#3rd day of 37 days of Christmas

[lev1hei1chou]

Fun fluffy animes that I loved

This is basically a list of animes that helps get over or deal with the trauma inflicted by various animes. At the moment, I guess fellow JJK fans might need this, and prolly AOT fans on November 5. Have fun watching

Haikyuu

Short Synopsis: Determined to be like the volleyball championship's star player nicknamed "the small giant", Shoyo joins his school's volleyball club.

Episodes: 85 + 5 OVA

The worst thing that can possibly happen is either the 3rd year students graduating or you being unable to support a specific team (nah cuz bro how do you pick and root for one? I end up being happy for the team that won and depressed for the team that lost)

Two movies are coming up soon

Highschool Babysitters

Synopsis: After the sudden death of their parents on a plane crash, two young brothers named Ryūichi Kashima (a freshman in high school) and his younger brother Kotarō (a preschooler) are left orphaned and having no place to call home. The chairwoman of the prestigious Morinomiya Academy offers to take the boys into her care, giving them a new house and free tuition, on the condition that Ryuichi helps out with the school's daycare center while also attending normal classes during school hours.

Episodes: 12 + 1 OVA

Note: Plane crash seems sad but trust me, its only mentioned in the first episode, and the rest 11 is just fluffy goodness. Nothing can prepare you for the cuteness.

Cells At Work

Synopsis: One newcomer red blood cell just wants to do her job. Between bacteria incursions and meeting a certain white blood cell, she's got a lot to learn.

Episodes: 31 + 7

A good mix of science and entertainment. The episodes dont have to be watched in any specific order.

Mr. Osomatsu

Synopsis: The everyday lives of identical sextuplets who cause mischief.

Episodes: 75 + special eps + movies

Has a good amount of 18+ jokes, but its not too overwhelming. It doesnt necessarily follow a plot, and each episode is usually two different stories combined. So, skipping episodes should be fine. Also, it features very popular voice actors for the sextuplets (Geto's VA, Gojo's VA, Levi's VA, Koro sensei's VA, Erwin's VA and Haku/ Sugawara's VA), Iyami (Obanai Iguro's VA), Totoko (Shoko's VA)

The Vampire Dies in No Time

Synopsis: The story follows the famed vampire hunter, Ronaldo, who receives a job to destroy the supposedly invincible vampire lord Draluc and rescue a human boy he allegedly kidnapped.

Episodes: 24

Note: Its a hit or miss, the running gag is used constantly and gets tiring at times, but the overall anime is a good watch. I personally loved John the Armadillo

Buddy Daddies

Synopsis: Assassins Kazuki Kurusu and Rei Suwa meet Miri, a girl looking for her father on Christmas Day. Kazuki, Rei, and Miri unexpectedly end up living together.

Episodes: 12

May get dark at times, so I wont guarantee that itll be a smooth sail, but we get a wholesome conclusion so you can count on that! Otherwise VERY fluffy

Blue Lock

Synopsis: High school soccer players from across Japan gather for a controversial project designed to create the best and most egoistic striker in the world.

Episodes: 24

Isnt exactly true football, but yeah. The anime is pretty fine. It doesnt exactly go under the fluffy anime like i mentioned in the title, but you can check it out if you want.

Free!!

Synopsis: The story is centered on high school student Haruka Nanase, a gifted swimmer. After encountering his childhood rival, Rin Matsuoka from Samezuka Academy, he and his friends revitalize Iwatobi High School's swim team.

Episodes: 37 + specials and movies

This anime to me, personally is what haikyuu is. A great comfort anime which knows how to make the viewer connect with the characters. I dislike it when the whole anime gets reduced to just fanservice, like guys lets look beyond that and actually enjoy the plot.

Life Lessons With Uramichi Oniisan

Synopsis: From smoking and exercising to nihilistic outbursts, everyone's big brother Uramichi always brings up the not-so-moral side to his life lessons

Episodes: 13

This one is very real and relatable in many levels. Theres a lot of screenshots and panels available online, so you can check a few out before watching!

Obey Me

Synopsis: Brothers Lucifer, Mammon, Leviathan, Satan, Asmodeus, Beelzebub, and Belphegor are among the most powerful demons in the Devildom, serving as officers on the student council at the Royal Academy of Diavolo (RAD). However, being avatars of the seven deadly sins, their behaviors often tend toward the extreme. Their everyday antics belie their high status and fearsome reputations among others of their kind. When viewed behind the scenes, the members of this family are more lovable—and laughable—than they first seem!

Episodes: 24 + 1

It's based on a popular otome game, and can be watched as it is even if you havent played the game. The basic idea is that theyre based on the 7 sins, so their personalities are really amusing. As for the plot, its pretty wholesome.

Play It Cool Guys

Synopsis: Despite their distinctive personalities, Souma Shiki, Hayate Ichikura, Shun Futami, and Takayuki Mima all have one thing in common: though naturally clumsy, the four disguise their embarrassment from tiny slip-ups by maintaining a composed demeanor. However, it is actually the guys' airheaded natures that makes the girls' hearts throb. No matter what happens in their daily lives, the boys do their best not to lose their cool!

Episodes: 24

Each episode is barely 10-13 minutes, so it just doesnt feel enough lol. Most of their slip ups are relatable and could get a chuckle from the viewer. The art style is a little different but its good. Definitely worth watching, once or even multiple times.

Tanaka Kun is Always Listless

Synopsis: For high school student Tanaka, the act of being listless is a way of life. Known for his inattentiveness and ability to fall asleep anywhere, Tanaka prays that each day will be as uneventful as the last, seeking to preserve his lazy lifestyle however he can by avoiding situations that require him to exert himself. Along with his dependable friend Oota who helps him with tasks he is unable to accomplish, the lethargic teenager constantly deals with events that prevent him from experiencing the quiet and peaceful days he longs for.

Episodes: 13 + specials

Not gonna lie, Ive wanted to act like Tanaka. The characters are lovable and the anime is worth giving a try. An underrated gem. I personally loved the school festival episode.

@satoruukisser hope this helps!

[spwastedaffairs]

[CHAPTER ONE]

[DATE] December 22nd, 2022

[TIME] 1:37 PM

The sunshine poured in through the windows, creating a bright and warm atmosphere within the classroom. However, as the snow fell softly outside, with its crisp and cool demeanor, it made an effort to compete with the sunshine. The two combined, creating a stunning display of light and beauty within the walls of SouthPark community high school. 

The day before winter break had come, and the whole school was buzzing with excitement. The promise of two full weeks of relaxation, family, and presents couldn't get any better. You had a plan to spend the break mostly with your boyfriend, Stan Marsh, as it was your first Christmas together. The idea of spending time with him and enjoying the holiday festivities filled you with excitement. 

However, you were currently stuck in 6th period, trying to keep yourself occupied by scrolling through your phone. Suddenly, you heard a knock on the classroom door window, and you looked up to see Stan and Kyle standing outside. Stan was waving excitedly, and Kyle gave you a warm smile. 

"Excuse me, can I go to the bathroom?" you quickly asked your teacher, not wanting any more delays. "Be quick L/n," she sighed as she went back to grading tests. 

You rushed outside, feeling exhilarated as you approached the two. Stan grabbed your hand as soon as you stepped outside, and Kyle gave you a playful nudge as the three of you made your way towards an empty classroom. The chilly hallway air hit you, causing goosebumps to rise on your skin, but Stan's warm presence provided comfort. 

As you walked down the hallway with Stan and Kyle, you couldn't help but feel a sense of euphoria at the thought of the impending Christmas break.  

Kyle opens the door to a nearby empty classroom and Stan ushers you in from behind. Confusion is evident on your face as you watch the two teens sit on top of some desks. Doing a quick glance around at the room before staring back at the two of them, you ask “Okay..what are we doing here?”

Stan sighs and motions for you to sit at a desk in front of them, as you do so he begins to speak.

“Tolkien asked the two of us earlier during our 3rd period if we wanted to head to his lodge for winter break again,” Stan plays with his hand unsure of how to continue, “We both told him we were, you know.. fine with it but it’s just a bit awkward, at least to the two of us.” Stan says as he motions to himself and Kyle.

“Right,” You nod, “so what does that have to do with me in this class room with the two of you right now?”

“We just wanted to know your thoughts, you know, how you’re doing and.. If you’re comfortable going when Tolkien comes to ask you.” Kyle explains.

“Okay, we don’t know if Tolkien’s even going to ask me again, I mean the prank we pulled.. And then you know..the fact Tolkien and Nichole were dating.. It’s just..” You trail off, frowning, “He might not even ask me!”

“No, no he will.” Stan responds and Kyle heaves a heavy sigh from beside him, “We overheard him talking about it with Bebe in the hallway. Our guess is he’s inviting everyone again.”

You feel your blood freeze, not out of fear, but just out of worry. It had been a while since you all fully hung out as a full time group, ever since..the prank and the disappearances of Butters and Nichole none of you kept in touch with one another fully, you weren’t even too sure you had seen Tolkien talk to anyone from the iffy friend group anymore anyhow.

You, yourself had drifted a bit from Wendy and Bebe since, what you dubbed “the event” had happened, finding it somewhat hard to be near them since the prank that essentially was their idea, had caused the whole mess. Wendy and you drifted even further apart after you got together with Stan, her ex, a few months earlier. Wendy and Stan had broken up not even two weeks after the disappearances and ever since getting together with him, you felt Wendy’s constant stares on your back.

Aside from those two, you continued to think about your relationships with everyone else; Eric was someone you never talked to too much anyways so aside from the random one off conversations or brief texts, you hadn’t kept that much contact with him before the event so nothing really changed between the two of you.

Kenny was still fun to be around, he often joined you and some of your other friends at lunch just to chat. Kenny was often around you because you were dating Stan, but you had heard he recently started dating Bebe and you had hoped that maybe through Kenny you could at least try to reconcile some of your relationship with her.

Kyle was considerably one of your closest friends, you were dating his best friend after all and naturally the two of you should get along, and you did, much to Stan’s excitement. Aside from Stan, Kyle was someone you often went to for support during the whole figuring out how to move on, or if you even can move on, because of last year, he often gave you words of advice and you knew that talking about it helped him out too.

Stan was your boyfriend, obviously, and the two of you were extremely close. Part of you thinks (and jokes) it’s because of the trauma, but you know it runs deeper than that. He’s been your best friend and best boyfriend ever since getting together with him and you know he’d do anything for you. You couldn’t be any happier that you and him are together.

Lastly, Tolkien. Tolkien had withdrawn from most of the group ever since that day and you really couldn’t blame him. He was Nichole’s boyf– ex-boyfriend. He still kept small contact with everyone, he did let everyone know that he didn’t exactly blame them for the events that took place but it was sort of implied, you can’t hold it against him though, it was your guys fault that Nichole and Butters are missing.

[YOUR RELATIONSHIP STATUSES HAS BEEN UPDATED]

“So I guess that means he's going to contact me soon then? School is almost done.” Just as you had finished uttering the sentence out, the class room door opens, startling the three of you and causing Stan and Kyle to jump off the desks immediately and you to jump up.

Turning your heads to the door you see Tolkien peek his head through, eyes widening as he sees the three of you standing in the middle of the room. You watch realization dawn on his face as he walks into the classroom, shutting the door behind him.

“Y/n! I was just about to text you to meet me here actually, I was going to ask if you’d like to join me along with everyone else, on heading back to my family’s lodge again this winter break? After Christmas and Hanukkah,” Tolkien makes a small nod at Kyle as he says that, Kyle doing a small nod of his own back, “Everyone else has all agreed for the most part, Cartman whined and bitched about it so I have actually no clue if he’s showing up.”

You found yourself in an uncomfortable situation, you looked between your boyfriend and his best friend. As you made eye contact with them, you felt a pang of anxiety in the pit of your stomach. You weren't sure what they were thinking.

In response to their shrugs, you tried to keep things light and casual. You clasped your hands together and placed them on the desk, trying to exude a sense of calm confidence as you looked back at the boy. "Uh sure!" you said, hoping your voice sounded more certain than you felt. "What's the worst that can happen?"

Tolkien responded with a smile that was even brighter than yours. You relaxed slightly, realizing that maybe you were overthinking things. "Great," he said. "I think you're going to love this."

And with that, he launched into an elaborate story about a new adventure he was planning, complete with detailed descriptions of exotic locations. As he spoke, you found yourself getting more and more excited, forgetting all about your earlier discomfort. You missed this. 

You missed the feeling of your friends.

[RELATIONSHIP LOG ; Y/N'S POV]

STAN: Boyfriend ; extremely close - 100/100 Trust

KYLE: Best friend ; extremely close - 98/100 Trust

KENNY: Friends ; very close - 86/100 Trust

BEBE: Somewhat friends ; somewhat close - 62/100 Trust

WENDY: Awkward friends ; not too close - 46/100 Trust

TOLKIEN: Awkward friends ; not too close - 58/100 Trust

ERIC: Acknowledged ; not close at all - 34/100 Trust

[lonely-lighthouse-keeper]

JOURNAL OF THE LIGHTHOUSE STATION AT CACHALOT COVE

[[ log 73]]

~Cloudy Conditions to Continue All Day, Chance of Rain is 60%~

~Current Wind Speeds Up to 19 km/h, Estimated to Reach 37 km/h~

Time of writing this log is 1101

Duties done at the station:

𓇼 Fog Watch

𓇼 Mail Check

𓇼 Winding of the Clockworks

Good day dear log book! The last time I updated you was officially the November 3rd, however, that doesn't mean that I haven't been keeping up with my duties.

I learned at the start of the December month that there is this gift giving holiday called the Christmas, which is today! Since I do not have humans that live with me, I really just spent my money on buy myself some more clothes, and I found some land gifts to give to my family.

