8/3/2024 So the bathtub overflow cap broke off upstairs when Nadia was doing some cleaning. Apparently there are various overflow pipe, found this diagram from Amazon, red check is the one we have upstairs, I guess it corresponds with BIG-3SHO, but problem is, the screw is broken in the screw hole and I have no clue how the broken piece in there looks like the screw came from the other side in as the broken side seems sharp and well threaded, was it modified by whoever trying to repair this before?:
This company (BlueVue) sells all kinds of gaskets/brackets for the tub overflow.
I really hope I won't need to drill extra holes.
Step one: Try extraction of the broken screw.
Stephen Tong on where the Apocrypha came from: (from the great historical afflictions of the Jews in the 400 years between OT & NT where there's no prophets) Wikipedia dated them to 200BC - 100AD.
Stephen Tong on Jewish Christology: Unlike others, Tong would not deny the Jews of believing the right Messiah/Christology. That they are not completely wrong about their version of Messiah, because it is biblical. However, what they got wrong is the process 程序 of Christology.
The Procedure/Order of Christ that was lacking among the Jews:
先受苦，后得荣耀；
先死，后复活；
先降卑，后得尊贵；
Why Jews cannot accept Christ: They only accept the glorified Christ, not the suffering Christ.
Therefore: Masada became a stumbling block for Jews to believe Jesus is the Messiah? "Never Masada/shame again!"
8/2/2024 The Gender issue has finally come to the Paris Olympics when XY-chromosome (male) Imane Khelif of Algeria easily won the women's boxing match. Khelif had been barred before in Algeria but IOC (International Olympic Committee) allowed "her" to compete as a female, since "her" passport and birth certificate indicated female, in spite of chromosome test showing XY, instead of XX. "She" was treated as female since birth because of underdeveloped penis deformity that made it looked like a vagina. I was brought to this news from David Tong's FB and it interested me to look it up. Based on these facts, this is clearly a rare birth deformity that would label him as an intersex or even hermaphrodite. However, in sports where there's clear distinction of male and female because of genetical differences/advantage, it should at least be genetical based. I suppose sports is where the most foundational basis of gender is clearly defined today.
Alex Tseng & David Tong had some interesting exchanges on this topic: A, D.
AI that splits voice and instrument. I think I stumbled upon it in Facebook or something but I can't remember the name of that AI. However, a quick google search lists a few: https://www.lalal.ai/ which I tested using Mozart's Magic Flute Queen of the Night aria, and it was 90% impressive. I do not doubt that unlike the extraordinary piece written for soprano, most songs can easily be split by this technology now. I'm very eagerly awaiting the split between lecturer and translator, that would really reduce lots of Stephen Tong's lectures/sermons by half as I really do not need to listen to the Cantonese/English translations.
Selective Perception, good phrase to remember as vocabulary. Tong used it on the Jews' view towards Jesus - They cannot accept that "...for the suffering of death..." to be applied to their Messiah:
So I guess Jack Lin was right about curing allergies with gradual dosage of the very thing they are allergic to: Australia is doing this with peanut allergy.
8/1/2024 My comment on our church's Bible study on Proverbs 3, probably verse 19. We were late about 5 mins, they were discussing about how God knows everything, a shallow accounts, as if the pastor worried that there are some whose definition of God is a kind of God that may not know everything: "theories put out as fact", "God doesn't know what's going on with the Bermuda Triangle", etc.
N: "You can't do evolution with science", alluding to the scientific method, which is in itself flawed, because it is only as good as its controls. Already evolution fails even in theory, you don't need experiments to prove it. And then he moved on to strawman arguments against Big Bang, Dark Matter, etc. N then said that these gave science a bad name. I would push back that they don't give science a bad name, because they are not science. That's like saying the Mormons gave Christianity a bad name.
I say shallow because the pastor only went as far as "pursuing the knowledge of the world is a good thing", which is understatement. But more importantly, as Tong would agree with me, not pursuing the knowledge of the world is sinful, it was commanded by God in Genesis, and very clearly in the last chapters of Job. I am not sure if pastor Chris would agree to this one because he's using the excuse with the verse "all in God's time - discoveries, and such".
Then the pastor moved on to suggesting that Solomon did not know how rain drops, not completely wrong. But, to be accurate, I would say we don't know that for sure, whether Solomon knew or not.
@11:10 For verse 24, not sure the need why the pastor divided fear into various aspects: Theological (your soul is secure), Imaginative (considering the what if's), Literal. I think it is unnecessary to do all these if your relationship with God is right. I-Thou, not I-It.
@16:00 Talks of "Universe" in place of God, also shallow. Because they fail to realize that the reason the secular culture gets uncomfortable with the word "God", is lots of time due to fundamentalists' twisting of the meaning God. This does not happen in other cultures that never twisted the word "God" as the Western influenced fundamentalists.
@19:00 Testimony of some miracle was brought up where two girls weren't raped by rapists in the German war as they walked right in front of the rapists as if the rapists were blinded. Patty responded by asking if this was due to the girls have more faith. Pastor refuted that rightly, calling it a form of bargaining. However, I would go as far as saying that, on the contrary, the ones with more faith are usually the ones who do not need such miracles, it is often times, the ones that lack faith, these miracles are given. The pastor fail in this probably due to Charismatics influence in America.
