Scripture on Trinity - by Stephen Tong

Shown in Hebrews 1:8-9

喜爱公义,恨恶罪恶的上帝是圣子

用喜乐油膏(Acts 10:38)你 - 喜乐油就是圣灵。

上帝用上帝来膏上帝:圣父上帝,用圣灵上帝,来膏圣子上帝

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Journal of the Week

3/27/2024 quick exercises for those working in front of a computer.

3/25/2024 Free courses on AI by NVIDIA

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Visiting Detroit, Michigan: 3/21 (Thu) - 3/25 (Mon)

Since Nadia is away, what better opportunity to visit places I would go but not her. A quick search last week showed good airline deals for Louisiana and Detroit. I think I lost the Louisiana deal very quickly so it was only Detroit, for $85. But then jetcost.com took me to other agency that didn't seem to have much reputation, so my fingers were crossed. Detroit's also introduced by Scott's Cheap Flights (AKA Going), a periodic newsletter I received in my emails.

First it was cheapeticket.com, I calling (855-311-0044) to confirm my booking from jetcost.com. Nobody picked up.

Chinese areas in Detroit: Troy, Madison Heights (Vietnamese), Novi (Japanese, also seems the safest), Ann Arbor, Canton, and seemingly less popular one is Warren.

Some fun facts: Matt from church, who had lived in Ann Arbor, MI for a couple years, suggested me to visit the beautiful University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He also mentioned the fast way to cross the river border into Canada was something called the FAST Card: Which is something specific to Canada & US only. Application's $50, takes 1-8 weeks to be approved conditionally, valid for 5 years (just like another Trusted Traveler Program called NEXUS), so really not for me as I'm not going to spend $50 every 5 years just for the sake of easy entry into Canada perhaps once every 2-3 years. Turns out there were 5 TTP different prices from $50 to $122.25, all valid for 5 years. Some Credit Cards offer to pay for your TTP but they also do come with high annual fee. For example: Bank of America's Premium Rewards would pay for TSA PreCheck/Global Entry, and like Travel Rewards card, it waved foreign transaction fees, but the card itself is $95 annually.

Because Detroit is now infamous for being the most dangerous city in the States, many seemed worry. But this is just like all the news you heard in NYC and California. I think most of them at church, with a few exception, were just being sissy.

After booking the flight, I learned and set these as top priority from top to bottom:
Museums: Detroit Institute of Arts, Henry Ford Museum
Sceneries: Detroit River, Belle Isle, crossing to Windsor, Canada.
Neighborhoods: Basically as many Asian ones as I could. The Japanese town Novi is rather far 2hrs bus, so I don't know about that, unless I take 24mins Uber. But I should at least visit University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on Friday and Troy on Sunday church service, I am leaning towards selecting Chinese church, since there doesn't seem to be many reformed churches around.
Parks: Campus Martius Park (seems to be the major city park), Detroit Zoo? Sea Life Michigan Aquarium? (further than Troy from Downtown, I'll probably just pick the Zoo instead if I ever consider either)

I decided to ditch the idea of renting a car, seeing how high the crime rate in Detroit is these days. Yes, I can get paranoid too. Though Novi and Dearborn's crime rates are vast different. Therefore, no Grand Rapids tour this time. Even with Greyhound, it will take 4 hours one way (2 hrs with car) and the only good time to do this would be on Sunday, which I would have no way back to Detroit without a car for my Monday early morning flight. So, visiting my fellow URCNA and other Dutch Reformed buddies would have to be postponed. Am definitely still eager to go visit Calvin College and Joel Beeke's Heritage Reformed Congregation which also hosted Chinese Congregation under Rev. Simon Yin.

For hotels, I decided to stay close to the airport the night I arrived (8pm) on Thursday: Howard Johnson By Wyndham Romulus Detroit Metro Airport $64.25/night. Should be walking distance. The next hotel for two nights would be higher class, more secure in the middle of Detroit: The Gabriel Richard $294.10/2 nights. And the last night (Sunday) I am still contemplating sleeping at the airport (I'll know when I arrive) or find another hotel near the Airport.

I think I should bring my drone, if it fits. Spirit Airline seems strict on their free personal item size.

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Chee Cheong Fun Sauce Recipe

These 5 ingredients seem to work well:

  1. Peanut butter
  2. Soy sauce
  3. small dab of sesame oil
  4. fish sauce
  5. oyster sauce

sprinkle the whole thing with fried shallots.

Source:
https://mylovelyrecipes.com/recipes/chinese-cuisine/chee-cheong-fun/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHFkdGCHMQU

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Stephen Tong on Biblical Calling of God

It seems that the 3 pointers Tong used to give were not recorded by me. And since last Sunday School's topic is on the Will of God, I should really write this down which was way overdue.

The 3 verses that Tong used to discern if one is called by God full time ministry (Thanks to this source for helping me recollect the verses):

Philippians 2:13 - God placed the burden in our hearts.
Colossians 3:15 - Having no peace in Christ in our status quo.
Hebrews 12:6 - God's final discipline comes to those who's still trying to escape.