Mrs. Osslik, bless her soul, has moved out of the station since I ended up passing my inspections, but we keep in touch with the mail system and letters. She did stop by and help me with the decorations, but there was only 2 weeks of tours left for the year before we closed up. Thankfully, we did recieve more donations because of such beautiful ideas, and I can consider that was a gift as well!

Tonight is also the first night of the full moon, which means I can see my family on this gift giving holiday. I shall end this update here, and there shall be no more until the station opens up again for the winter time, on the January 8.

May the Seas and Stars Guide You~~

[random-mailbox]

Random-Mailbox's Favorite Sailor Moon Fics - Week 39 - Missing Scenes Part I

This week’s post is for the amazing @riverlethe, since today is her birthday! 🍰❤️🎂🎉🎊💐

Following one-shots are fandom’s way to fill in the blanks in both Anime and Manga, giving our characters much needed closure and depth. It was hard to decide what to include, so @goddessalthena suggested I do this as Part I, which will allow me to do another post down the road with more (similar to what I did with Christmas stories).

Also, don't forget to check out the prompts for @usamamoweek2023!

As always, my apologies in advance for spoiling some of these for you (Fic Titles are linked to either FFN or AO3 entries).

A Nightmare Between Them - Sweetsugarines

This one-shot gives us a glimpse into the mental state that Usagi was in post-Black Moon and Nehelenia battles.

Love Breeds Insanity - @angelmoongirl

Usagi absolutely refused to cancel or postpone her first date with Mamoru since the defeat of Galaxia. No matter how terrible she might be starting to feel or what her friends are trying to tell her.

The Aftermath - sailor-elsa

This is the darkest story of the bunch, with Usagi trying and almost failing to handle the aftereffects of the battle with Pharoah 90.

ER Epiphany - @uglygreenjacket

Mamoru’s work-shift gets interrupted by a youma in the ER. Who will step in to help if he is not able to transform without someone noticing?

All's Fair in Love and Birthdays - @uglygreenjacket

Another awesome one-shot that fills in the gap after the birthday episode. Mamoru and Usagi actually get to discuss what happened that day and what it meant to both of them. With Mamoru not playing very fair 😏

These Games We Play: Chapter 11: From Silk to Cotton - @allyunabridged

This one-shot takes place in Sailor Moon R, after Usagi gets rescued from Prince Dimande and before returning to the past. With King Endymion helping her take baby steps towards getting over the ordeal.

Day 2: Item - @tinacentury

Set at the start of the 3rd season of the Anime, this one-shot fills in the gaps on what went on in Mamoru’s head when Usagi wasn’t able to transform.

this little brook of life - Tosca1390

Set between Anime’s R and S seasons, Usagi and Mamoru grapple with the weight of responsibilities and lack of alone time, as Chibi-Usa re-appears in their lives.

Miscellaneous Works: Short Stories That Tumbled From Tumblr: Chapter 6: Oneiromancy - @floraone

Set at the end of the break-up arc in the Anime, Usagi gets to see more of the nightmares that Mamoru have been dealing with and understands why he can't let go of them.

---

That's it for this week! Next time we are covering Green Jacket stories!

Here are the links to the previous Tumblr posts in these series to explore more amazing works based on different themes - make sure to check them out if you haven't had a chance! (Click on title name to go to the post) - I will keep updating the list every week as new posts come up:

Week 1 - Groundhog Day

Week 2 - Established Relationships

Week 3 - Sex Positivity

Week 4 - Unfinished Stories

Week 5 - Darker Stories

Week 6 - Potions 🧪

Week 7 - Reveals

Week 8 - 👻Halloween🎃

Week 9 - Wrong Perceptions

Week 10 - Non-Senshi AU

Week 11 - In-Progress Fics

Week 12 - Mutual Pining

Week 13 - Enemies to Lovers

Week 14 - Slow Burn

Week 15 - Christmas Part 1 - Ugly Christmas Sweaters and Santa!

Week 16 - Christmas Part 2

Week 17 - New Years

Week 18 - High School AU

Week 19 - Slice of Life

Week 20 - Coffee shop AU

Week 21 - Huddle for Warmth

Week 22 - Friends to Lovers

Week 23 - ❤️Valentines Day❤️

Week 24 - Do a Grouch a Favour Day (or Cheer Up Fics)

Week 25 - Soulmate AU

Week 26 - Amnesia Fics (and resources)

Week 27 - 🍀St Patrick's Day🍀

Week 28 - Fix it Fics

Week 29 - Prompt: Mug

Week 30 - Flowers

Week 31 - Traditions

Week 32 - Dreams

Week 33 - Friends

Week 34 - Body-Swap

Week 35 - Medical Assistance

Week 36 - Sex Pollen

Week 37 - Psychometry

Week 38 - What If

[analytik2]

List of Urusei Yatsura Remake Season 1 episodes with their corresponding Original Anime Episode and Manga Chapter counterparts

(source)

Basically, this is a list of Urusei Yatsura Remake episodes with their original anime counterparts and their corresponding manga chapters. I even added some notes about things that I personally found interesting or noteworthy about the episodes or the manga chapters.

I wanted to make this list for a while now so hopefully some people will find this useful or interesting.

Here is the list. It's quite long.

Chapters adapted by Urusei Yatsura 2022:

Episode 1A Young Love on the Run Manga - Chapter 1 Young Love on the Run Original anime counterpart – Episode 1A I'm Lum-chan the Notorious! Note: The Remake version is longer and adapts the full chapter of the manga more faithfully whereas the OG anime takes more liberties. However, the Remake version had its own changes as well. Such as making it more clear how Lum fell for Ataru.

Episode 1B Between a Rock and a Hard Place Manga - Chapter 5 Between a Rock and a Hard Place Original anime counterpart – Episode 6A Love Triangle Black Hole Note: The Remake skipped Chapters 2-4 and went straight to chapter 5. This is a trend in the Remake and it's because it's not a full adaptation of the manga.

Episode 2A Present for You Manga – Chapter 4 Present for You Original anime counterpart – Episode 5A The Mysterious Seductive Beauty Sakura

Episode 2B The Yellow Ribbon of Happiness Manga – Chapter 15 The Yellow Ribbon of Happiness Original anime counterpart – Episode 7A Electric Shocks Scare Me!

Episode 3A Trouble Rains Down!! Manga – Chapter 22 Trouble Rains Down, Chapter 25 Love and Suffering Original anime counterpart – Episode 14A Mendo Arrives With Trouble! Note: Only the first scene of Chapter 25 was adapted in the Remake's Episode 3A before the B segment of the episode started.

Episode 3B Amazed in a Maze Manga – Chapter 30 Amazed in a Maze Original anime counterpart – Episode 23 The Spring Blossom Picnic Note: In the Remake, the ending of this episode was changed with a spaceship leaving the cave which showed Kurama to be in it, thus connecting this episode with the next.

Episode 4 Sealed with a Kiss!! Manga – Chapter 136 Kurama Again!, Chapter 137 Sealed with a Kiss!, Chapter 138 Goodbye, Covenant! Original anime counterpart – Episode 48 Princess Kurama - A New Challenge! Note: Episode 4 in the Remake was the first full-length episode of the Remake. Kurama’s debut chapter and all the chapters featuring her prior to chapter 136 were skipped as Kurama debuted in Episode 4 in the Remake. Originally, Kurama debuted in Chapter 16 Become a Woman and Start Over! in the manga and Episode 9A Sleeping Beauty Princess Kurama in the OG anime. So far, none of her later chapters have been adapted either.

Episode 5A The Glove of Love and Conflict Manga – Chapter 216 The Glove of Love and Conflict Original anime counterpart – Episode 116 Love and War! Battle of Glove VS Pants!! Note: In the Remake, Sakura got her job as the Tomobiki High School nurse in this episode. Originally, she became a school nurse in Chapter 37 Sakura Sensei, Enchanted Blossom in the manga, and Episode 5B Virus in Distress in the OG anime.

Episode 5B How I've Waited for You… Manga – Chapter 26 How I've Waited for You Original anime counterpart – Episode 10 Pitter-Patter Christmas Eve Note: Episode 10 in the OG anime was the first full-length episode and also a Christmas special. It also had to change a lot of the story since Mendo wasn’t introduced yet. The OG Episode 10 ranked in 4th place twice in 2 separate polls. But if you ignored the 2nd and 3rd rank which were anime-original episodes, it ranked 2nd place. In a poll for the Remake's Season 1, it ranked in 2nd place. Both versions of the episode were very good and adapted one of the most iconic chapters of Urusei Yatsura in a great way.

Episode 6A Good Day for a Departure Manga - Chapter 8 Good Day for a Departure Original anime counterpart – Episode 15A The Great Spring War

Episode 6B Oyuki Manga – Chapter 10 Oyuki Original anime counterpart – Episode 8A Neptune is Beyond the Closet Note: Mendo wasn't introduced yet in the manga or the OG anime at this point so his inclusion in the Remake was an anime original idea.

Episode 6C Ataru Retires Manga – Chapter 61 Ataru Retires Original anime counterpart – Episode 64 Goodbye Season Note: The OG anime pretty loosely adapted this chapter as it almost completely alters the plot and the jokes.

Episode 7A Home Is Where You Find It Manga – Chapter 42 Surfin’ SOS, Chapter 86 Home Is Where You Find it Original anime counterpart – Episode 34 Goblin in Distress - Yearning for People Note: Only the first few pages of Chapter 42 were adapted at the beginning of Episode 7A of the Remake.

Episode 7B Marine Garbage Disposal Manga – Chapter 91 Marine Garbage Disposal Original anime counterpart – Episode 34 Goblin in Distress - Yearning for People Note: The first “canon” multi-chapter arc of the manga took place between the 1-month time-skip mentioned at the beginning of Episode 7B of the Remake, Chapter 87-90 Deranged Marriage Part 1-4. This was adapted in Episode 22 The Great Space Matchmaking Operation in the OG anime. Originally, Sakura’s boyfriend Tsubame Ozuno debuts in Chapter 19 Disco Inferno in the manga and Episode 12A Love Battle Royale in the OG anime. Also, Episode 7 of the Remake is the first episode where the episode structure is the exact same as its original anime counterpart.

Episode 8A Transfer Student Close Call… Manga – Chapter 55 Sports Festival Close Call, Chapter 56 Cultural Festival Close Call Original anime counterpart – Episode 18A Girl's Day! Introducing Ran-chan Note: The OG anime adaptation of Ran’s debut chapter was changed since Lum had not enrolled in Tomobiki High School yet. A few panels of a flashback scene from Chapter 56 made it into the Remake’s Episode 8A right before the start of Episode 8B. Chapter 57 was completely unadapted in both anime.

Episode 8B Farewell Party Close Call… Manga – Chapter 68 Farewell Party Close Call Original anime counterpart – Episode 18B Ran-chan's Invitation Note: Episode 8 of the Remake is the second episode where the episode structure is the exact same as its original anime counterpart.

Episode 9A To Kill With Love Manga – Chapter 6 To Kill With Love, Chapter 7 A Contemptible Good-For-Nothing Original anime counterpart – Episode 3A The Coming of Rei, the Handsome Shapechanger!, Episode 3B Die, Ladykiller! Note: In the Remake’s Episode 9A, the first half of the episode was based on the first half of Chapter 6 while the second half of the episode was based on the second half of Chapter 7. Each chapter was adapted fully in Episode 3 of the OG anime.

Episode 9B Studying Mayhem Manga – Chapter 110 Studying Mayhem Original anime counterpart – Episode 36 Rei's Return! Crisis in the Classroom!

Episode 10A Parents' Day Horrors Manga – Chapter 51 Parents' Day Horrors Original anime counterpart – Episode 16B Terrible Visiting Day Note: In the OG anime adaptation Ataru was awake the whole time and Lum’s mom actually battled Mendo’s mom. In the Remake, Lum’s mom is actually voiced by Lum’s original voice actress Fumi Hirano.

Episode 10B Since Your Parting Manga – Chapter 34 Since Your Parting Original anime counterpart – Episode 44 After You’ve Gone Note: The OG Episode 44 was voted to be the best episode of Urusei Yatsura first in 1986 as an end-of-the-series poll and was rebroadcast as episode 194. The second time it was voted to be the best episode of Urusei Yatsura was in 2019 in NHK’s Rumiko Takahashi Megapoll. The OG Episode 44 is highly regarded probably because of the changes made by the director Mamoru Oshii and his unique directing style. The Remake seemed to take some cues from the OG Episode 44. This episode was also released on the 1st anniversary of the Urusei Yatsura anime on October 14, 1983. The Remake version of Since Your Parting also won 1st place in an official poll of Season 1 episodes in 2023.

Episode 11A Mendō Siblings!! Manga – Chapter 121 Mendo Siblings! Part 1 Original anime counterpart – Episode 50 The Mendō Siblings!

Episode 11B A Strange New Year at the Mendō Estate Manga – Chapter 114 A Strange New Year at the Mendō Estate, Chapter 163 The Wild Christmas Tree Party! Original anime counterpart – Episode 185 New Year’s Panic! The Mendō Family’s Human Sugoroku Tournament Note: Only the last 2 pages of Chapter 163 made it into the ending of the Remake’s episode 11B as a very loose adaptation. The Remake seemingly took some cues from the OG anime again by including Ryoko in the mix. Originally, Ryoko wasn’t in the manga chapter since she debuted later in Chapter 121. The Remake also added other characters like Oyuki, Benten, Rei, etc. as a replacement for Ten.

