The four most important words you’ll hear this Christmas

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Hark! The herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King.
Peace on Earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled.

My favorite Christmas music of all time is the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack. I put it in my truck’s MiniDisc player as soon as the snow flies in the fall, and leave it in until the snow is gone for good the following spring. The verse that jumps out at me, the impact of which I never realized until I became a Christian, was the four words “God and sinners reconciled.” It’s those four words I have to share with you now.

You see, the reason for the season is the birth of Christ. But inseparable from Jesus’ manifestation is his mission. Let me make a few brief points:

1- Everyone on this planet is a sinner (Romans 3:10, Psalms 14 and 53). We’re cursed from Adam’s sin. Jesus came to pay to live a sinless life despite being tempted just as we are (Hebrews 4:15) and pay the penalty for our sins (Romans 6:23). The fact that he came is no more or less important than the reason WHY he came.

2- As sinners, we are enemies of God. No, not everyone is a child of God as Oprah says. Without being redeemed and reconciled to God, as in the last line of that song verse at the top of this post, we’re destined to hell. We need to be forgiven. That brings us back to Jesus, and his work of reconciling us to God. Here are a few verses, look ’em up for complete context:


I Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

II Corinthians 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

II Corinthians 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

Colossians 1:20-22 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Ephesians 2:16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby

To get even a feeble glimpse of what those four little words means should stop a person in their tracks. All your sins forgiven through belief in Jesus Christ. A home in heaven, purchased by Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself in your stead. Guaranteed, because His work is final. That’s powerful stuff!

I’m not going to give you some deep doctrinal thesis on being born again. I’m not going to give you text from a church statement of faith, either. I’m going to put it in my own simple words and hope I make sense while typing at midnight:

-You need to realize that you are a sinner. I am too. We all are, that’s the point.
-Jesus paid the penalty for your sin (and mine, and everyone’s), living a sinless life yet taking on the sin of the world. He suffered, died, and rose again in victory over sin, death, and hell.
-You need only believe that Jesus is the Son of God (in other words, that he is God manifest in the flesh), that the price that he paid on the cross is sufficient for the forgiveness of your sins, the only thing that could ever be sufficient.
-Pray today and confess these things to God. Simply tell Him that you realize you’re a sinner who needs to be saved, that you believe Jesus is the Son of God, and that His sacrifice is sufficient to forgive you of your sins and give you eternal life.

I ask that you ponder these things today as we celebrate the birth of Jesus. If you’re not a Christian, it’s my hope that you take these things to heart. Pick up a Bible and explore the verses I’ve given. Use the “Contact Me” link on the top right of my website if you have any questions. If you are reading this on one of the sites that syndicates my blog, you’ll have to come to my website directly to get the link. It’s my sincerest hope that everyone who reads this would be born again. Then you’ll know how exciting a time Christmas really is, and the joy behind those four little words at the end of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Christmas at the blockhouse…and I can still feel my toes!

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You may have noticed some lights atop the hill at Fort Lincoln lately…not every night, as I discovered this weekend, but most nights. They’ve got one of the blockhouses adorned with white Christmas lights, the one that sits on the edge of the hill nearest the river. It’s quite easy to see from Fox Island, actually. I could take a picture of it from there…but that wouldn’t be any fun, would it?

Thankfully my friend Ken was willing to take a hike up the hill in the single digit temps and wind to take some pics of this event. We dressed warm, stowed our camera gear in my truck, and made our way south. State Parks pass firmly affixed, we entered a serene and completely abandoned park and began our walk at the bottom of the blockhouse hill.

The hike itself was great, and not even cold, other than the fact that my Airwalks wanted to kill me. They’re great shoes, but apparently use anything other than a dry surface to try to pitch me on my head (or worse). Once we got to the top, however, it was a matter of parking the tripods in the right place and snapping away. I’d get the shot set, activate the shutter, then stuff my hands into my gloves for a few seconds. We got a pretty good variety of photos and were able to have free run of the place until we finally started getting cold. That wind sure does bite!

We walked back down the hill (okay, I skated as much as walked) and hopped into the nice warm truck for a drive past the Schaaf house and back into town. Neither one of us had done our fair share of photography lately, so this was a great time for both friendship and our favorite hobby.

If you’re in the mood for a hike and have five bucks or a state parks pass, hoof it on up to the blockhouse! I recommend swinging through Fox Island recreation area first and looking across the river, just in case their generator ran out of gas. It would be a real bummer to brave the cold for nothing!

