Most Popular Blog Posts, Books, Movies, and Toys of All Time!

I found this kind of interesting. These are the 10 most popular posts on my blog over the last 7 years (The blog is actually 14 years old, but metrics were not recorded all this time)! Orthodox Ecclesiology focused posts are #3, #5, #6, and #10. #1, #2, #4, and #8 are posts about the World. #7 and #9 are posts that I rewrote much better and put on the spin-off blog, Steamies vs. Diesels which reviews Thomas and Friends. And actually, come to think of it, #4 and #8 would better fit on the spun-off blog, How to Get Married in China.... This blog started more Worldly-focused and became more Orthodox Christianity focused over time, so I imagine with time, the rankings of the top posts will change. For instance, this Pascha, #5 just made it on this list, bumping off another popular Orthodox Christian Theological post off the top 10 list.

1. 44,650 Unique Visitors: Sleeping Positions of Married Couples and What They Mean
2. 14,294 Unique Visitors: Tattoos
3. 10,453 Unique Visitors: A Timeline of Church History: Tracing the Birth and Continuity of the Christian Church from Pentecost to the Present
4. 4,993 Unique Visitors: HOW-TO: Get a QQ Number for English Speakers and Mac Users (Updated!)
5. 3,912 Unique Visitors: HOW-TO: Make a Traditional Pascha (Easter) Basket and the Meanings of Each Item
6. 9,910 Unique Visitors: 30 Severely Corrupted Scriptures in the New Living Translation (NLT) Bible
7. 3,432 Unique Visitors: Thomas the Tank Engine and his Racist Friends, "The Steam Team" Part Two: Day of the Diesels
8. 2,950 Unique Visitors: New QQ International Version for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
9. 1,723 Unique Visitors: Thomas the Tank Engine and His Racist Friends, "The Steam Team" Part Four: Misty Island Rescue
10. 1,384 Unique Visitors: My Favorite Orthodox Christian Android Apps (with Links)

What are your top 10 favorite posts on this blog?

Also of interest, the top ten ordered items over the last year via links from my blog to Amazon:

1. 19 people bought the $44 Transformers Platinum Edition Optimus Primal Figure
2. 13 people bought the $12 Transformers Generations Titans Return Titan Master Fracas and Deluxe Class Scourge
3. 10 people bought the $143 Transformers Generations Titans Return Titan Class Fortress Maximus
4. 9 people bought the $20 Transformers Animated: The Complete Series DVD Box Set and the $90 Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Computron Collection Pack
5. 8 people bought the $16 Transformers Japanese Collection: Headmasters DVD Box Set
6. 7 people bought the $1 The Orthodox Church (1963 Version) Paperback Book by Timothy Ware, the $16 Transformers Japanese Collection: Super-God Masterforce DVD Box Set, and the $16 Transformers Japanese Collection: Victory DVD Box Set
7. 6 people bought the $15 American Tall Tales Hardcover Book by Mary Pope Osborne
8. 5 people bought the $7 Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Legends/Legion Class Warpath Figure, the $7 Lionel FasTrack Half Straight Track, and the $7 Lionel FasTrack Full Straight Track
9. 4 people bought the $6 Lionel 1-3/8" Track Section and the $20 Beast Wars Transformers The Complete Series DVD Box Set
10. 3 people bought the $90 Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Computron Collection Pack

You readers really love your Transformers and Trains! 

My Journey Through Orthodoxy

15 years ago, in 1996, my journey began. I was in my searching phase and found a small Ukrainian Orthodox Mission in Lincoln, Nebraska, named after Saint Nicholas of Myra in Lycia.

I did not fully understand it at the time, but this was a breakaway group called the Kiev Patriarchate, in North America this Church was under (deposed ROCOR deacon) Lev Puhalo, now retired bishop Lazar of Ottawa. I just know I was told the other Orthodox churches in Lincoln were in error. The mission was in rented space and presided by a priest who lived in another city, named Father Romano Couch. After time, they were unable to continue travelling to Lincoln, and they moved the mission to their home, where I was unable to go. So I returned to the church of my birth, the Roman Catholic Church, as I could see some of those ancient traditions, I learned of in an old version of The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware, were still being practiced.^[1]

However, I was not spiritually fulfilled in Roman Catholicism. When I found out there was an Eastern Rite of Roman Catholicism, that is where I went. I kept on studying the Church Fathers and the Ecumenical Councils. Eventually I had to make a decision. Would I follow the Church that kept all that the early Church had taught and practiced? It was obvious that only one Church kept these traditions, and being focused on tradition, there was only choice back in 2001: ROCOR: The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. So I joined Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Stratford rather than Three Hierarchs Orthodox Church that was literally a block away from my home! There, my daughter and I were baptized.