Episode 12A Ten is Here Manga – Chapter 63 Ten is Here Original anime counterpart – Episode 2 Mail from Space - Ten-chan Arrives! Note: The OG anime introduced Ten super early. Thus he was also in a lot of episodes where he wasn’t supposed to be in. The OG anime also had to change Ten’s debut episode a bit since a lot of the characters who are in Chapter 63 weren’t introduced yet.

Episode 12B A Date for Just the Two of Us Manga – Chapter 65 A Date for Just the Two of Us Original anime counterpart – Episode 26 Ten-chan's Love Note: The OG anime episode changed up the story of the manga quite a bit. Strangely, it even cut some scenes from the manga which might be considered a bit erotic. Even more strangely, the Remake counterpart did adapt those scenes albeit with its own twist.

Episode 13A The Great Off-Campus Snack Battle Manga – Chapter 106 The Great Off-Campus Snack Battle Original anime counterpart – Episode 46 Lunch is a Battlefield!

Episode 13B A Gift from Ten!! Manga – Chapter 124 A Gift from Ten!! Original anime counterpart – Episode 60 Love Love Catchball! Note: The OG anime episode included some original content like having a separate Love Love Catchball for the men which made the episode funnier.

Episode 14A That Mizunokōji Boy Manga – Chapter 40 Youth Devoted to the White Ball, Chapter 141 Baseball Shenanigans Original anime counterpart – Episode 70 Dramatic Appearance! Mizunokoji Ton-chan!! Note: Both the OG anime and the Remake combined Chapter 40 and 141 to make Ton’s debut episode. However, the OG anime episode 70 adapted more of Chapter 141 than the Remake’s Episode 14. The Remake’s Episode 14 was the second to have a name that was different from the title of the manga chapter it was adapting.

Episode 14B Love Letter Trouble Manga – Chapter 202 Love Letter Trouble, Part 1, Chapter 203 Love Letter Trouble, Part 2 Original anime counterpart – Episode 140 The Mysterious Giant Cake! Love Escape Panic!! Note: The OG anime’s Episode 140 adapted Chapter 202 and 203 with Chapter 213 Secret Spot! Palatial Cake of Horrors by combining them into one story which made the whole episode way more unhinged and hilarious.

Episode 15A Anko Pathos, the Taste of Love!? Manga – Chapter 171 Anko Pathos, the Taste of Love!? Original anime counterpart – Episode 109 Ran-chan, Tasting the Tearful Love of a First Kiss

Episode 15B Memories and a Close Call... Manga – Chapter 59 Memories and a Close Call Original anime counterpart – Episode 35 Darling's Had it This Time! Note: The OG anime stitched Chapter 59 together with Chapter 60 Genuine Close Call and basically created one story. Ran also enrolled in Tomobiki High School in this episode of the OG anime. In the manga and the Remake, she already enrolled in her debut chapter/episode.

Episode 15C Adverse Effects Manga – Chapter 103 Adverse Effects Original anime counterpart – Episode 188 Darling Said He Loved Me Note: In the OG anime Episode 188 Shinobu successfully managed to give Mendo the “love potion”. The animation of this episode was quite poor as most of the staff were probably busy working on Movie 4 Lum the Forever which came out a few weeks before this episode aired.

Episode 16A Family Feud!! Manga – Chapter 147 Family Feud Original anime counterpart – Episode 63 Ryūnosuke Arrives! I Love the Sea!

Episode 16B Hello, Sailor Suit!! Manga – Chapter 148 Hello, Sailor Suit! , Chapter 150 Ran, Scent of a Woman, Part 1, Chapter 151 Ran, Scent of a Woman, Part 2 Original anime counterpart – Episode 63 Ryūnosuke Arrives! I Love the Sea!, Episode 65 Ran-chan's Great Date Plan! Note: Although Episode 16B in the Remake is titled Hello, Sailor Suit! most of the episode actually adapted Chapter 150 and 151. But because of strict time constraints, many great scenes or details were cut from the episode. Most scenes from the original Chapter 148 were removed and the character of Ryunosuke’s father was nerfed probably to avoid controversy. Episode 63 and 65 of the OG anime adapt the manga chapters more faithfully.

Episode 17A A Chest Full of Longing!! Manga – Chapter 184 A Chest Full of Longing, Part 1, Chapter 185 A Chest Full of Longing, Part 2 Original anime counterpart – Episode 96 Shine! The Blessed Bra!! Note: In the Remake’s Episode 17A A lot of scenes from the manga were cut or changed, especially near the ending, making the episode much shorter than it should be. This was probably done to avoid making controversies. This makes the OG anime’s Episode 96 one of the rare cases where it was more faithful to the source material than the Remake.

Episode 17B Wish Upon a Star Manga – Chapter 290 Wish Upon a Star Original anime counterpart – Episode 177 Wish Upon a Star! The Winning Family in Desire Panic Note: The OG anime’s Episode 177 added a lot of original content which made the episode feel more like it was focused on Ataru’s father. Similar to how the anime original Episode 78 Pitiful! Mother of Love and Banishment!? was focused on Ataru's mother. In the Remake, Ataru’s dad is actually voiced by Ataru’s original voice actor Toshio Furukawa.

Episode 18A Indelible Lipstick Magic!! Manga – Chapter 172 Indelible Lipstick Magic Original anime counterpart – Episode 110 Un-re-mov-ab-le Rouge Magic Note: The beginning of the episode had a bunch of cameos from manga and OG anime-only characters who didn't make proper appearances in the Remake. You can find the list of them and their first appearances in manga and OG anime here. Like many other manga chapter names, the name of this chapter was actually a reference to a popular Japanese song of the time, Ikenai Rouge Magic by Kiyoshiro Imawano from 1982. This song was actually used as an insert song at the start of Episode 18A of the Remake. The OG anime’s Episode 110 was very unhinged as the classroom erupted into complete chaos with the boys kissing each other and Ryunosuke kissing Shinobu like Ataru kissed Mendo and Ataru kissing Cherry right after he kissed Mendo.

Episode 18B Lethal Attacks! Yaminabe Manga – Chapter 240 Lethal Attack: Yaminabe Original anime counterpart – None Note: So far, this is the only story of the manga that was not adapted in the OG anime in any way until the Remake adapted it into anime for the first time.

Episode 19A Magic Realm! Jungle of Terror Manga – Chapter 212 Magic Realm! Jungle of Terror Original anime counterpart – Episode 115 Haunted Special: Raiders of the Lost Mendo Note: The OG anime’s Episode 115 actually stitched Chapter 212 together with Chapter 164 Slumbering Family Heirloom to basically create one story. It strangely replaced Ryunosuke with Ten in the first half probably to make sense out of the rest of the story. The joke with the octopus tearing off Ryunosuke’s clothes was then replaced with Shinobu and Lum instead and it had more fanservice with actual nudity that wasn’t in the manga or the Remake.

Episode 19B Pickled Manga – Chapter 112 Pickled Original anime counterpart – Episode 42 Drunken Boogie Note: The OG anime’s Episode 42 had an insert song Margarita by Helen Sasano which made the episode more memorable. The Remake’s Episode 19B had Lum’s hair color change to red and Ten’s hair color to orange after they get drunk from eating umeboshis. This wasn’t in the manga or the OG anime and was an original take by David Production.

Episode 20 Recovering That Which Was Lost Manga – Chapter 199 Recovering That Which Was Lost, Chapter 200 Recovering That Which Was Lost – Fierce 3-On-3 Battle, Chapter 201 Recovering That Which Was Lost – Conclusion, Chapter 335 Time Bomb Memories Original anime counterpart – Episode 97 Duel! Benten VS the Three Daughters!! Note: The OG anime’s Episode 97 included Ataru in the episode when he was absent in this story in the manga (besides a flashback scene). This created a plothole for a later episode in the series. This episode also featured a cameo of the crab teacher who appears in Chapter 335 of the manga. This chapter was never adapted in the OG anime. Episode 20 in the Remake was the second full-length episode of the Remake.

Episode 21A Cosmo Teacher CAO-2 Manga – Chapter 180 Cosmo Teacher CAO-2 Original anime counterpart – Episode 85 Revenge of the Planetary Instructor CAO-2

Episode 21B Ooh, Scary! Voodoo Doll Manga – Chapter 232 Ooh, Scary! Voodoo Doll Original anime counterpart – Episode 131 Don't Die! Ryōko's Special Straw Doll!!

Episode 22A Big Bottle, Little Bottle Manga – Chapter 272 Big Bottle, Little Bottle Original anime counterpart – Episode 161 Small Magic Bottle! What's to Become of Me!? Note: The OG anime’s Episode 161 began with an original scene where Ataru went on a date with Lum. Lum wore a gorgeous outfit with a hat on this date and she had this get-up throughout the majority of this episode.

Episode 22B When Love Strikes Manga – Chapter 209 When Love Strikes Original anime counterpart – Episode 122 The Fox's Hard Feelings of Painful Love... Note: The OG anime’s Episode 122 felt more artistic as it had a larger emphasis on Shinobu and even included her monologuing.

Episode 22 Post-credits scene Manga – Chapter 186 Miss Tomobiki Contest: Preliminary Round Original anime counterpart – Episode 91 Document - Who Will Be Miss Tomobiki!? Note: In the Remake, some scenes from the beginning of the manga chapter were cut possibly due to time constraints or to make the episode less controversial.

Episode 23 The Tomo-1 Queen Contest Manga – Chapter 187 Miss Tomobiki Contest: Main Contest, Chapter 188 Miss Tomobiki Contest: Swimsuit Competition, Chapter 189 Miss Tomobiki Contest: Battle of the Women, Chapter 190 Miss Tomobiki Contest: Results Original anime counterpart – Episode 91 Document - Who Will Be Miss Tomobiki!? Note: The OG anime’s Episode 91 was one of the most controversial episodes of Urusei Yatsura. It was an incomplete adaptation of the Miss Tomobiki arc of the manga which disappointed many fans. It only adapted Chapter 186 and a few pages of the beginning of Chapter 187. It ended with Ataru fleeing away to Osaka with the sponsorship funds and the Principal delaying the Miss Tomobiki competition indefinitely. Thus, the actual competition didn’t take place in an animated form until 2023 with the first Season Finale of Urusei Yatsura Remake. Not only that, this episode also had an original satirical joke which Rumiko Takahashi, the author of Urusei Yatsura, found very offensive. Chapter 188-190 were completely unadapted until the Remake adapted it as Episode 23. Albeit majority of the scenes from Chapter 188 were cut probably to avoid creating controversies or because of time constraints. Episode 23 in the Remake was also the third full-length episode of the Remake.

If you count every chapter, the Remake adapted 65 out of 366 chapters of the manga in Season 1.

This post was very easy to make thanks to the Urusei Yatsura Fandom and furinkan(.)com web page where I got the majority of my information.

(source again)

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

3rd December >> Fr, Martin's Gospel Homilies / Reflections on Mark 13:33-37 for the First Sunday of Advent, Cycle B: ‘Stay awake’.

First Sunday of Advent, Cycle B

Gospel (Except USA) Mark 13:33-37 If he comes unexpectedly, he must not find you asleep.

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Be on your guard, stay awake, because you never know when the time will come. It is like a man travelling abroad: he has gone from home, and left his servants in charge, each with his own task; and he has told the doorkeeper to stay awake. So stay awake, because you do not know when the master of the house is coming, evening, midnight, cockcrow, dawn; if he comes unexpectedly, he must not find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake!’

Gospel (USA) Mark 13:33–37 Be watchful! You do not know when the Lord of the house is coming.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”

Homilies (6)

(i) First Sunday of Advent

I have always liked the season of Advent. It is a very short season. In fact, this year it is shorter than usual. It is only three weeks long, because the fourth Sunday of Advent coincides with Christmas Eve. Advent can easily get overlooked because Christmas is anticipated so early. The commercial world has been reminding us of Christmas for the past four weeks at least. Yet, it is worth holding on to Advent and celebrating it. Some of the Advent symbols that appear in our church this Sunday help us to do that, such as the Advent Wreath, the Jesse Tree, the colour purple and the restraint when it comes to flowers on the altar. There is a certain restraint to Advent as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the joyful feast of Christmas.

If Christmas celebrates the wonderful coming of the Lord among us as a new born child, Advent reminds us of our need for the Lord’s coming. It is a season when we try to enter more fully into our deep-seated longing for the Lord. This is our spiritual hunger and thirst which we can so easily ignore in these times when there are so many other calls on our attention and our time. Advent is a season when we are invited to slow down a little and to become more aware of this deep desire in our hearts which only the Lord can satisfy. That longing for the Lord is powerfully expressed in today’s first reading. The prophet Isaiah cries out to God, ‘Oh, that you would tear the heavens and come down’. That longing is there again in the Responsorial Psalm, ‘O shepherd of Israel, hear us, shine forth from your throne’. These are longer versions of that very short prayer to be found at the end of one of Paul’s letters, ‘Come, our Lord’. This is the Advent prayer. It gives expression to the longing in our hearts for the Lord; it calls on him to come to us. It is a very ancient prayer that was prayed by the very first Christians. We know that because the first Christians spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus, and even though Paul wrote his letters in Greek, he quotes this prayer in the Aramaic language, ‘Marana tha’, which translated means, ‘Come, our Lord’. When we pray this prayer or a version of it like, ‘Come, Lord, Jesus’, we are entering into the prayer of the very first followers of Jesus.

