dunes near St. Anthony, Idaho, at sunset a couple weeks ago.

This train that is always there looked extra cool in the low light.

The low evening light also looked very good on this stack of hay bales.

The sand dunes near Sand Hills Resort.

Low evening light really brought out the ripples on the dunes.

Mine were the only human footprints I saw that day.

Snow melted, seeped into the sand and froze; on the shadier north sides of the dunes snow still remained.

A slump on the dunes.

I have no idea what animal makes these tracks.

I love this picture because you can see the silhouettes of the Menan Buttes volcanoes in the background.

The bases of these ripples were frozen in place, and the tops blew away.

That's all for now!

The True Meaning of Thanksgiving

When I was in elementary school, I was taught that Thanksgiving was a holiday remembering the Pilgrims giving thanks to the Native Americans for saving them when they didn't know how to survive in the American wilderness. The Pilgrims arrived, had no idea where they were, had no idea what they were doing, and almost were wiped out because of it, until the Indians showed them how to plant corn and brought gifts; and in return, the Pilgrims brought plague and stole the Indians' land. This is what is taught in schools, and it's not true. Sure, horrible diseases were brought to the Americas that did a lot of damage to the inhabitants, but the disease went both ways and was not part of a sinister plan. Nor were the Pilgrims "saved" by the Indians. The truth, which they won't teach in schools, is that Thanksgiving is a very religious holiday that has nothing to do with the Indians at all. Thanksgiving came about when the colonists abandoned their original communal system and adopted capitalism, and the "thanks" goes to God for saving them from starvation.

It also irritates me to no end when people call it "Turkey Day," since that's not what day it is. This is not like calling Christmas X-mas, which is completely legitimate, as the "x" is the Greek letter Chi, which has been a symbol for Christ for over 1000 years. That's beside the point, though.

The lies about Thanksgiving go even farther. This is from a story by Mike Ivey in the Madison Capital Times, under the headline "The Pilgrims Were Really Grave Robbers":

Everything you know about the "first" Thanksgiving is wrong.

Plymouth Rock.

Pilgrims.

Perseverance.

Big feast.

Happy Indians sharing in the bounty.

According to award-winning filmmaker Patty Loew, it's all bunk, except maybe the part about eating turkey. Early settlers were so hungry they ate about anything with fur or feathers.

Otherwise, there is little connection between reality and the version of Thanksgiving events still taught in most schools.

That point was hammered home Sunday by Loew.

A member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, Loew was the keynote speaker at the third annual "Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration" held at Lakeview Lutheran Church on Madison's north side.

Loew said the problem with the traditional Thanksgiving story is that it plays to the American version of history where peace loving English settlers tame the wilderness and survive attacks from the bloodthirsty Indians.

"It's the quintessential American holiday," she said. "It involves escaping danger, surviving in a harsh environment, carving out a new life."

Unfortunately, Loew says, the whole Thanksgiving story is nothing but myth.

In reality, the Indian tribes living along the Eastern seaboard had been decimated by disease in the years preceding the storied landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620.

An epidemic of bubonic plague, most likely brought to the New World by European fishermen in 1617, had killed an estimated 90 percent of the Native population by the time the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts.

"What the settlers found were empty villages with crops still in the field because the Indians had either died or left," Loew said, quoting a version of events laid out by author James Loewen. www.trinicenter.com/historicalviews/thanksgiving.htm.

The more religious of the settlers -- only 32 of the 102 who landed at Plymouth were actually Pilgrims -- thought the existing villages and cleared fields were a sign that God was providing for them.

Other settlers took to digging up the graves of Indians, picking through the housewares, blankets or weapons buried with the dead.

"So the first Thanksgiving in America was actually held by grave robbers," Loew told the crowd of more than 200.

Loew challenged the audience to tell the correct version of events and think about what it means when they celebrate this Thursday with family or friends.

"We're not just talking about feel good history, but history that reflects the truth," said Loew, a longtime local TV anchor who serves as associate professor of life sciences communications at UW-Madison.

So if the Pilgrims were out digging up graves, why didn't they get the plague? I've heard similar stories cited elsewhere, as well. While it is true that disease and conflict had widespread effects on the native populations and colonists alike, this has nothing to do with Thanksgiving. And of course every year PETA complains about cruel treatment of turkeys, as if it would make us stop eating them.

So what is the true story of Thanksgiving? You can read what I have to say, or better yet, go to my sources and read these articles:

"Giving Thanks" by Jennifer James

"The Real Story of Thanksgiving" from a transcript of The Rush Limbaugh Show

The true Thanksgiving story is a perfect example of why communism fails. The early colonists were sponsored by English merchants, who required that the colonists keep everything common and distribute everything equally. Of course this wasn't a very efficient way to do things, since the more productive people have no incentive to work harder than anyone else, and the rest had no reason to work since they were entitled to a share whether they contributed or not. William Bradford wrote in his journal that the results of keeping everything common brought about needless suffering and should be every schoolchild's lesson.

"The experience that we had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years...that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing – as if they were wiser than God...For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without [being paid] that was thought injustice."

Seeing the dangers ahead, and fearing that this communal system would be as harmful as the harsh winter they had suffered through, Bradford decided to ignore the original contract with the merchant sponsors, and divided the land into individual plots, for which the colonists were personally responsible. He got the system out of the way and allowed capitalism to take over. Bradford wrote that "This had very good success, for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been. The Pilgrims soon found themselves with more bounty than they could consume themselves, and so were able to set up trade with the Indians. Their success attracted more settlers and began the Great Puritan Migration.

Thanksgiving came about as the Pilgrims learned the hard lessons of socialism, that it doesn't work. The only system that works is capitalism. Capitalism is not greed, it is personal accountability and responsibility. In fact, it is socialism that allows greed to pull everyone down. Capitalism requires contributing to the system before benefitting from it. Thanksgiving is a capitalist and religious holiday; thanks to God for providing for the Pilgrims once they got their heads on straight and did what they could for themselves, thanks to capitalism for saving them from the evils of socialism.

Interestingly enough, while every year people complain about the commercialization of Christmas, there is little complaint of the under-commercialization of Thanksgiving other than to mention that it is forgotten in retail stores as they put up Christmas merchandise as they take down Halloween. Incidentally, I don't complain about the commercial Christmas thing, because does Wal-Mart running ads and putting up decorations take anything away from me remembering Christ's birth? It doesn't. If there was ever a holiday that should be commercialized, it's Thanksgiving. This year, celebrate the triumph of capitalism over socialism by buying lots of food from grocery stores, and doing some extra Christmas shopping. It may be our last chance before Obama institutes his economic plan, and we have to triumph over socialism all over again.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Teton Sunrise

This morning I hiked up the Menan Buttes west of Rexburg to watch the sun rise over the Tetons. Partly I did this because I need to take some photos for my final project in my photography class, but also I really needed a field trip just by myself, and to enjoy a good view. It was 16°F outside, and it was awesome. The sun came up about 7:30 am, and I got some good pictures. Be sure to click on them for a bigger version:












Now on to the rest of my Thanksgiving break. I mean, back to tons of homework during my "week off."

Do You Know Muse?

Automated advertising can be funny. I'm pretty sure Facebook and Google, etc. use information from my profile to advertise to my interests, but this unintended mixup made me laugh:

That's all for now.