My traditionalism increased, fueled in part by my daughter's godmother, a member of the Genuine Greek Orthodox Church. With the talks of ROCOR uniting with the Moscow Patriarchate, ROCOR split in to two, and the ROAC: The Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church, with its origins in the Catacomb Churches of Russia started gaining ground in America. In time, after a move to Colorado, I joined a ROAC parish, Saint Basil of Kineshma Russian Orthodox Church.

In time, while studying via Suzdal Theological Academy, I became a deacon, and even after the temporary temple was abandoned, I kept going with Reader's Services.^[2]

That is, until I ran afoul Bishop Andrei due to my unwillingness to neither be ordained a presbyter nor break my lease and move to a parish in another state. I became a retired deacon in 2007 and quit the ROAC, but was still could not do Reader's Services, as this was an order from my last bishop, Andrei, and I had yet to find a new bishop to go under. So I prayed and prayed and prayed while many bishops offered to receive me, some even wanting to make me a presbyter.^[3]

In between time I was without a church and being I was laity now, I got married, however it was secularly in China. In time, I moved to Pueblo. My work rarely gave me Sundays off, but when they did, I went to Saint Michael the Archangel Orthodox Church. The parish priest told me he would be happy to receive me by confession. I ate dinner with the parish priest, but I never joined, even though the OCA: Orthodox Church of America had greatly improved since the long-needed removal of their ex-Metropolitan Herman and elevation of Metropolitan Jonah. It was a great parish and a properly focused priest, nonetheless. Meanwhile I continued to help the underground Chinese Orthodox Church which remains mostly in the catacombs but associated with the Moscow Patriarchate.

When I moved to Texas for a job opportunity, after long considering my options with fervent prayer, I eventually started visiting local Orthodox Churches. Saint John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church was one I went to, and my wife loved Vespers there, so we attended there for Vespers. The Divine Liturgy there was not what I was used to, being that I was used to Slavic style music, and so thankfully we also had Saint Barbara Orthodox Church a little further away. While eventually I started to confess at Saint John's, it was a long time until we decided to join Saint Barbara's. We had our marriage blessed there and only after my son was Baptized there on his 100th day, I started to commune. The marriage blessing was something that was required before I could commune at either of the Texas parishes.

UPDATE: My journey continues at http://orthodoxscouter.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-continuing-journey-through-orthodoxy.html and then later further at http://orthodoxscouter.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-continuous-journey-through-orthodoxy.html

---

[1] In 2003, when the bishop was accepted in to the OCA, he was accepted as a retired bishop with no teaching faculties, his clergy that came with him were accepted as laity. So that Saint Nicholas Ukrainian Orthodox Church was to merge with Saint John of Krondstadt Orthodox Church in Lincoln.

[2] The pastor, Archpriest Dionysi McGowan, left it to join then-vagante/bishopless Archpriest Spyridon Schneider and then later RTOC's Protopresbyter Victor Melehov in Massachusetts.

[3]I dared to ask him why he re-Baptized a priest who had been ordained in the ROCOR before the ROAC broke from it. A priest who was later defrocked by the GOA for having an affair with a parishioner, then moving in with her. When Vicar Bishop Andrei baptized this priest, then re-Ordained him, this woman was his only parishioner, other than his son. The three of them lived in the same house, so no other TOC would take him due to this, and after he later ran afoul of Bishop Andrei, (Bishop Andrei always has to have an enemy in his midst) no one still would until he found the always-accepting Milan Synod willing, many, many, many years later. Bishop Andrei would end up running everyone out of the ROAC who was a member before he joined!

*Of note, at my ROCOR parish of Saint Nicholas of Myra in Lycia, the younger Matushka said that people leave ROCOR for more traditional jurisdictions and keep going until they end up in the Matthewites, eventually leaving Orthodoxy altogether or ending up in the OCA, because it is "canonical"! I scoffed that anyone born in the Old Calendar ROCOR would join the New Calendar OCA. Of course, at that time, I never thought that the ROCOR would unite with the Moscow Patriarchate and be in communion with the OCA and the rest of "World Orthodoxy"! Thank God for His Mysterious Ways!

So long and thanks for all the fish!

It is time for some changes in my life. I will be making my final (for the foreseeable future) trip to Virginia this weekend and also I am ending this blog. So Salaam, Adiós, Ciao, Adieu, Salut, Auf Wiedersehen, Xaire, Aloha, Arrivederci, Sayonara, Alavidha, Proshyai, Zbogom. I am out of here!

*Turns off the lights and locks the doors for one last time*

Whew! That was tiring!