Perhaps we could commit ourselves to praying this prayer a couple of times a day this Advent. It is a prayer that recognizes our need for the Lord’s coming. We are aware that we are not complete in ourselves. We need the Lord to complete us, to empower us to live fully human lives. We can perhaps identify with the very autumnal image in today’s first reading, ‘We have all withered like leaves, and our sins blew us away like the wind’. That is the sense of ourselves out of which we pray the prayer, ‘Come, our Lord’. We pray this prayer knowing that we have withered in some way, but also knowing that the Lord is faithful to us and will answer our heartfelt prayer for his coming. As Saint Paul says in today’s second reading, ‘God is faithful’. There is a striking image of the faithfulness of God in the first reading. Isaiah says, ‘And yet, Lord, you are our Father; we the clay, you the potter, we are all the work of your hand’. A potter who works on making a clay pot may not get it right first time, but he continues to work the clay until it comes out to his satisfaction. Similarly, the Lord comes to us as we are, with our many imperfections, and, yet, he can work away in our lives until we become all he desires us to be, if we give him the opportunity, the space. When we pray to the Lord, ‘Come, our Lord’, we are asking him to come and complete the good work that he began in our lives when he created us and when we were baptized. The Lord will bring his good work in us to completion in eternity, but here and now he desires to work away on us so that we become more and more like him, as loving as he is.

Sometimes we can sell ourselves short and fail to see the many ways the Lord has already come into our lives, the ways that he is already at work within us. Saint Paul reminds us of that in today’s second reading when he says, ‘I thank God that you have been enriched in so many ways… you will not be without any of the gifts of the Spirit while you are waiting for our Lord Jesus to be revealed’. As well as calling on the Lord to come, we also need to be alert, awake, to the ways that the Lord has been coming to us and enriching us. This is the call of Jesus in the gospel reading, ‘Stay awake’. We are like the doorkeeper in the little parable who is told to stay away, The Lord is already knocking on the door of our lives, in many different ways. Advent is a time to be attentive to the knock of the one whose faithful love continues to shape us.

And/Or

(ii) First Sunday of Advent

The first Sunday of Advent has come round again. The Jesse tree and the Advent wreath are in place. The green of ordinary time has given way to the more sombre violet of Advent. The liturgical mood has changed a little. We drop the Gloria from our Sunday Mass for this season. Liturgically, the church holds itself in reserve somewhat, until the great outbreak of joy at the feast of Christmas. Advent is a quiet, reflective, prayerful season. We are in a waiting, expectant mode. It is the season when we wait for the Lord, when we pray Maranatha, Come Lord.

We wait for the Lord’s coming because we know that we need the Lord’s coming. People who are waiting usually have a sense of something or someone missing. That is the case whether it is a parent waiting for their son or daughter to come through the arrival gate at the airport, or a couple waiting for their child to be born, or a sick person in hospital waiting for an expected visitor. The experience of waiting brings home to us that we are incomplete. It reminds us that at some deep level of our lives we are in need, we need others.

The season of Advent reminds us of our need of the Lord. It is the season when we stand with open hearts and invite the Lord to come and to bring us to completion. We begin Advent acknowledging our need of that completion, our need of the Lord’s coming. The first reading of the first Sunday of Advent this year gives us words to express that need, ‘We have all withered like leaves and our sins blew us away like the wind’. We have all become familiar with the withered leaves of autumn these recent months. The words of the prophet Isaiah this morning suggest that these withered leaves are symbols of all that is withered in our lives. This autumn, more than other autumns, we have become more aware of the withered areas of our church’s life. As a church, we have felt more keenly our need of the Lord’s coming. Out of that sense of need we pray with greater vigour than usual this Advent, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’, or we might pray the prayer of today’s responsorial psalm, ‘Visit this vine and protect it, the vine your right hand has chosen’. The vine is an image of the people of God, an image of the church. We pray for a fresh visitation of the Lord to his church, and a greater openness on all our parts to receive the Lord’s visitation.

That first reading of Advent this morning is a lament, a communal cry to the Lord, out of a shared sense of having failed the Lord. Yet, at the end of the reading there is the conviction that the Lord is the potter who can make something new out of his flawed people. He can take material that looks unpromising and with it create a work of art. That is also our conviction as we begin Advent. We invite the Lord to come and shape us anew. To acknowledge how out of shape we are is itself to create an opening for the Lord to come. Recognizing what is wrong, acknowledging our need, therefore, does not leave us discouraged. We are full of hope in the Lord who does not give up on his people but continues to shape and mould them. Advent is a hopeful season, a time when we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

This hopeful waiting is not in any sense a sitting back and do nothing approach, as if the Lord is going to do it all for us. People who are waiting for someone dear to them are anything but laid back. If you watch people at airports waiting for loved ones to arrive, their faces are full of alertness. That is the kind of waiting that is associated with Advent, and that Jesus calls for in the gospel reading today. ‘Be on your guard, stay awake’ he says. As we wait, we are alert and attentive. We are attentive to the task the Lord has given us. We each have been given the task of growing in our relationship with the Lord, being in prayerful communion with him, witnessing to him in our daily lives. The Lord asks us to keep to that task as we wait for him, to stay at our post as it were, not to get discouraged or to lose heart. We have the assurance of St. Paul in the second reading that as we keep to our task, the Lord provides us with the help we need to do that task well. Paul tells us: ‘You will not be without any of the gifts of the Spirit while you are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ’. The Lord gifts us for the task he gives to us, while inviting us to wait in joyful hope for his coming which is assured. That is the spirit of Advent. We pray that in the coming four weeks, we would show ourselves to be Advent people. 

And/Or

(iii) First Sunday of Advent

The Season of Advent falls in the darkest time of the year, when the days are coming towards their shortest. The shortest day of the year occurs in the last few days of the Advent Season. As the light begins to diminish towards its weakest point, we might find ourselves looking forward to the days when the light begins to increase again. We start to hope for longer days and signs of new life in nature. Advent is very much a season which invites us to touch into our deeper longings also, the yearnings that we all experience within ourselves for life, light, love, truth and joy. These deep yearnings are, ultimately, a longing for God. St. Augustine said that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. Advent is a season when we are called to enter more fully into our longing for God.

The first reading of the first Sunday of Advent gives expression to this deeper longer in our hearts for God, for a life that is more in keeping with God’s will for our lives. That reading from the prophet Isaiah is a heartfelt cry of God’s people for a deeper relationship with God. They cry to God, ‘Oh that you would tear the heavens and come down’.  They acknowledge that there is a lack in their lives that only God can fill, and, so, making use of an autumn/winter image, they cry out, ‘We have all withered like leaves and our sins blew us away like the wind’. It is as if they are crying out in the winter of their spirit for God’s coming.�� They know that they have not been living as God intended them to live, that much of what was good in them has withered. Yet, they also know that God remains faithful to them, that God can renew them. Like the potter, God can make something new out of the mess of their lives.

This is the frame of mind and heart in which we too are invited to begin Advent. We begin Advent acknowledging the winter of our own spirit, recognizing that in ways we have become like withered leaves blown about by the wind. More importantly, we begin Advent in the conviction that God is constantly coming towards us, and is only waiting for our call. God is coming towards us as one who can refashion our lives, and change us for the better. We begin Advent, calling on God the potter to remake us, so that we shine forth more clearly as the work of his hands. In that sense, Advent is a hopeful season, because it is a time when we celebrate the good news that God’s coming will respond to the winter of our spirit.

God comes to renew what God has already given to us rather than to give us what we have never received. Another image, this time from the New Testament, expresses this well. God comes to fan into a living flame the gifts that we have been given through his Son, Jesus. We have been graced and greatly blessed in Christ, but sometimes what we have been given comes to lie dormant within us.  What St. Paul says to the Corinthian church in today’s second reading could be said to all of us here this morning. ‘I never stop thanking God for all the graces you have received through Jesus Christ. I thank him that you have been enriched in so many ways… you are not without any of the gifts of the Spirit while you are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ to he revealed’. As we begin Advent, we recognize all the ways that God has graced us through his Son. But we also acknowledge that we have allowed these gifts to die back, to wither like leaves, and, so we long for God to come and fan these gifts into living flames. Advent is a time when we cry to God out of the winter of our spirit, ‘Let your face shine on us and we shall be saved’. We long for the warmth and light of God’s presence to bring to life whatever good has died within us. Our lighting of the Advent wreath over the next four weeks gives expression to that longing within us.

Advent is a time when we are invited to become more spiritually alert – alert to how we have allowed what is best in us to wither, and alert to the Lord whose fuller coming into our lives can renew and remake us. The call to be alert is the call we hear from Jesus in the gospel reading today. Advent calls us to an alertness of the spirit. We know that certain forms of behaviour can work against that kind of alertness, such as excessive drinking and the misuse of drugs. We also know that other forms of behaviour can enhance the kind of alertness to ourselves and to the Lord that Jesus calls for. In particular, taking time and space for prayer in our lives will make us more spiritually alert.

Advent is a season when we might give a little more time to prayer than we would normally do. It is a prayerful, contemplative season, when we are invited to enter into a spirit of prayerful waiting, when we are called to make the simple Advent prayer an integral part of our lives, ‘Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus’. This prayer is the Christian version of the prayer of the people of Israel in the first reading, ‘tear the heavens and come down’. It is one of the earliest prayers of the church, and is prayed by Paul at the end of this first letter to the Corinthians. In making this prayer our own, we will find ourselves entering into that spirit of Advent longing and waiting which is the essence of this season.

And/Or

(iv) First Sunday of Advent

As we enter the month of December, as we pass from Autumn to Winter, the trees have lost most of their lives by now. There has been a lot of sweeping up of leaves in recent weeks. Trees can be beautiful when they are in full leaf, but they have a different kind of beauty when they have shed all their leaves. It is only then that the full extent of the trees’ branches can be seen, with their intricate shapes. I have a rather large shrub at the end of the garden. It is lovely when it is in full leaf. Yet, even now when all the leaves are gone, it has a different kind of beauty. The dark red colour of its many small branches becomes visible, as does the movement of the birds within it as they hop from branch to branch. When we think of Winter’s impact on nature, we generally think in terms of loss, the loss of foliage, the loss of colour, the loss of texture. Yet, all of that loss reveals other attractive qualities and features of nature that are not so evident when nature is in full bloom.

Just as nature has its seasons, our own lives can have their seasons as well. What could be termed a winter of the spirit can come over us. It can often be associated with some experience of failure or loss. The first reading today from the prophet Isaiah seems to reflect a kind of communal winter of the spirit. It springs from an awareness of personal and communal failure before God. ‘We have all withered like leaves, and our sins blew us away like the wind’. The image of personal failure or sin blowing us away like withered leaves is quite striking. There are times when we may feel that there is something withered about us; we are not as alive as we sense we could be. We may be quite well physically but our spirit seems poorly. Whenever we have that sense of ourselves, what matters is how we respond to it. We can allow the realization that we are not as spiritually alive as we desire to be to get us down. We get discouraged about ourselves. However, today’s readings invite us to respond rather differently to that sense of ourselves as withered leaves.

Just as nature’s winter can have its own beauty, so the winter of our spirit can contain within it reasons for hope and, even, joy. Our winter of our spirit can create an opening for God to work within us in new and creative ways. In our first reading, after the prophet Isaiah acknowledges, ‘we have all withered like leaves, and our sins blew us away like the wind’, he then immediately goes on to proclaim, ‘and yet, Lord, you are our Father, we the clay, you the potter, we are all the work of your hands’. He has shifted his field of imagery from the withered leaves of winter to the potter’s workplace. Isaiah’s message is clear. When we seem to be at our weakest, when our spirit is at its most withered, when we are most aware of our failings, the Lord remains our loving Creator who can create something new out of what appears to be very unpromising. We are being invited to begin Advent with that sense of our need of the Lord’s creative coming into our lives, prompting us to pray the simple Advent prayer, Come Lord Jesus.

And/Or

(v) First Sunday of Advent

Isaiah concludes that reading with the declaration, ‘We are all the work of your hand’. It goes without saying that we are all a work in progress. We remain a work in progress until that eternal day when we see the Lord face to face and the Lord brings to completion the good work he has begun in us. In the meantime, we acknowledge to ourselves and before the Lord those areas of our lives that are somewhat withered, but we also recognize the ways that the Lord is, nevertheless, creatively at work in our lives. In today’s second reading, Saint Paul tells the church in Corinth, ‘I never stop thanking God for all the graces you have received through Jesus Christ’. It is clear from the rest of the letter that all was not well in this church. There was much about this church that could be categorized as a winter of the spirit. Yet, Paul begins his letter to them by thanking God for all the graces they have received and he goes on to assure them in that reading, ‘you will not be without any of the gifts of the Spirit while you are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed’. We too will not be without any of the gifts of the Spirit. Even in our winter of the spirit, we lack no spiritual gift, because the Lord is always coming towards us to renew us.  That is why the refrain of Jesus in the gospel reading is ‘Stay awake’. We are to be awake, alert, to the Lord’s coming, the Lord’s presence. We are to be like the doorkeeper in the parable in today’s gospel reading, attentive to the familiar footsteps of the returning beloved.

And/Or

(vi) First Sunday of Advent

Earlier in the autumn, I was walking along Vernon Avenue and I came upon a chestnut tree, with its leaves all withered. It was a rather sad sight. The tree still had a lot of its leaves but they were lifeless and dried up. A gale force wind and the tree would be rendered bare. Yet, as I looked at this rather sorry sight, it struck me that the tree had to get to this point if it is to teem with new life in five months’ time. I remembered the same tree in the spring with its buds ready to burst into fresh green leaves.