Patty then continued to ask if it's sinful to fear, since Jesus said fear not. I think this question caught the pastor off guard, based on his response. He compared Patty's question to Jesus sweating blood as a kind of "fear", the kind that we "have no control over, due to chemical reaction", which was why N taking further with the error of defining fear with different levels: being shocked/startled = as types of fear as well. The pastor also wrongly assumed that everyone would fear a gun pointed at them, regardless of their faith. But I think this was due to him trying to balance pastoral care, so that people like Patty would not take it too harshly. Dirk was better at bringing Daniel's friends for not being afraid.
There also seeks to be some confusion between fear and being alert. @25:25 when the pastor spoke of using the dread kind of fear in battles as a good thing.
Verse 27 was badly dealt with @27:00. The pastor prefers to treat this as referring to known neighbors rather than strangers. This way of interpretation won't work well in NYC nor in evangelism. He then used the strawman of someone trying to safe the entire continent of Africa. "...to whom it is due..." commentaries and Tim Keller nailed this "due" to the original text meaning that this was owed. So it's far from the direction of the strawman argument.
@30:25 Mary then wrongly thought that only Christians do selfless charity works. A lack of a global knowledge.
@32:15 D suggested that it's better to immediately pray for someone right in front of them when they shared their troubles. I think not everyone would like that, though in most cases, that might work. One needs to assess the motive and true need, lest making vain prayers and thus worse testimony.
@39:40 On verse 29, the shaking dust off the feet was mentioned and Nadia seemed developed an annoyance against it. I think I ought to tell her to focus on the true meaning of "shaking dust off the feet", because the pastor used the verse correctly here: when facing aggressor, just leave, do not engage.
@40:00 B asked about one denomination if all are faithful. The pastor responded "probably". He failed to understand the problem of the One and the Many. But he still answered the denomination question better than most, that there's no way to avoid denomination on this side of glory. I don't think I would use "this side of glory" much in my own talks, it's a western jargon, if not American, which I don't find useful.
@43:00 Eleni got it wrong by quoting union in God as Jesus' intent against denominations. The pastor was at least able to retort that with a quick rebuttal: But there must be organizations, etc. I definitely applaud the pastor for daring to say "I believe other denominations are wrong", though I'm not sure how far I would agree with him on his context. I believe the best way to answer that is just the sound bite: Even the non-denomination is a denomination.
7/31/2024 Alex gave a good critique on Christian criticism of the Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony, depicting either Leonardo DaVinci's Last Supper or The Feast of the Olympus Gods (or of Dionysus, the Greek god of festivities and wine), by Dutch artist Jan van Bijlert. David Tong also shared his own view about it, which is similar to the popular conservative Catholics and evangelicals. Unlike David Tong, who criticized it harsher, Alex tried to find a middle way about it with the Gospel instead of criticism, calling it clothing these naked French with Christ instead of stripping them of their last "fig leave", after Alex presented a history of the why's between Germany (Lutheran influence) and France (hypocrisies of king and pope). I for one just think that the word Olympics already gave a hint, that it was originally to honor the Olympus Greek god Zeus, so why get so upset about it as if the Olympics is a Christian thing. If the art is intentionally mocking Christianity, then there are many more anti-Christian movements to be of our concern. You don't talk to the slaves but the master for any conflicts.
7/30/2024 Running One-man SaaS, Healthchecks.io, 9 Years In: since 2016, now, in 2024, he has 652 paying customers with monthly revenue of $14,043USD. This SaaS monitors cron jobs. He's kind enough to share his experience. I should come up with something as it's good money.
7/26/2024 Stephen Tong on Paradox (反合性), using Christ's dual nature. And also using the paradox of "humility": Are you humble? The more you deny it, the more humble you are - And if you disagree with this statement, you are even more humble.
Chinese Translation of PARADOX that weren't satisfactory by Tong: 吊诡性, 逆反性, 似非而是性 (much better because it's not 似是而非, better, qualitatively speaking):
Also, Tong interestingly brought up Hebrews 2:5 as the proof text that when man lost his place to have dominion over the world, angels were not the one supposed to be in charge.
7/25/2024 FAANG refers to the 5 Big Tech giants: Facebook (Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google (Alphabet). And this forum discusses about benefits being better from FAANG than non-FAANG tech companies. More stable, relaxing as well.
Last week we harvested our sweet corns (bought from the now recently closed down Dieker's Farm on Bordentown Ave.), half were slightly too old. So the lesson is to harvest early in the future, perhaps before July.
7/24/2024 https://stevejobsarchive.com For stuff about Steve Jobs: old videos, etc.
With President Biden stepping down, the table may have turned, despite Trump's near death experience. Vance's rhetoric on foreign diplomacy is shallow at best, especially with the "China slavery" exaggeration as an excuse for tariff. Unfortunately, as much of a clown as Kamala is, her opposition might underestimate her enough to lose to her, if they remain obtuse. I posted this on my FB in response to Kishore Mahbubani's short clip for fun. Mahbubani was the Indian geopolitical commentator my dad introduced me when we were on our way to Koh Lipe last year. I thought he should be a great resource for me from being trapped by American/Western political propaganda.