I just got all of my shopping done for my family, present wise, for the upcoming Nativity season. I like to get it all done before the Nativity Fast, which thankfully for us Orthodox on the Old Calendar in America, starts on Friday, the day after American Thanksgiving! Yay!

Interesting Days!

From Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCHES MOVE TOWARD REUNIFICATION
Archbishop Kirill, head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Foreign Relations Department, announced on 19 November that the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad have reached an agreement in principle on the need to unite the two churches, ORT reported. He said that the two churches, which split in 1917, will issue a canonic decision during their respective Metropolitan councils next year. Archbishop Kirill said there are virtually no areas of disagreement remaining between the two churches, "although there remain psychological divisions generated by the Russian Civil War."

But the official ROCOR and MP statements are a little bit different than this. You can read both of them here.

Yay!

Boycott stops abortion clinic project

Thank you!

Anastasia is back at school, I am back at work. Thank you for your prayers!

Update

Still sick. :-(

Ugh!

A stomach flu bug seems to have infested our house. Hence, the lack of updates. In your compassion, please pray.

Fallen World Update :-(

FCC Approves "F" Word on TV and Radio

The Federal Communications Commission has approved the use of the "F" word for use on any TV show or radio program, ANYTIME DAY OR NIGHT!

The FCC said the word can be used whenever desired except in sexual situations!

That means that real soon you will be watching a sit-com on TV, or news, or any drama or movie-ANY PROGRAM-and it is ok! Hollywood is rejoicing!

Soon, when you are driving your kids to school you will be listening to a song which makes extensive use of the word. Shock jocks such as Howard Stern are now free to use any language, no matter how vile and repugnant, on their radio shows. And use it they will.

No longer will movies shown on TV have to be edited because of language.

Speaking of Interesting Posts ...

According to a post by Lounger at the Euphrosynos Café, Bishop Gabriel has told people that they can only commune at TOC churches and not at JP parishes, except at the Holy Sepulcher. Very interesting!

Step One: Pour Gasoline ...

I posted a link on a few lists toward a post on my board titled, Address to ROCA, by Bishop Gregory in order to promote discussion there. (And as Lounger says, maybe they will buy some of the Nativity ornaments we have for sale in the Cafe store! LOL!) Somehow I think this may be like pouring gas on the floor and sending in a bunch of people with matches in to see how quick it turns in to a flame war. LOL! Ought to be interesting!

Top Ten Science Scams

So-called scientific "truths" are sometimes nothing more than science fiction. Read the list at The Guardian about scientists who fooled the world with their lies.

Round Foreheads

I remember that during the summer after I graduated from high school, my favorite movie was Pump Up the Volume. Of course part of that reason was the beautiful costarring actress, Samantha Mathis. I remember someone once asked me why I found her attractive and it seems to be a reason that hold until this day. She was not only pale (I have always preferred alabaster skin to any sort of tan) but also had a round forehead, which I find appealing. The only think she did not have going for her was platinum blonde hair. (I guess I just do not like pigment in girls, LOL!)

I never cared for flat foreheads and always liked them round. Looking back it was probably from my high school years of dating punk/new wave girls that had various shaved hairstyles and one would see how the forehead matched with the flow of the entire head.

Although it is hard to tell from the pictures below, this gives you an idea of what Samantha Mathis' somewhat round forehead looks like:

Let it blow, let it blow, let it blow!

I do not know how many leaf storms I drove through today. There were trees signs down all over the place today. Sustaining winds of 30-40 mph with gusts of 60 mph! What a day to be traveling all over this windblown state!

Sorry ...

No additional entries today. Too busy! :-(

Wow! Look at that economy grow!

Unemployment down, sales up in almost every sector, every report in the last 3 weeks shows the economy growing more than expected. Can the liberals and other Bush-haters continue to spin that the economy is in trouble? Looks like we are well on our way out of the Clinton economical mess. Yay!

Veterans Day

We salute you veterans. Thank you for serving and protecting our country and our freedoms. We all owe you.

Miracle or Medical Mistake?

Child pronounced dead, later revived

Forty minutes after a toddler found face down in a swimming pool was declared dead at a hospital, a police investigator examining the body noticed the little girl was breathing. Doctors who rushed to the room Friday were able to revive 20-month-old Mackayala Jespersen, and Saturday morning, the little girl was in critical condition but alive, Sgt. Sean Fares said.

Hypocrite!

“They used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff,” Jessica Lynch said in an interview. “It hurt in a way,” she said.

       She also said there was no reason for her rescue from an Iraqi hospital to be filmed. “It’s wrong,” she said.

Of course she says this all while appearing on various interview shows, shilling her new book and made-for-TV movie. If it was wrong for the military to do this, and I do not agree with Lynch here, then it is even more wrong for her to capitalize on the military's so-called exploitation of her!