In today’s first reading, the people of Israel compare themselves to the withered leaves of a tree, ready to be blown away at the first strong wind. ‘We have all withered like leaves and our sins blew us away like the wind’. There is a recognition that they are far from being the people that God wants them to be. There can be times in our own lives when we feel a little like withered leaves. We sense that we are not as alive with the life of the Spirit as we could be. On Pentecost Sunday we pray to the Holy Spirit, ‘On our dryness pour thy dew; wash the stains of guilt away’. We can sometimes feel that our spiritual sap has dried up somewhat. Yet, in that first reading, the people’s sense of themselves as withered leaves did not leave them despondent. They knew that the Lord can always breathe new life into them. The reading concludes with the hopeful image of God as the potter, ‘we the clay, you the potter, we are all the work of your hand’. Just as a potter sitting at their potter’s wheel can make something beautiful out of what at first seems shapeless, the Lord can take our lives as they are, and reshape them through the power of the Spirit. We are always a work in progress and the Lord is always working on us.

Advent is a season when we invite the Lord to come afresh into our lives to bring to life what has become withered in us, to moisten what has dried up and to reshape us according to his loving purpose for our lives. In the gospels Jesus often says ‘Come’ to people, ‘Come and see’, ‘Come, follow me’. Advent is the season when the focus is more on our saying ‘Come’ to the Lord. The primary Advent prayer is ‘Come, Lord, Jesus’. We pray this prayer out of a sense of our need for the Lord’s coming, just as in that first reading the people of Israel spoke out of a strong sense of their need for the Lord’s coming. That call to the Lord to ‘come’ is graphically expressed towards the beginning of the reading, ‘Oh, that you would tear the heavens open and come down’. That prayer captures the mood, of Advent. Advent is a very short season and it can easily get overshadowed by the approaching feast of Christmas. Yet, it is worth holding on to that Advent mood, entering into it, because it is one of the core moods of the life of faith. That mood is beautifully expressed in one of the psalms, ‘my soul thirsts for you, like a dry, weary, land without water’. Advent is a season when we are invited to rediscover our spiritual thirst, our longing for the one who can truly satisfy our deepest thirst.

The Advent prayer, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’, gives expression to that spiritual longing within us. It is a prayer that also expresses a sense of waiting. We invite the Lord to come afresh into our lives, and we wait for his coming. It is not a passive waiting, a kind of hanging around for the Lord. It is an alert, attentive, waiting that reaches towards the one for whom we wait. It is like the waiting of the father for his son in the parable of the prodigal son. That alert waiting is what Jesus refers to in the gospel reading when he calls on his disciples to ‘Be on your guard, stay awake’. One of the ways we give expression to this wakefulness, this alert waiting, is through prayer. Advent is a very prayerful season. It is not necessarily a season when we say more prayers than we usually do, but it is a season when we try to become more prayerful people. It is a season when we are invited to find a space to give expression to our longing for the Lord’s coming. It is a time to pray, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’ with all our heart and soul. If we enter into that deep spiritual longing within us for the Lord’s coming, the Lord will not disappoint us. As Paul says in today’s second reading, ‘you will not be without any of the gifts of the Spirit while you are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ’. In response to our prayerful longing for the Lord, he will fan into a living flame the gifts of the Holy Spirit that we have already received. Then in the power of the Spirit we will be able to attend faithfully to whatever tasks the Lord is giving us, like the faithful servant in the gospel reading.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[blankdblank]

Anaticula Masterlist (Original)

x Charlie Weasley, Sebastian Krum, Barty Crouch Jr/OC’s -

Anaticula -

Prequel to Ridikulus - Life in Hogwarts and path to bringing down the Dark Lord with the drama of trying to just be a teenager.

Pt 1 Marauders - The Next Generation – Off to School - Pt 2 Hogwarts - Pt 3 Ghost Snakes - Pt 4 Azkaban - Pt 5 - Pt 6 Quidditch, Christmas, Longbottoms - Pt 7 The Grangers - Pt 8 Second Semester –

2nd Year - Pt 9 2nd Year, Nellie - Pt 10 Crouches, Dursleys, Nightmares –

3rd Year (Philosopher’s Stone) - Pt 11 3rd Year, Riddle - Pt 12 Occlumency - Pt 13 Break-in at Gringotts - Pt 14 Mirror of Erised Go Back to Bed - Pt 15 Troll in the Dungeon - Pt 16 Death and Mirrors - Pt 17 Quirrell’s Funeral - Winter Break with Dobby –

Summer Break - Pt 18 Off to America - Pt 19 Home Again, Fetching Harry, Flourish and Blotts –

4th Year (Chamber of Secrets)- Pt 20 Back to School, New Teacher Smell - Pt 21 Vault of ice - Pt 21b Vault of Ice Pt 2 - Pt 22 Forest Vault - Vault of Fear - Pt 23 Expecto Patronum –

5th Year (Prisoner of Azkaban)- Pt 24 Summer Break - Year 5 - New Enemies - Pt 25 Ser in Hogsmeade - Pt 26 Missing Child -  Pt 27 Xmas Beak - Pt 28 The Funeral - Pt 29 O.W.L.S - Pt 30 Potions Monthly - Quidditch World Cup –

6th Year (Goblet of Fire)- Pt 31 Beauxbatons/Durmstrang Arrive - Pt 33 Are You Going To The Ball? - Pt 34 Champions, Plans and Romance - Pt 35  Quidditch, Mini Tests, Dragons, Exes, Mini Test 3 - Pt 36  Dragon Challenge - Pt 37  The Ball - Pt 38 New Years-Pick Your Poison-Lake Challenge - Pt 39 Happy Birthday - Pt 40  Maze Task - Pt 41  The Dark Lord Returns –

Summer Break - Pt 42  Initiation-Interrogations and Trials - Pt 43  Home Again - End of Summer - Weasley Wizard Wheezes –

7th Year (Order of the Phoenix) - Pt 44  Umbridge - Pt 45 Trelawney - Firenze - Arthur - Pt 46  Mass Breakout - Expulsions - WWW - Pt 47  WWW - Off For the Prophecy - Pt 48 He’s Back - Pt 49 I Slapped Him - Pt 50  Valentines - Pt 51  Graduation - Proposition –

(Half Blood Prince) - Pt 52  Hello Professor - Pt 53  Plots and New Professors - Pt 54  First Day - Pt 55  First Day Pt 2 - Memories and Trust - Pt 56  Miss Bell - Boys - Pt 57 Quidditch - Slug Club -  Pt 58 France for Xmas, Ding Dong the Wolf is Dead - Pt 59 Revenge, Revelations, Plots and Family - Pt 60 He Didn’t, Introducing Pandas - Pt 61  Poisoning, Horcruxes, Plots - Pt 62  Aragog - Quidditch League - Pt 63 Death and Life –

(Deathly Hallows) - Pt 64 Heavily Pregnant - Pt 65 Babes, Weddings, Plots and Escapes - Pt 66  Aiding Umbridge - Checking Horcruxes - Call For War - Pt 67 Battle of Hogwarts - Trial and Judgement –

Post Battle of Hogwarts - Pt 68 The End of the World

[doc-coyote]

On December 3rd of last year, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. Please understand that she is okay, now, she's doing great. But for months leading up to this diagnosis she was in intense pain. The doctors finally figured it out and told her they would do their best to take care of her and they did. What they wouldn't tell her until she was several months free of cancer, when she was diagnosed, it was so bad they thought she was as good as dead.

They only told her this when she had been the best recovery any of these specialist have ever seen. She began chemo as soon as possible. My dad became her primary caregiver and I was her secondary. She went through chemo and then they stopped it in April to let her heal enough to have surgery to cut out what remained after such aggressive chemo. Chemo was miserable. She'd basically get a few days of normalcy only to have to return for her next session.

As the chemo and surgery days were going, they discovered the cause of my mom's cancer. The big one was ovarian cancer but then they also found a dime-sized bit of lung cancer, my mother has never smoked and avoids smokers at all cost. It was genetic, a mutated BRCA2 gene, this is one of the genes that is supposed to stem cellular growth and stop cancer from happening. If you have ovaries, a mutated BRCA2 is bad news.

This gene mutation means she's susceptible to other cancers, she's already got a full double mastectomy planned for once her post chemo treatment is over so she doesn't have ticking time bombs on her chest. The three of us, her kids, got genetic testing to see if we carried the BRCA2 mutation. We don't, had it been me or my brother, it'd have meant early and regular prostate checks. Had it been my sister, she'd be looking at a full hysterectomy like mom had just gotten AND then my nieces would have had to be tested as well. Again, thankfully, that isn't the case for any of us.

This last year has been very long. I was up at all hours for months, on call for my parents. Helping whenever I could. I honestly would keep doing it as long as it means she's fine. She is doing so well that doctors debate studying her for this level of recovery. She's got a few more months of post-chemo and then once she's deemed recovered from the treatment, the masectomies, likely in the fall. She has been completely cancer cell free for months now.

My dad was always a good cook but his skills have quadrupled, bare minimum, from this. Since my mom gets tired quicker now, I've become his TV and movie watching buddy. My nieces love this fact. I'm often still over at my parents' place to help and sometimes just to see how they're doing and hang out. The feeling from last holiday season and this one is night and day.

I'll be going over there on Christmas day to hang out, likely watch a movie with my dad and give them and my nieces presents. My dad has been using an unused umbrella stand he cut as a rolling pin so I got him a real one since that umbrella stand was never meant for this. My mom has wanted new slippers and she even showed me the direct ones she wanted.

My great-grandmother on my father's side lived to be 106. I was six when I met her, she died shortly after that. She got pneumonia on the trip to visit. This locked something in my mind: our family live up to 106. My mom has joked that when I told her this at that age and having seen all we've been through, I might have locked, not just my mind, but reality as well. My mom is 66 this coming March, my dad just turned 67 last month. Roughly 40 more years here for the both of them. I'll be 37 in February, so just shy of 70 years left for me. I sure hope we can all live with that.

I'm just glad my mom proved a bunch of experts wrong just by being her. She said she's focused on the positive as best she can to get through this. It's almost the opposite of how I survive. I want to be like that. But spite and anger can keep me going when hope is lost. She says I've always had back up plans so that makes sense for me. In October, the father of an old friend, died. His dad was diagnosed with cancer several years ago. I'd often thought of him with this all happening with my mom. Hoping his treatment and health were doing better. I'd known his dad for twenty years, he was a few years younger than my parents. This has been one very long year.

I guess I tell you all of this just to say that I love you all. Since the pandemic started, I've begun ending interactions with friends with I love you. I've always done this with my parents so it wasn't difficult to spread it to my friends. So easy was it that I've accidentally said it to strangers like bank tellers and cashiers. I don't ever expect to hear it back, I don't mind if people don't feel comfortable sharing those kinds of feelings but I just want everyone I know to know that they are loved by me. I have been in mostly lurk mode on this site for years now. Liking posts and maybe sharing photos here and there. So, I love you, dear reader, even if you never made it this far in all this writing. I just felt like I should post this here.

[chrancecriber]

Radio NET Bulgaria (December 16, 2022)

23:56 DIRK K - Change Is Gonna Come 23:52 SHARMOND SMITH - It's Christmas Time Again 23:48 EJAZZ ARTISTRY - Need You Now 23:44 LIN ROUNTREE - Candie's Dance 23:39 OLI SILK - Rest Assured 23:33 KEN NAVARRO - Parallel Lives 23:30 JAREZ - I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus 23:27 NATE HARASIM - Both Sides Of The Coin (feat. Steve Oliver) 23:22 NAJEE - One Note Love 23:19 NORMAN BROWN - Unconditional 23:15 MILES GILDERDALE - Live Your Life 23:10 PETER WHITE - Happy Christmas,O Holy Night 23:04 KIM WATERS - You Are My Lady 23:00 KONSTANTIN KLASHTORNI - I Feel It Coming 22:57 ANA CRIADO - Can't Hold Back The Rain (Dark Matters Original) 22:54 BT & AQUALUNG - Surrounded (Tony Awake Remix) 22:50 JAZZAMOR - Hidden Treasure 22:45 ATB - Remember That Day 22:42 KRISTER, DALBANI - Self Control 22:37 SEVEN24 - Oasis (Original Mix) 22:34 DJ SALAMANDRA - I Want It All (DJ Alatiz Remix) 22:29 MATHIEU & FLORZINHO - Life Is Just a Dream (Levitation Remix) 22:23 CERF, MITISKA & JAREN - Beggin' You (Aeron Aether & Gorm Sorensen Remix) 22:18 LINKIN PARK - My December 22:15 DJ G.ROS, IAN CAREY - Keep On Rising 22:09 TITIYO - Come Along (Naid Remix) 22:03 BOBINA, BETSIE LARKIN - You Belong To Me (El Gambrero Remix) 21:59 RUSSELL SIMINS - Comfortable Place 21:55 LEO ROJAS - Colors Of The Rainbow 21:50 MATT DAREY, ERICA DRISCOLL - Too Far (Zetandel Chill Mix) 21:45 351 LAKE SHORE DRIVE - Over 21:39 SUNLOUNGER, ZARA TAYLOR - Try To Be Love (Chill Out Mix) 21:32 ARMIN VAN BUUREN, JUSTINE SUISSA - Burned With Desire (Chillout Mix) 21:27 INUSA DAWUDA - Dreamily 21:22 DIDDY, KEYSHIA COLE, B-STAR - Last Night (Slow Version) 21:18 BLUE METHENEY - Don't Be So Shy (Sirius & Nyla Mix) 21:14 MARKUS GARDEWEG, MICHAEL FEINER - Fairplay (Let There Be Love) (Ambient Mix) 21:09 ARNEJ - People Come, People Go (Chillout Mix) 21:05 WALK OFF THE EARH - Somebody That I Used To Know 21:00 GANGA - Secrets 20:54 LUSTRAL - Someone (Original Mix) 20:51 ROBERTO BRONCO - Mad 20:46 BETSIE LARKIN, BOBINA - You Belong To Me (Sunset Version) 20:42 MOBY - Porcelain 20:37 ANGE - Some Day (Perception Of Sound Mix) 20:33 ANDAIN - Promises 20:28 TIFF LACEY - Show Me The Way (Acoustic Mix) 20:24 BLANK & JONES - Risin' To The Top (Original Mix) 20:19 ANA CRIADO - Vulnerable (Mark Otten Downtempo Remix) 20:16 THE LIGHTNESS PROJECT, NICK FERA - Beautiful Dream 20:12 MARCELA MANGABEIRA - Don't Stop The Music (Lounge Version) 20:09 ARMIN VAN BUUREN VS. SOPHIE ELLIS BEXTOR - Not Giving Up On Love (Acoustic Version) 20:06 JAMES BUTLER - Coastline 20:04 EMMA HEWITT - Miss You Paradise (Strings & Acoustic Version) 19:59 ROGER SHAH, ADRINA THORPE - Island (Album Mix) 19:53 SUNLOUNGER - Sunny Tales (Chill Version) 19:48 LUIGI LUSINI - I'll Be Home (Original Mix) 19:44 DMITRY FILATOV - Sunlight (Incognet Chill Out Mix, English Version) 19:40 TENISHIA, SUE MCLAREN - Strong (Chill Out Mix) 19:37 CHRIS REECE, ROMINA ANDREWS - Right Back (Album Mix) 19:33 ALY & FILA - Rosaires (Chill Out Mix) 19:28 3RD. FORSE - City Of Desire 19:24 DARK MATTERS, DENISE RIVERA - Take Me Home 19:20 JOSE SANTONIOS - Spanish Cello (Instrumental Remix) 19:18 DARK MATTERS, CATHY BURTON - Together (Album Mix) 19:12 LOUNGAHOLIC - Careless Whisper 19:08 AMURAI - Love & Light (Downtempo Mix) 19:03 YULIET TOPAZ - Frozen 19:00 STONEBRIDGE - Don't Matter (Album Mix) 18:57 ERIK HAKANSSON - Smooth (Original Mix) 18:53 ROMAN MESSER, LJ AYRTEN - Break The Ice (UltraNova Chillout Remix) 18:49 LAZY HAMMOCK - Star 18:44 ABOVE & BEYOND - Blue Sky Action 18:41 FARUK SABANCI, CAMI - Awaken (Zetandel Chill Out Mix) 18:33 TARAS BAZEEV - Western 18:30 ARMIN VAN BUUREN, TREVOR GUTHRIE - This Is What It Feels Like (John Ewbank Classical Remix) 18:26 TIGERFOREST - Take Me Home (Lemongrass Blue Ocean Remix) 18:20 LEO ROJAS - Brothers 18:15 MUSIC EMOTION - Believe (Jazz Fusion Mix) 18:11 ANDY MOOR, ASHLEY WALLBRIDGE, GABRIELA - World To Turn (Original Mix) 18:07 DA KENT DJ AT WORK, SELECTA - Take My Heart (Da Kent Dream Of You Mix) 18:02 CAFE DEL MAR - Mandalay (Beautiful) 17:56 DJ ARTAK SAMVEL, SONE SILVER - I Feel Your Body 17:50 YOGEE, TWEET, MISSY ELLIOT - Thugman (Lounge Remix 2011) 17:46 GABRIELA MENDEZ FUENTE - Romance in Ibiza (Orchester Lite Edit) 17:41 SPACE ROCKERZ, ELLIE LAWSON - Under The Same Sky (R.I.B. Remix) 17:37 THE FUSION, JANE MAXIMOVA - Behind Rain Waves (Chillout Mix) 17:33 LO TIDE - Quietly Here (Original Mix) 17:28 SIMMONDS, JONES - Home (Vox Mix) 17:23 GET FUSION - Last Day Of Summer (Chillout Mix) 17:17 BRAVE - The Muse (Chill Out Mix) 17:13 PIANOCHOCOLATE - Forgotten Love 17:09 BROCKMAN, BASTI M, NIC - Live Your Life (Free Your Mind) (Brockman & Basti Sunset Mix) 17:04 MARTINIQUE LE SOUFFLEUR - Sound Of Panama 17:00 YANOU, DO - On And On (Piano Version) 16:56 BRIAN SIMPSON, STEVE OLIVER - Like No Other 16:52 SAM BASSMAN JENKINS - Movin 16:48 BRIAN SIMPSON - Gotta Get to You 16:44 MICHAEL LINGTON - Silent Night 16:39 JAZZ FUNK SOUL - Timmendorfer By The Sea 16:35 KONSTANTIN KLASHTORNI - Love So Right 16:30 MARK MAXWELL - The Christmas Song 16:25 GREG MANNING - Cruising' down the Road 16:20 EUGE GROOVE - Play Date 16:16 VINCENT INGALA - If I Could Fly 16:12 WAYMAN TISDALE - In Love 16:09 DR. SAXLOVE - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 16:04 MEZZOFORTE - Sizzle 16:00 KEN NAVARRO - When We Dance (from the album Into The Light) 15:56 NILS - Jump Start 15:52 NICK COLIONNE - Spend the Night 15:48 ERIC DARIUS - Kingstons Flavor 15:44 ZOLBERT - Good Vibes Only 15:39 MARCUS ANDERSON - Christmas With Her 15:35 PHIL DENNY - Align 15:31 MARCIN NOWAKOWSKI - Coming Home (Feat. Adam Sztaba & Atom String Quartet) 15:28 SHAKATAK - Sing (Little One) 15:25 WILL DONATO - Illuminata 15:20 OLI SILK - New Bounce 15:16 MARCUS JOHNSON - Yellow Cup 15:11 TIM BOWMAN - Love Forever More 15:08 AARON BING - The First Noel 15:04 GREGG KARUKAS - Happy The Man 15:00 KIM WATERS - High Stride 14:56 KONSTANTIN KLASHTORNI - In the Night 14:51 CINDY BRADLEY - Grey Area 14:47 MARION MEADOWS - Kaleidoscope 14:41 DAVE KOZ - O Holy Night (feat. Jonathan Butler) 14:37 PAUL BROWN - Jumpin' Uptown 14:33 CHRIS STANDRING - As Luck Would Have It 14:30 ELY BRUNA - All I Want for Christmas Is You 14:25 CHRISTOPHE GOZE - Passing Time 14:21 ROCCO VENTRELLA - Say Goodbye 14:16 ROBERT HARRIS - Midnight Rendezvous 14:12 BLAIR BRYANT - That Girl 14:09 JACK JEZZRO - Santa Baby 14:04 CAROL ALBERT - Chasing Waterfalls 14:00 BLUEY - Back Here Again 13:56 JAZZ FUNK SOUL - D.C. 13:52 PAUL BROWN, PETER WHITE - Take Flight 13:47 LEBRON - Say You Will 13:44 HERB ALPERT - The Christmas Song 13:39 NELSON RANGELL - Send One Your Love 13:34 PIECES OF A DREAM - People Say 13:30 MICHAEL LINGTON - Mary Did You Know 13:26 BEN TANKARD - Remember Wayman 13:22 NILS - Hey Joe 13:17 BONEY JAMES - Got It Goin' On 13:13 KIM SCOTT - I'm Every Woman (feat. Althea Rene & Ragan Whiteside) 13:10 STEPHEN ROTHHAAR - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 13:04 OLI SILK - Lazy Sunday Groove 13:00 NORMAN BROWN - Missin' You 12:56 PHIL DENNY - Be There for Me 12:50 WALTER BEASLEY - Hydra 12:47 ART FOUR SALE - White Christmas 12:42 EUGE GROOVE - The Journey Ahead 12:37 MARCUS JOHNSON - Believe 12:34 SHAKATAK - O Little Town Of Bethlehem 12:28 GREGG KARUKAS - You'll Know it's Me 12:23 KIM WATERS - Step to This 12:19 MEKIEL REUBEN - Summer Breezin 12:14 KONSTANTIN KLASHTORNI - Waiting For You 12:09 PETER WHITE - River 12:05 THE SAX PACK - Disco Here 12:00 BLAIR BRYANT - Squid 11:56 RICHARD ELLIOT - Mystique 11:52 DAVE KOZ - A New Day 11:48 TIM BOWMAN - Seaside Drive 11:44 MAYSA - Joy To The World 11:40 ROCCO VENTRELLA - Soulful Strut 11:35 KEITH MASON - Ascended 11:29 JAY ROWE - O Tannenbaum 11:25 SKINNY HIGHTOWER - Force 11:21 GORDON JAMES - Cafe Soul 11:16 BRAD ALEXANDER - Just Between Us (feat. Donald Hayes) 11:12 ANDREY CHMUT - Night Ride 11:07 JODY MAYFIELD - Christmas Time is here 11:04 PATRICK YANDALL - Back In The Day 11:00 BRIAN SIMPSON, STEVE OLIVER - Unified 10:57 BK JACKSON - Find Your Way 10:52 ANDY SNITZER - A Few Wild Nights 10:48 PEET PROJECT - Rosy Cheeks 10:44 BRADLEY LEIGHTON - Angels We Have Heard On High 10:40 NICHOLAS COLE - The Weekend 10:37 TERENCE YOUNG - Friday Night 10:33 BROOKE ALFORD - The First Noel 10:29 PAUL BROWN, NAJEE - Casablanca 10:24 MARCUS ANDERSON - M-Possible 10:19 PHIL DENNY - Got It Like That 10:16 496 WEST - Intentional 10:10 NATHAN WOODWARD - O, Holy Night 10:05 GEORGE JINDA - Mother of Pearl 10:00 MARCUS JOHNSON - You And I 09:56 DARRYL WILLIAMS - Don't Ask My Neighbors (feat. Ashling Cole & Greg Manning) 09:51 GREGG KARUKAS - Heatwave 09:47 KIM WATERS - Beyond The Horizon 09:43 SHAKATAK - Silent Eve 09:38 KONSTANTIN KLASHTORNI - Nice and Easy 09:33 PETER WHITE - (Un)Forgiven 09:29 DAVE VALENTIN - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town 09:26 BEN TANKARD - George The Duke 09:22 VINCENT INGALA - Dream Girl 09:17 MARCIN NOWAKOWSKI - Easy Going 09:13 EUGE GROOVE - Livin' Large 09:09 BEN TANKARD - Away In A Manger 09:04 NICK COLIONNE - Got to Keep It Moving 09:00 MARION MEADOWS - You 08:56 BENNETT B - Show Your Love 08:51 ADAM HAWLEY - Party People (Feat. Jeff Lorber) 08:47 K.VIO, TIM TONIC - Silent Night 08:43 PAUL BROWN, DAVE KOZ - Avalon Nights 08:38 BRAD ALEXANDER - Lovely Day 08:34 JAY ROWE - Jingle Bells 08:27 STIX BONES - L.O.V.E. 08:23 POP'N BOSSA - Talking to the Moon 08:18 AVENUE BLUE - Nightingale (feat. Jeff Golub) 08:14 ALTHEA RENE - Barbara Mae 08:09 HANK BILAL - O Christmas Tree 08:04 KIRK FISCHER - Kiss on My List 08:00 ROBERTO VAZQUEZ - Never Far Away 07:54 KEITH SLATTERY - Duality 07:50 DEON YATES - Love On Top 07:47 ILYA SEROV - Heat (feat. DAVE KOZ) 07:43 ART FOUR SALE - Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree 07:40 BLAKE AARON - If You Were Mine 07:35 PATRICK YANDALL - Chasing the Light 07:31 BROOKE ALFORD - Greensleeves (A Dance Celebration) 07:27 PHILLIP DOC MARTIN - After the Rain 07:24 JASON PETERSON DELAIRE - Nightcap 07:19 MARCUS JOHNSON - Table For 2 07:14 GREGG KARUKAS - Home To You 07:09 DANA FIELDS - O Holy Night 07:04 KIM WATERS - Stay with Me Tonight 07:00 KONSTANTIN KLASHTORNI - Here We Go 06:54 OLI SILK - Latin Haze 06:49 CHIELI MINUCCI - Leilani 06:44 DR. SAXLOVE - Let It Snow 06:40 PATRICK BRADLEY - Shoreline (feat. Eric Marienthal) 06:35 EUGE GROOVE - Sneak A Peak 06:31 BEN TANKARD - Minstrel's Christmas Song 06:27 DANIEL DOMENGE - Patchwork 06:23 BRIAN SIMPSON - Out of a Dream 06:20 BRANDON WILLIS - In The House 06:15 NICHOLAS COLE - Endless Possibilities 06:12 DARYL STUERMER - The Little Drummer Boy 06:06 ANDREY CHMUT - Moving Forward (feat. Bob James) 06:00 PAUL HARDCASTLE - Eyes Closed 05:56 DAVID BENOIT - A Midnight Rendezvous 05:52 PAUL TUVMAN - I'll Be Back 05:47 PIECES OF A DREAM - Never Let It End 05:42 JACK JEZZRO - White Christmas 05:38 NILS - Fire of My Heart 05:34 PAUL BROWN - Toast And Jam 05:29 RHYTHM JETS - The Christmas Song 05:25 ADAM HAWLEY - Anytime At All 05:21 RONNY SMITH - Ticket to Miami 05:17 DREAMING IN COLOUR - State & Main 05:13 DANNY LERMAN - Amadeus' Kiss 05:08 MARCUS ANDERSON - Jingle Jam 05:05 SAM RUCKER - Be True 2 Who U R 05:00 KIM SCOTT - Off The Top 04:56 DEE BROWN - I Will 04:52 PATRICK YANDALL - Viejo Amigo 04:48 OLI SILK - Seasons Change 04:44 JAY ROWE - Do You Hear What I Hear 04:39 PHILLIP DOC MARTIN - Black Shoebox 04:35 GREGG KARUKAS - Uptown Rendevous 04:32 YOLANDA RABUN - I'm Coming Home for the Holiday 04:28 BRENDAN ROTHWELL - Destiny 04:22 KIM WATERS - The Moment I See You 04:18 KONSTANTIN KLASHTORNI - Autum's Edge 04:13 PETER WHITE - San Diego 04:09 CAROL NETHEN - Angels We Have Heard on High 04:05 AL DEGREGORIS - Into The Night, Al DeGregoris 04:00 BOBBY LYLE - Spirit Song 03:56 JAREZ - 24 Hours (feat. Julian Vaughn) 03:52 MARCUS JOHNSON - Love 03:47 RAINFOREST BAND - Caribbean Sunset 03:43 SHAKATAK - Christmas With You 03:38 NELSON RANGELL - Don't Forget Those Forgotten 03:34 NICHOLAS COLE - Crank It Up 03:30 MICHAEL LINGTON - Last Christmas (feat. Philippe Saisse) 03:26 NORTH 2UNES WOODALL - 102 Degree 03:20 JEFFERY SMITH - Turn It Up 03:16 NATE HARASIM - West Bound 03:12 JAEE LOGAN - You Can't Love Her 03:08 JONATHAN BUTLER - Winter Wonderland 03:04 MARK ETHEREDGE - You & me & we (Remastered) (feat. Paul Brown) 03:00 H ALLAN - All Along the Watchtower, Stairway to Heaven 02:56 PATRICK YANDALL - Smile For Today 02:52 UNDER THE LAKE - When Autumn Comes 02:48 JOYCE COOLING - Camelback 02:45 AMANDUS - Sing a Song 02:40 THREESTYLE, MAGDALENA CHOVANCOVA - Thank God It's Christmas 02:36 ROBERT CHRISTA - Pure Life Begins 02:32 DAVE KOZ - Let It Free 02:30 JUSTIN YOUNG - Let It Snow 02:26 JACKIEM JOYNER - Generation Next 02:22 DEE BROWN - Controlled Passion (feat. Merlon Devine) 02:17 JAZZ FUNK SOUL - Fish Grease 02:12 OLI SILK - London to L.A. Express 02:08 BRADLEY LEIGHTON - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas 02:00 JEFF KASHIWA - When Will I Know 01:55 MARCUS ADAMS - Alone for Christmas 01:52 NORMAN BROWN - Unconditional 01:46 KIM WATERS - With Open Arms 01:42 KONSTANTIN KLASHTORNI - Silky Way 01:37 PETER WHITE - The Look Of Love 01:34 GORDON JAMES - Smooth Sunshine 01:29 GLODEAN, LINDA - Christmas Time Is Here 01:26 ADRIAN CRUTCHFIELD - Go Girl 01:21 DANIEL DOMENGE - Asian Dream 01:16 BRENDAN ROTHWELL - Carmel 01:12 MARCUS JOHNSON - My Caddy 01:08 KIMBERLY BREWER - Every Day Feels Like Christmas 01:04 NORMAN BROWN - Just Chillin' 01:00 NELSON RANGELL - With All My Heart 00:56 PAUL BROWN - Say It Like It Is 00:51 BROOKE ALFORD - The Christmas Song 00:44 JEFFERY SMITH - The Chill Zone 00:40 CAL HARRIS JR., JEFF LORBER - The Neighborhood 00:36 NORTH 2UNES WOODALL - Loving 2 00:32 MARK JAIMES - Trigger Happy 00:30 JONATHAN BUTLER - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 00:25 JACOB WEBB - My Feelings 00:22 JASON PETERSON DELAIRE - Check Please (feat. Chris Camozzi) 00:16 BOBBY WELLS - Count It All Joy 00:12 NILS - Night in the Algarve 00:08 DANIEL D. - Silent Night 00:05 TONY SAUNDERS - Uptown Jazz 00:00 DARREN MOTAMEDY - You're Incredible