Of course, I may not interpret this as "FULL TIME" ministry. Though I can agree it tends to lean towards "FULL TIME". Because of that, it is important one should not find excuse to be part time, especially as a citizen of a country where the living standards already could afford such. I'm no citizen of this country, so I do not see this apply to me. I am mere pilgrim even in U.S. contrasting the pilgrim citizens here. However, I also do not liken myself to David Tong's definition of pilgrim, that somehow I should go back to Malaysia/Indonesia to serve. For David Tong's definition of pilgrimage, I view it from the aspect of being a Chinese. Thus it is culturally, not geographically.

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Humming Birds in South Amboy

So I asked around on FB. It turns out this is possible. Possibly in May. Make your own sugar water as opposed to Home Depot/Walmart brands. Change water every week (or everyday per some). Plant red & orange flowers.

Suggested plants:

Red Trumpet Vine (Scarlet trumpet honeysuckle/Honeysuckle?)
Petunias
Zinnia (or other butterfly plants)
Hibiscus
Beard Tongue
Bee Balm
Butterfly Bush
Catmint
Clove pink
Columbine
Coral Bells
Daylily
Larkspur
Foxglove
Summer Phlox
Red-hot poker
Lantana

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Critiquing Josh McDowell's Evidence That Demands a Verdict

Stephen Tong criticized heavily Josh McDowell's book: Evidence That Demands a Verdict (铁证待判) - evidential apologetics vs. presuppositional apologetics. Same kind of criticism by all Pressup folks like Sye Ten Bruggencate, Van Til, etc. God judges you, you don't judge God (whether he exists or not):

Tong: Great book, but totally wrong in apologetics methodology: Lots of great content, but these student ministry folks think that they did well in their ministries without deep training in God's Word against culture, without clarity of the ground and battle they stepped into.

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Cheap Flights for Travel

https://us.jetcost.com/en: lots of controls to filter out what you need at low rates.

https://www.airfarewatchdog.com/: publishes great deals but you must depend on their selection of places and times.

Posted in Geography, Travel | Leave a comment

Journal of the Week

3/21/2024 NYC perverted law: If squatters lived for 30 days in a house, they are legal residence of the house, the owner who reported them gets herself arrested:

3/20/2024 Receiving Godaddy's Hosting Renewal email reminder $119.88/year for Web Hosting Economy plan, caused me to consider a cheaper alternative. IONOS seems to be a good candidate with only $1/month. At least some think so. The only concern I have is the transition process. Once the move is figured out, I really don't mind going for $12/year instead of $120/year. I may not have time to do it this year, due to the Detroit trip, so I'll look into this hopefully next year.

3/18/2024 Fun take against very interesting interview of Elon Musk on the Don Lemon's Show, regarding Censorship of Free Speech vs. Ethics.
My responses were #1. Theoretical. #2. by examples.
#1. Theoretical:
Both Musk and Lemon are seriously flawed on this.
Ethics on Musk's part (祭司功能的堕落): If it's unethical but legal, it's okay?
Definitions on Lemon's part (先知功能的堕落): Why can't definitions of things be challenged?

#2. Example:
To Mask: So if child-porn is legal, you wouldn't take it down?
To Lemonade: Why should I take down hate speech if I could easily destroy it?

3/16/2024 toysbynature.com While Nadia is away in Indonesia the 2nd time by herself, I went and bought a $3 mini flytrap plant (Venus fly trap: Dionaea muscipula) from Hobby Lobby on Rt. 35. Along with other science "toys" (Galileo Thermometer, Spin drops, Color Mix drop, Hand boiler, black light LED flashlight), all averaging around $5. The flytrap plant came with like 3 seeds, origin allegedly from bogs and swamps of North & South Carolina, seeder method is basically under Sun in enclosed greenhouse moist environment. Hope to see result in 1-3 months as promised by label.

Also, I bought 2 Betta fish (Male & Female Veiltail) from Pet Smart which was next to Hobby Lobby.

3/13/2024 Looks like this is hot now in Queens, Roosevelt Ave. between between 82nd and 103rd Streets, selling fake Green Card and SSN. If I could get these for mere $80-$200, I could use them for security (let the thieves steal my fake ones).

Interesting thing to learn about Tokyo from Taiwanese's aspect:

3/12/2024 Because of this TikTok vs. U.S. battle, I've decided to invest some of Nadia's IRA into stocks that depended on TikTok (since TokTok has no IPO): i.e. KKR. I should start looking into some stocks now that the election is coming. I'm turning into this area of investment after my mother reminded me about the recent rise of Bitcoin at $70+k.

I just realized that I could save $15 from T-Mobile autopay if I pay with a bank account or debit card. I think I may have used a debit card before but I've forgotten this discount deal and switched it to a credit card. Now back to DC.

Posted in Economics, Mathematics, News | Leave a comment

Learning Next.js

This seems to be a very popular framework of REACT, which is not really a framework but a JS library. To learn NEXTJS, one also must come across node.js.

Other than youtube tutorials, the official learning site is this: https://nextjs.org/learn

Projects for meaningful contributions

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