Santa drives a Freightliner for the first time in 14 years

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If you’ve traveled east Boulevard Avenue in the past week or two, you may have spotted this truck parked at the intersection with 14th Street. 14th is appropriate, because the guy I talked to says this is the first time in 14 years that he’s done this with one of his trucks. I’m glad I was there taking pictures when he pulled up!

Plastic Santa at the wheel, with snowman riding shotgun. I hope Santa has a CDL and keeps a valid log book!

I’m told that the only casualty of this unique Christmas display is the bear perched atop the truck. He snagged a low-hanging wire while the truck was backing in, snapping his brittle plastic head off. A little duct tape and some ingenuity got him back on duty, and you’d never know the difference. I guess you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs!

Make sure you drive by 14th and Boulevard to check out this big rig!

Winter freezes

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Spring she comes, spring she teases…brings summer winds, and summer breezes. Blows through your hair, till autumn leaves us.
But when autumn leaves, oh how winter freezes.

If you thought I was pulling out some renowned poetry, I have the last laugh. Those are lyrics from hair band 21 Guns. Winter does, in fact, freeze though…and I’m glad I didn’t have to trade places with this little scarecrow I found out by a rural Morton County road. I haven’t had much time for photography lately with early sunsets and two babies at home, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have pictures. I am itching to get out and stretch my legs — tripod legs, that is — on some sort of photography adventure soon. If I hadn’t had the FOX Sports job last weekend, I’m pretty sure I’d have been out on the prairie somewhere, with warm socks and long johns. It’ll happen soon, and the results will make their way here!

Saturday morning at the BSA

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As you may have heard, read, or watched on FOX Sports Net, the NDSU men’s basketball team rocked the house yesterday afternoon, defeating the Colorado State Rams. I’m told it was a good game, but I wouldn’t know…I was too busy working it, as a tape/replay operator for the network telecast. I busted out my 10mm lens and took some fish-eye pics.

Here’s the little truck we used for the event. Cute, isn’t it? It’s amazing how much stuff can be packed into the back of a truck like this. It’s still bigger than the truck that the local stations use for their state coverage. Not that size matters.

This is the front of the truck, where the director and technical director sit with the producer and graphics guy (his arm is on the right). It’s where communications with the network control center is maintained as well. You can’t read the pieces of tape below the monitors in this small pic, but my name is under the bottom row of one of the racks where the monitors for my decks sit.

This was my office for the day, in the middle of the truck. The EVS operator sat to the left, with his equipment in the left rack, and the tape decks were in the other three. I ran the two controllers you see on the left; I could have done it all with the middle one, but since we were running network commercials airing nationwide, I didn’t want to goof up and hit the wrong button. I ran replays off the tape decks using the middle controller, and ran commercial breaks off the right one.

Around the corner from me was this control area, where a guy controls all the cameras. He would ride iris and color correction controls for all cameras on the fly, so the operators simply had to worry about framing their shots. The only things the camera ops need to handle are zoom and focus, because this technician handles all the rest.

The door pointing out the back of the truck leads to this room, where all audio is handled. My buddy Jamie appears in this pic, although I didn’t ask if I could show his face…so I didn’t. He’s on the two-way radio with audio technicians around the basketball floor, as they are placing wired and wireless microphones to capture game noise. They also take care of setting up the headsets for the talent calling the game.

We had a good show. Naturally I caught a wild cold a couple of days before the game, as is customary for me. I cranked the heat in my hotel room and dried out my nose something fierce, then woke up at 4am to chug some Theraflu. That was all it took. I got to work with a great crew of guys and gals. I also got some swag, of course, but didn’t photograph it. I’m grateful every time my phone rings with a job like this, because it’s fun to get paid for what I enjoy doing most. I can’t wait until the next one!

Senator Dorgan’s response to my letter

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A while back I wrote to Senators Conrad and Dorgan about their participation in a letter sent to Clear Channel to influence political speech on their stations.

I got a response back from Senator Gaylord Kent Conrad which admitted that he didn’t know the context of Rush Limbaugh’s comments, so apparently he was simply being a good Democrat so he could continue to receive the over 90% of his out-of-state campaign contributions. You can read the post about his response letter here.

I just got my response from Senator Dorgan in the mail. He maintains that Rush Limbaugh was critical of soldiers who disagree with the war…no problem there, we’ll just have to disagree. To his credit, the letter contained the following: “However, in retrospect, I wish we had not started down this road of having the Senate involved in expressing support or opposition to various kinds of speech.” Later on he says, “…I think it would have been better had the Senate not rushed to express itself on either of these issues involving Moveon.org or Rush Limbaugh. Frankly, there will always be people on all sides of controversial issues that say things we might object to, but I think we should not have started down that road.”