[brookston]

Holidays 12.18

Holidays

Answer the Phone Like Buddy the Elf Day

Arabic Language Day (UN)

Australian Christmas (Team Fortress)

Baranth Do (Elder Scrolls)

Final Fantasy Anniversary Day

Flake Appreciation Day

Founder’s Day (Qatar)

Hug a Soccer Player Day

International Migrants Day (UN)

Minifig Day

National Crime Junkie Day

National Deborah Day

National Harry Day

National Jeremy Day

National Scrooge Week begins (according to Mr. Ed)

National Twin Day

Nutcracker Day

Nyempa Guzom (Sikkim, India)

Pink Panther Day

Play Bingo Day

Republic Day (Niger)

Sunday Newspaper Day

Truffle Day (French Republic)

Tulya’s E’en (Beginning of Yule Season; Orkney Island)

Voice From Space Day

Wear a Plunger On Your Head Day

World Minorities Rights Day (India)

Yuletide Lad #7 arrives (Hurdaskellir or Door-Slammer; Iceland)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Bake Cookies Day

Let's See What We Find in the Fridge Day

National Ham Salad Day

National “I Love Honey” Day

National Muffin Day (Brazil)

National Roast Suckling Pig Day

National Stilton Day (UK)

3rd Monday in December

Christmas Lunch Gift Exchange Day [3rd Monday]

Design Wall Monday [3rd Monday]

Free Shipping Day [3rd Monday] (Also 12.14)

National Emo Day [3rd Monday]

Independence Days

New Jersey Statehood Day (#3; 1787)

Qatar (1878)

Feast Days

Eponalia (Feast of Epona; Roman goddess of fertility)

Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Christian)

Fantastic Finkleman (Muppetism)

Feast of Our Lady of Expectation

Feast of Our Lady of Solitude (Mexico)

Flannán (Christian; Saint)

Gatianus (a.k.a. Gatian) of Tours (Christian; Saint)

O Adonai (2nd O Antiphon or Great Advent Antiphon; Christian) [2 of 7]

Paul Klee (Artology)

Priestley (Positivist; Saint)

Rufus and Zozimus (Christian; Martyrs)

Running of the Roboderos (Church of the SubGenius)

Saturnalia Day 2: Saturn’s Release (Pagan)

Sebastian (Eastern Orthodox Church)

Unusual Music Instruments Day (Pastafarian)

Urdhyauli Parwa (Festival of the Animals; Nepal)

Willem van de Velde II (Artology)

Winibald (a.k.a. Winebald; Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Tycho Brahe Unlucky Day (Scandinavia) [37 of 37]

Premieres

Anchorrman 2: The Legend Continues (Film; 2013)

Another Round (Film; 2020)

Avatar (Film; 2009)

Baby Buggy Bunny (WB MM Cartoon; 1954)

The Ballad of the Green Berets, recorded by Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler (Song; 1965)

*batteries not included (Film; 1987)

The Big Blast or A Many Splintered Thing (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S2, Ep. 81; 1960)

Boris Lends a Hand or Count Your Fingers (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S4, Ep. 188; 1962)

Boris on a Broomstick or The Flying Sorceror (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S4, Ep. 187; 1962)

Born to Boogie (Music Documentary Film; 1972)

Brazil (Film; 1985)

The Bridge on the River Kwai (Film; 1957)

Broadcast News (Film; 1987)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Film; 1968)

Cinderella Liberty (Film; 1973)

The Color Purple (Film; 1985)

Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe (Play; 1592)

Dragons of Ashida (Animated TV Show;Jonny Quest #14; 1964)

From All of Us to All of You (Animated Disney TV Christmas Special; 1958)

Her (Film; 2013)

The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun (Film; 2015)

Last Train to Christmas (UK Film; 2021)

The Lion Sleeps Tonight, by The Tokens (Song; 1961)

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (TV Series; 2020)

Mary Poppins Returns (Film; 2018)

McCartney III, by Paul McCartney (Album; 2020)

Moonstruck (Film; 1987)

More Kittens (Disney Cartoon; 1936)

The Nutcracker, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Ballet; 1892)

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (US Film; 1969) [James Bond #6]

Out of Africa (Film; 1985)

Overboard (Film; 1987)

The Prince of Egypt (Animated Film; 1998)

Twistin’ the Night Away, by Sam Cooke (Song; 1961)

The Two Towers (Film; 2002) [The Lord of the Rings #2]

September in the Rain (WB MM Cartoon; 1937)

Sisters (Film; 2015)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Film; 2015) [Star Wars #7]

The Steal Hour or A Snitch in Time (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S2, Ep. 82; 1960)

A Symposium on Popular Songs (Disney Cartoon; 1962)

The Yearling (Film; 1946)

You’ve Got Mail (Film; 1998)

Today’s Name Days

Philipp, Wunibald (Austria)

Bosiljko, Dražen, Gracijan, Malahija (Croatia)

Miloslav (Czech Republic)

Lovise (Denmark)

Neeme, Neemo (Estonia)

Aapo, Aappo, Rami (Finland)

Briac, Gatien (France)

Esperanza, Gratian, Luise (Germany)

Floros, Sebastianos (Greece)

Auguszta (Hungary)

Graziano (Italy)

Jordisa, Klinta, Kristaps, Sarmis (Latvia)

Eivilė, Girdvilas, Gracijus (Lithuania)

Kate, Kristoffer (Norway)

Bogusław, Gracjan, Gracjana, Laurencja, Wilibald, Wszemir (Poland)

Daniil (Romania)

Sláva (Slovakia)

Esperanza (Spain)

Abraham (Sweden)

Griffin, Griffith, Ruff, Rufina, Rufus, Russ, Russell, Rusti, Rusty, Ty, Tyrus (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 352 of 2024; 13 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 1 of week 51 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Ruis (Elder) [Day 21 of 28]

Chinese: Month 12 (Jia-Zi), Day 6 (Geng-Xu)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 6 Teveth 5784

Islamic: 5 Jumada II 1445

J Cal: 22 Zima; Oneday [22 of 30]

Julian: 5 December 2023

Moon: 38%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 16 Bichat (13th Month) [Priestley]

Runic Half Month: Jara (Year) [Day 8 of 15]

Season: Autumn (Day 86 of 89)

Zodiac: Sagittarius (Day 27 of 30)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 12.18

Holidays

Answer the Phone Like Buddy the Elf Day

Arabic Language Day (UN)

Australian Christmas (Team Fortress)

Baranth Do (Elder Scrolls)

Final Fantasy Anniversary Day

Flake Appreciation Day

Founder’s Day (Qatar)

Hug a Soccer Player Day

International Migrants Day (UN)

Minifig Day

National Crime Junkie Day

National Deborah Day

National Harry Day

National Jeremy Day

National Scrooge Week begins (according to Mr. Ed)

National Twin Day

Nutcracker Day

Nyempa Guzom (Sikkim, India)

Pink Panther Day

Play Bingo Day

Republic Day (Niger)

Sunday Newspaper Day

Truffle Day (French Republic)

Tulya’s E’en (Beginning of Yule Season; Orkney Island)

Voice From Space Day

Wear a Plunger On Your Head Day

World Minorities Rights Day (India)

Yuletide Lad #7 arrives (Hurdaskellir or Door-Slammer; Iceland)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Bake Cookies Day

Let's See What We Find in the Fridge Day

National Ham Salad Day

National “I Love Honey” Day

National Muffin Day (Brazil)

National Roast Suckling Pig Day

National Stilton Day (UK)

3rd Monday in December

Christmas Lunch Gift Exchange Day [3rd Monday]

Design Wall Monday [3rd Monday]

Free Shipping Day [3rd Monday] (Also 12.14)

National Emo Day [3rd Monday]

Independence Days

New Jersey Statehood Day (#3; 1787)

Qatar (1878)

Feast Days

Eponalia (Feast of Epona; Roman goddess of fertility)

Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Christian)

Fantastic Finkleman (Muppetism)

Feast of Our Lady of Expectation

Feast of Our Lady of Solitude (Mexico)

Flannán (Christian; Saint)

Gatianus (a.k.a. Gatian) of Tours (Christian; Saint)

O Adonai (2nd O Antiphon or Great Advent Antiphon; Christian) [2 of 7]

Paul Klee (Artology)

Priestley (Positivist; Saint)

Rufus and Zozimus (Christian; Martyrs)

Running of the Roboderos (Church of the SubGenius)

Saturnalia Day 2: Saturn’s Release (Pagan)

Sebastian (Eastern Orthodox Church)

Unusual Music Instruments Day (Pastafarian)

Urdhyauli Parwa (Festival of the Animals; Nepal)

Willem van de Velde II (Artology)

Winibald (a.k.a. Winebald; Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Tycho Brahe Unlucky Day (Scandinavia) [37 of 37]

Premieres

Anchorrman 2: The Legend Continues (Film; 2013)

Another Round (Film; 2020)

Avatar (Film; 2009)

Baby Buggy Bunny (WB MM Cartoon; 1954)

The Ballad of the Green Berets, recorded by Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler (Song; 1965)

*batteries not included (Film; 1987)

The Big Blast or A Many Splintered Thing (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S2, Ep. 81; 1960)

Boris Lends a Hand or Count Your Fingers (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S4, Ep. 188; 1962)

Boris on a Broomstick or The Flying Sorceror (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S4, Ep. 187; 1962)

Born to Boogie (Music Documentary Film; 1972)

Brazil (Film; 1985)

The Bridge on the River Kwai (Film; 1957)

Broadcast News (Film; 1987)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Film; 1968)

Cinderella Liberty (Film; 1973)

The Color Purple (Film; 1985)

Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe (Play; 1592)

Dragons of Ashida (Animated TV Show;Jonny Quest #14; 1964)

