Author: Chris M. Day

I'm almost 59 years old. I've been online for 33 years - starting with my own dial-up bulletin board system in 1993 - and continuing with AOL, my own dot.com web site, Myspace, WordPress, Twitter / X, Flickr, and Facebook.

Categories
1980s Blogging Music Radio Travel

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1987

Every Friday I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 25, 30, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 4TH Friday of the month, so I go back 35 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday March 01ST 1987:

  1. “Live It Up” – Mental As Anything
  2. “I Get The Sweetest Feeling” – Jackie Wilson
  3. “Skin Trade” – Duran Duran
  4. “Coming Around Again” – Carly Simon

Last week on #RetroFriday I hinted at a long-running Australian band who scored a # 1 smash on my chart that is one of my favorite songs of all-time that I still hear nearly every day on my iPod Shuffles that play at my desk at my workplace. And I sing along to it every day. And I’ve probably played it more times than any other American, as it’s a virtual unknown song here in the U.S.A.

That would be Mental As Anything’s “Live It Up” – their biggest hit ever. It was an International pop smash in Australia / New Zealand and Europe – reaching # 3 on the U.K. pop chart. I absolutely love this song 35 years later. It still sounds as fresh as it did back in 1987 when I was a late-teenager (not quite 20 yet) living it up in England.

Here’s the band from their iconic Thursday February 26TH 1987 LIVE performance on BBC-1’s “Top Of The Pops”:

Next #RetroFriday I’ll go back 15 years ago to March 2007. It’s when a guy from my former hometown scored his first # 1 smash on my chart. His second # 1 smash would come 10 years later and help resurrect my weekly hit music chart after a 7-year hiatus.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going retro with me !

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Food Photography Travel

My Carnival Liberty Vacation 2022

And now Week 6 of my 7-week series on my 8-day fun-filled vacation on the Carnival Liberty out of Miami Florida.

If you missed any of the previous weeks of this series then you can click here: Week 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5. (If you missed all of them then start with Week 1 and work your way forward.)

As I’ve mentioned previously I’ve been on Carnival (15 cruises), NCL (6), Royal Caribbean (once), and Disney (once). All of these cruise lines specialize in something different. Carnival has the best (and most) fun activities for all ages from early in the morning until late at night. NCL has the best professional entertainment at sea. Royal Caribbean has the best innovations that you won’t see on any other cruise line. Disney has the best food, and surprisingly I had some fun at the dance club late-night on my one Disney cruise (in 2018).

My favorite cruise line (by far) is Carnival, as I enjoy all of the fun activities at sea. Carnival has a reputation of being the “Walmart” of cruises. Hey – I like Walmart. You get a good deal for your money at both. If you want to go on a fancy cruise ship then don’t go on Carnival, and you can pay three times the amount for your cruise.

Carnival also has a reputation of being filled with drunken college kids running rampant. Yeah – maybe if you go in March or April – which I would never do. My 2ND week of January cruise had very few kids on it, and not too many in their 20s or 30s either. In fact – as a near-55-year-old – I think a little more than half of the cruisers were older than me. Go in March, April, June, July, or August, and meet a different demographic. January is a fantastic time to take a cruise (for me anyway), as it’s back-to-work and back-to-school for most people.

Carnival is not really known for their spectacular food quality, but I enjoy eating a lot of good food onboard. It’s certainly better than anything that I can get here in my hometown. Most of the food on Carnival is free (part of the overall cruise price). On my cruise I actually did eat at both of the “upcharge” places a couple of times each. Their steakhouse cost $38 (all-inclusive). You get a lot of food there – HUGE portions – and it really is the best food on the entire cruise ship.

I was assigned a 6 PM (early) seating at a large table in one of the two main dining rooms. I ate there 5 out of 8 nights. As Carnival typically does when you’re a solo cruiser (like myself) I was seated with other solo cruisers in my age group (which turned out to be 50s, 60s, and 70s). I enjoyed the company of each and every one of them, and we got along great as dinner companions. We ate. We talked. We laughed. We looked forward to seeing each other each night at 6 PM.