While Senator Conrad gave me some sort of nonsense answer and apparently stuck to his guns on the issue, at least Senator Dorgan agrees that the Senators participating in the letter should not have done so. He’s not afraid to say so in a letter to one of his constituents. We’ll just agree to disagree on the intent of the comment on the radio that started it all. I’m fine with that.

Case closed, I suppose. I wish that our state’s Senate delegation had not signed on to the letter in the first place. It seems that only half that delegation can at least own up to it and say it was the wrong thing to do.

Luke Graner at the Walrus

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I can’t believe I went to the Walrus and didn’t order a huge plate of pasta! Not only did my wife feed me a hearty meal before I left, but I was also there on a mission: to record Luke Graner’s set during the “Suchy & Friends” night. I brought my MD recorder and decided to take a few photos while rolling.

Obviously I enjoyed the show, even though Luke didn’t play any of my favorites (hint, hint) and the start of a nasty cold that made me want to flop down on a couch somewhere. One of the coolest things I saw through the whole evening (aside from my friend Ellen) was that the drummer was playing a big yellow Samsonite. It worked great as a bass drum, I would have never expected that!

Once Luke’s show was done, I grabbed my gear and went home to that couch and a nice hot Theraflu. I’ll never look at luggage the same way again.

A couple of my favorite Christmas trees

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Outdoors, of course…it’s not like I’m peeking in people’s windows or anything! This one you’ve probably seen…it’s on Northview Lane, which is quite a popular place for people to troll along and enjoy the view.

I’m sure you’ve seen this one, too! It’s at the busy intersection of 4th Street and Divide Avenue. Personally I wish this one would stay lit all year. It’s fantastic.

There are a lot of fun places to go looking at Christmas lights. Marina Bay used to be a hot spot, but I’m not sure that’s the case any more. The limo companies used to offer packages to cruise around in a limo and look at lights, but I haven’t heard much about that lately. Hopefully it’s still going on, because there are great displays if you know where to look.

“Expert” claims that Minot AFB nuke mishandling is part of something bigger

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Tonight I was driving home when I decided to check out what local radio had to offer. KFYR had Coast to Coast AM on, as usual. I’m sure it’s a big hit with local Ron Paul supporters! Anyway, there was a fella by the name of Charles Ostman who theorized that the mishandling of nukes from Minot AFB was part of a “False Flag” operation or other surreptitious activity. He’s trying to tie such a theory to Iran’s nuke program and the latest National Intelligence Briefing. I listened for a few minutes, in which I heard a couple of things that blew this guy’s credibility:

1- He pronounced Minot with a short i, as in “minnow.” For a guy who claims to have all kinds of knowledge about nuclear weapons handling, you’d think he would know how to pronounce the name of an Air Force Base that has been a critical part of our nation’s defenses for fifty years.

2- He claimed that the NIE is available for anyone to read. The last I heard, the full text of the NIE is available only to someone with the proper clearance, or a congressman serving on the appropriate committee. There are in some cases declassified “versions” of NIEs, or summaries that are public record; but by no means does an NIE lay all our cards out on the table for anyone to read.

Aside from having the worst web page I’ve seen in recent memory (heck, the conference links are five years old), I see nothing to indicate that this guy has the slightest bit of credibility whatsoever. It’s bad enough that such a serious lack of protocol took place at MAFB, but for the conspiracy theorists to have fun with it doesn’t help. Fortunately they only appear after midnight, where they belong.

What was YOUR turkey doing on Thanksgiving Day?

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Probably not the same as this turkey, who was having a feast of its own. One blessing about being southwest of Bismarck is all the wildlife. There are the herons that drive me nuts when I try to get close enough to photograph them; the turtles that do the same; the deer and pheasants that don’t seem too worried about my presence; and the turkeys that act like they own the place. This would be one of the latter.

This particular flock was just hanging out, with only one ambitious bird willing to flutter up into the trees for the really good eatin’. The rest were content to just peck around in the yard. Then they noticed some crazy guy with a telephoto lens trying to get a better angle. That resulted in a mass turkey exodus. Having spoiled their dinner, I took off to enjoy one of my own, provided by my mom! Since we were barely home from the hospital (due to the birth of little Jonathan), she was gracious enough to provide us with an amazing Thanksgiving dinner while my wife took care of the newborn.

I know it’s December, and Thanksgiving day is a distant memory with the Christmas season in full swing, but I caught myself thinking about the sight of such a dorky bird as it lurched itself up into the tree. That’s a story that begs to be shared!