From All of Us to All of You (Animated Disney TV Christmas Special; 1958)

Her (Film; 2013)

The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun (Film; 2015)

Last Train to Christmas (UK Film; 2021)

The Lion Sleeps Tonight, by The Tokens (Song; 1961)

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (TV Series; 2020)

Mary Poppins Returns (Film; 2018)

McCartney III, by Paul McCartney (Album; 2020)

Moonstruck (Film; 1987)

More Kittens (Disney Cartoon; 1936)

The Nutcracker, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Ballet; 1892)

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (US Film; 1969) [James Bond #6]

Out of Africa (Film; 1985)

Overboard (Film; 1987)

The Prince of Egypt (Animated Film; 1998)

Twistin’ the Night Away, by Sam Cooke (Song; 1961)

The Two Towers (Film; 2002) [The Lord of the Rings #2]

September in the Rain (WB MM Cartoon; 1937)

Sisters (Film; 2015)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Film; 2015) [Star Wars #7]

The Steal Hour or A Snitch in Time (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S2, Ep. 82; 1960)

A Symposium on Popular Songs (Disney Cartoon; 1962)

The Yearling (Film; 1946)

You’ve Got Mail (Film; 1998)

Today’s Name Days

Philipp, Wunibald (Austria)

Bosiljko, Dražen, Gracijan, Malahija (Croatia)

Miloslav (Czech Republic)

Lovise (Denmark)

Neeme, Neemo (Estonia)

Aapo, Aappo, Rami (Finland)

Briac, Gatien (France)

Esperanza, Gratian, Luise (Germany)

Floros, Sebastianos (Greece)

Auguszta (Hungary)

Graziano (Italy)

Jordisa, Klinta, Kristaps, Sarmis (Latvia)

Eivilė, Girdvilas, Gracijus (Lithuania)

Kate, Kristoffer (Norway)

Bogusław, Gracjan, Gracjana, Laurencja, Wilibald, Wszemir (Poland)

Daniil (Romania)

Sláva (Slovakia)

Esperanza (Spain)

Abraham (Sweden)

Griffin, Griffith, Ruff, Rufina, Rufus, Russ, Russell, Rusti, Rusty, Ty, Tyrus (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 352 of 2024; 13 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 1 of week 51 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Ruis (Elder) [Day 21 of 28]

Chinese: Month 12 (Jia-Zi), Day 6 (Geng-Xu)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 6 Teveth 5784

Islamic: 5 Jumada II 1445

J Cal: 22 Zima; Oneday [22 of 30]

Julian: 5 December 2023

Moon: 38%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 16 Bichat (13th Month) [Priestley]

Runic Half Month: Jara (Year) [Day 8 of 15]

Season: Autumn (Day 86 of 89)

Zodiac: Sagittarius (Day 27 of 30)

[fr-martin-gospel-reflections]

3rd December - ‘Stay awake’, Reflection on the readings for First Sunday of Advent (Mk 13:33-37)

First Sunday of Advent

I have always liked the season of Advent. It is a very short season. In fact, this year it is shorter than usual. It is only three weeks long, because the fourth Sunday of Advent coincides with Christmas Eve. Advent can easily get overlooked because Christmas is anticipated so early. The commercial world has been reminding us of Christmas for the past four weeks at least. Yet, it is worth holding on to Advent and celebrating it. Some of the Advent symbols that appear in our church this Sunday help us to do that, such as the Advent Wreath, the Jesse Tree, the colour purple and the restraint when it comes to flowers on the altar. There is a certain restraint to Advent as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the joyful feast of Christmas.

If Christmas celebrates the wonderful coming of the Lord among us as a new born child, Advent reminds us of our need for the Lord’s coming. It is a season when we try to enter more fully into our deep-seated longing for the Lord. This is our spiritual hunger and thirst which we can so easily ignore in these times when there are so many other calls on our attention and our time. Advent is a season when we are invited to slow down a little and to become more aware of this deep desire in our hearts which only the Lord can satisfy. That longing for the Lord is powerfully expressed in today’s first reading. The prophet Isaiah cries out to God, ‘Oh, that you would tear the heavens and come down’. That longing is there again in the Responsorial Psalm, ‘O shepherd of Israel, hear us, shine forth from your throne’. These are longer versions of that very short prayer to be found at the end of one of Paul’s letters, ‘Come, our Lord’. This is the Advent prayer. It gives expression to the longing in our hearts for the Lord; it calls on him to come to us. It is a very ancient prayer that was prayed by the very first Christians. We know that because the first Christians spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus, and even though Paul wrote his letters in Greek, he quotes this prayer in the Aramaic language, ‘Marana tha’, which translated means, ‘Come, our Lord’. When we pray this prayer or a version of it like, ‘Come, Lord, Jesus’, we are entering into the prayer of the very first followers of Jesus.

Perhaps we could commit ourselves to praying this prayer a couple of times a day this Advent. It is a prayer that recognizes our need for the Lord’s coming. We are aware that we are not complete in ourselves. We need the Lord to complete us, to empower us to live fully human lives. We can perhaps identify with the very autumnal image in today’s first reading, ‘We have all withered like leaves, and our sins blew us away like the wind’. That is the sense of ourselves out of which we pray the prayer, ‘Come, our Lord’. We pray this prayer knowing that we have withered in some way, but also knowing that the Lord is faithful to us and will answer our heartfelt prayer for his coming. As Saint Paul says in today’s second reading, ‘God is faithful’. There is a striking image of the faithfulness of God in the first reading. Isaiah says, ‘And yet, Lord, you are our Father; we the clay, you the potter, we are all the work of your hand’. A potter who works on making a clay pot may not get it right first time, but he continues to work the clay until it comes out to his satisfaction. Similarly, the Lord comes to us as we are, with our many imperfections, and, yet, he can work away in our lives until we become all he desires us to be, if we give him the opportunity, the space. When we pray to the Lord, ‘Come, our Lord’, we are asking him to come and complete the good work that he began in our lives when he created us and when we were baptized. The Lord will bring his good work in us to completion in eternity, but here and now he desires to work away on us so that we become more and more like him, as loving as he is.

Sometimes we can sell ourselves short and fail to see the many ways the Lord has already come into our lives, the ways that he is already at work within us. Saint Paul reminds us of that in today’s second reading when he says, ‘I thank God that you have been enriched in so many ways… you will not be without any of the gifts of the Spirit while you are waiting for our Lord Jesus to be revealed’. As well as calling on the Lord to come, we also need to be alert, awake, to the ways that the Lord has been coming to us and enriching us. This is the call of Jesus in the gospel reading, ‘Stay awake’. We are like the doorkeeper in the little parable who is told to stay away, The Lord is already knocking on the door of our lives, in many different ways. Advent is a time to be attentive to the knock of the one whose faithful love continues to shape us.

[cmcsmen]

Catholic Manhood Nuggets - Our Relationship With Advent

CMCS Resources for Advent 2023

Amen App Journey Through Advent

December 3rd 2023 First Sunday of Advent

Mark 13:33-37: Be watchful! You do not know when the lord of the house is coming.

Gospel MK 13:33-37 Jesus said to his disciples: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’” https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120323.cfm

The First Sunday of Advent is a time of great anticipation for Catholics. This Liturgical Year, the Church wishes to indicate the beginning of a period, but the beginning of a renewed commitment to the faith by all those who follow Christ. The entire Liturgy of the Advent season, will spur us to an awakening in our Christian life and will put us in a ‘vigilant’ disposition, to wait for Our Lord Jesus who is coming.

The Gospel passage from Mark 13:33-37 is a warning to Christians that they should be prepared for the unexpected. Christ is warning them not to be caught off guard when he calls them. Christians should be prepared for the day when Christ will call them, even if they are advanced in years or have been suffering from prolonged illness.

This holy season of Advent is an opportune time for each one of us to look into his life and see how he stands with God. Christmas should remind us of the second coming of Christ, which will be very soon for all of us.

Mark 13:33-37: Be watchful! You do not know when the lord of the house is coming. He may come at any time, so be ready.

[hum2020blogtv]

My Musical Theme

Music is something I love so much! It has many purposes, but the main one for me is that it makes me feel better! If I do not have music, it feels too quiet. For my Musical Theme assignment, I chose the subject theme of winter as my unifying idea. Winter is my favorite season of the year because of Thanksgiving and Christmas! It's a time when people reunite to spend quality time together, the cold weather is fantastic, the Snow (Like in the Christmas movies), and people get to have days where they can relax and be all cozy. Music that reminds me of winter makes me feel joy, warmth, and nostalgia. It's nostalgic because as I grew up, I realized that this season is not the same as when I was little, it's different now, but in a good way.

1st song: Wintertime Love by The Doors (rock)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoS9FOu1hmg

This song, as the title says, is about wintertime love! It is about having someone's warmth in a very cold season. It also talks about hoping to fall in love with someone so that they can be warm. The melody of this song has a mixture of high and low pitches. It has a fast tempo, which makes it more charismatic and makes people want to dance. In addition, the song has a degree of dissonance because it has multiple sounds played together. All these elements help the song communicate its message.

2nd song: Winter by Tori Amos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmk0AVNRBIY

The song was written about Amos's dad. It talks about winter in a nostalgic way, which I sometimes feel like this during Christmas and winter. The song's melody is calm with a slow tempo, which gives it a comfortable feeling. In addition, the piano notes make it more powerful. It is also a classical song.

3rd song: A Hazy Shade of Winter by Simon & Garfunkel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnZdlhUDEJo

This song is about the feeling that winter brings to people. It conveys a message that people grow up and view this season differently depending on what happens during the year. It has a degree of dissonance because it has different sounds played together and fits excellently with one another. It has an upbeat nature, which gives the song a happier energy.

4th song: A Winter's Tale by Queen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjWQZBmJf6M

This song is about the good and magical parts of winter and not only the "negative" ones some people believe it has. It is not just about the cold temperature and how plants lose their leaves. The magic of winter is Christmas because so many good things happen. It has a jazzy style to it, with many soft tones and a soft melody.

5th song: Let It Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! By Frank Sinatra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE3uRRFVsmc&t=37s

This song is a personal favorite that reminds me of winter and Christmas. It talks about how the weather during this year's season is lovely, even though it is freezing. It talks about how a chimney's fire gives someone a warm feeling. It is very joyful with an upbeat melody. The instruments make it more enjoyable and make you want to dance. It also talks about how someone can make you feel warm while it is snowing outside.

6th song: Looks Like a Cold Winter by Ingrid Michaelson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl_FZqWv6XY

This song is about the cold weather and how summer is so far away, but the warm fire and someone's love can make it all better. It has a relaxing tone, with many instruments that sound perfectly together. It has a happy melody as well.

[waddapill]

mon, 17/7/23 ☆ 20:37 — in a train. ♡

🎀 i've spent last 10 days at my boyfriend's!!!##! man i love summer so much XPPPP and him!! i luv him!! i told him that yesterday 4the 1st time!!!!! :O (technically 🤓+$+#( i didnt even tell it i just communicated it lol....butz he got the message ^__<). im halfway home only 2 more hours of traveling!!! yippie :'(.......

🎧 i discovered loli in early 20s changed his name to rory in early 20s and i find it hilarious XD;_)$)$?$ i feel like the joke went over many ppls heads but whatever makes yall happy with himmm :####

🎵 also i've been researching roar and the song christmas kids ????!!#!#!# i did not find any new information on the context of the song itself but i did find out phil spector committed a murder (which 4 sum weird reason i did not know lol) so yeahhhh !!!!

📺 ive binged 3 seasons of breaking bad with my boyfriend!!!!!! :DDD its an interesting show i like it so farrrrrrr :333 ! i hope they wont ruin jt in the last 2 seasons because i am expecting the best 2 seasons of the show,,,,;,;,;,; 1st and 2nd seasons were good && interesting in their own ways but i think the 3rd season was the best definitely !!!!! its fast pacing so i like that ab it a lot. i guess u could say dat about s2 as well but idk- i just realllllyyyyyy didnt like the whole airplane crash thing being draged throughout the season... if i was watching when it came out i would've been PISSED >:c anywayzzzz my favorite characters are gus and saul and they make me superrr happy so im looking forward to watch bcs c: !!! my boyfriend told me gus is gay and i am currently trying to figure out if i would've been able to tell or not#### i think the answer is no because i always kind of assumed hes aroace or something??? he doesnt seem like the whole "love" thing fella ¿¿¿ but if i didnt guess that i think i wouldve been able to guess??? if my bf is even telling the truth omg itll be so embarassing if hes not hdhshshsh :'(

🥩 so yeah anyways thats it i thjnk??? ive been sitting in a train for good 30mins writing dis and listening to rory so here's a song i liked :3 #waddasongrecstime B)))

- wadda (17/7/23 ☆ 21:00!!!) 🪽

[papillionsoul]

@foolisharcanum sent an ask! | monday rp memes | no longer accepting!

11, 7, 37, 42, 60 !!!!!!!!

7. What’s the first thing we’d see in your fridge?

Water, cola, sesame oil, Gochujang, Ssamjang, Doenjang, Kimchi, and severed head.

11. Why did you last take a risk and what was it?

going back to rp in tumblr

37. When was the last time someone texted you and what about?

3rd December 1992 it simply said, “Merry Christmas.”

42. Where would you go for a holiday if it was your last chance to on this earth?

I'll just stay at home, to be honest, planning a trip is so tedious and nerve-wracking. I have to plan the whole thing when I can stay at home to die. I do that every day anyway.

60. How do you want to spend your next birthday?

With lots of cash, next to my 90-year-old sugar daddy that I'm about to pull the plug from their life support and inherit my share of all his money