I ate a lot of good food on my cruise, and I did a lot of walking around the ship and in the 3 ports-of-call in an attempt to burn off a bunch of those calories. I typically eat twice as much food – (OK maybe even more than that) – than I do back on land at home and at work. Of course I also get more exercise walking on cruises (and on vacations in general) than I do during my normal everyday routine.

Next #TravelThursday – the journey concludes as I reveal my next cruise (already booked). I’ll also reveal my next vacation (on land) which will be much closer to home.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Holidays Ministry Music Radio Scripture

My Top 10 Hits – Week 262

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from the previous week. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back 40+ years. Here’s this week’s chart:

#TOP10MONDAY WEEK ENDING – SUNDAY FEBRUARY 20TH 2022 WEEK 262
TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 15 Weary Traveler
[10TH week @ # 1]		 Jordan St. Cyr
2 2 11 Jesus Is Coming Back Jordan Feliz Ft. Mandisa & Jonathan Traylor
3 4 20 Come What May We Are Messengers
4 7 4 Brighter Days Blessing Offor
5 5 4 See Me Through It Brandon Heath
6 6 4 Holy Spirit Come Patrick Mayberry
7 3 7 River Of Life Mac Powell
8 8 8 Walking Free Micah Tyler
9 10 2 Sunday Sermons Anne Wilson
10 – 1 In Jesus Name (God Of Possible) Katy Nichole

# 1 This Week In:
2021 – “Every Step Of The Way” – Cade Thompson
2020 – “Almost Home” – MercyMe
2019 – “Maybe It’s OK” – We Are Messengers
2018 – “Gracefully Broken” – Matt Redman Ft. Tasha Cobbs Leonard
2017 – “Love Broke Thru” – TobyMac

HAPPY 5TH ANNIVERSARY TO K-LOVE ! – It’s Presidents’ Day here in the U.S.A. – a federal holiday where we honor George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and all of our U.S. Presidents past and present. For me Presidents’ Day holds a special meaning. It was on this holiday in 2017 that I discovered the existence of K-LOVE. I was on a 7-day road-trip vacation up to the Florida Panhandle and back, and I was listening to some great Christian pop music on various radio stations along the way. I was praying for such a radio station in South Florida that I could listen to back home. After doing just a little bit of research online in my hotel room in Bartow Florida on the final night of my road-trip I realized that such a radio station already existed in South Florida. In fact it was broadcasting at 100,000 watts from a longtime 1,000-foot transmitter that I could actually see from my neighborhood 5 miles away. I began picking-up K-LOVE from over 100 miles away on my drive home the day after Presidents’ Day. I’ve been listening ever since. My personal hit music chart was resurrected that weekend after a 7-year hiatus. God gave me K-LOVE 10½ years into my salvation, and my fantastic journey was rejuvenated.

This blog is # 36 worldwide on the Top 80 Christian Music Blogs and Websites chart. Thank You for including us Feedspot !

This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again this upcoming weekend – with 4 new entries on Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday. I don’t blog on Saturdays. That’s my day of rest.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. I’m also on Twitter and Flickr.

Be blessed my friends !  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday February 20TH 2022, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ.

This is my 800TH blog post since my great social media revival of January 2018. When I posted my last blog on Facebook on December 31ST 2017 I thought that would be the end. 15 days later I returned to the scene of my most successful platform – WordPress. This is where I had previously published 1,321 blog posts starting at the end of 2007. (I published 310+ blog posts before that on Myspace.)

My blog has thankfully evolved over the years. It’s in a stable and steady state now. You can count on 200+ blog posts per year. That’s 4 per week (sometimes 5). Occasionally I take a short hiatus. (There’s one coming up soon.)

#TravelThursday continues to gain in momentum and soar in views as the kickoff of each new weekend of blogging. #RetroFriday is always fun to write, and it’s a fun read each week. This is #SundayScripture where I share with you the God I know – the 3-in-1 God – Creator, Christ, + Spirit. And then there’s #Top10Monday – my personal Top 10 hits that glorify our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ.

If you wish to learn more about the God I know then stay tuned to #SundayScripture. The best is yet to come !

Thank you for reading my blog for this day, and may:

The LORD bless you, and keep you.
The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp