Vocab: inane

Kathy’s Word of the Week 2019-11-25

Weekly Brain Food brought to you by our VP of HR

inane

Pronunciation:
ih-neyn

Definition:
silly; stupid.

As used in a sentence:
Don’t constantly badger people with inane questions!

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Geerhardus Vos

Yesterday, I went to Calvary OPC for their 2019 Theology Seminar, thanks to Pastor Tim of my new church: Grace OPC.

The conference speaker was no other than Danny Olinger, the author of Vos' biography.

It started at 9:3am with light breakfast, ended a little before 3pm, after 3 1-hour-long sessions of talk with an hour of lunch break (chicken nuggets finished the quickest), and ended with Q&A.

Here's my takeaway:

B. B. Warfield passed away in front of Vos' house.

Vos was not definitely not a social person. More of a nerd. Surpassed his own professors at Calvin Theological Seminary within a month and asked to be professor within a year. Good memory (like Vern Poythress), good linguistic skill.

Vos would not have left Grand Rapids, due to being a mama's boy. He moved to Princeton because of romance. Met and married Catherine Smith (Author of the famous Children/Child's Story Bible), who was a librarian there at Princeton. 2 Problems: She speaks no Dutch, Vos' mother speaks no English. She's also a Methodist. Hence Vos moved away from Grand Rapids.

I thought Vos would have some take on the though recent debate on Christocentric vs Christotelic-only views, due to his Biblical Theology (Basically the organic theology of the Bible by means of chronology, as apposed to systematic theology = the categorization of biblical doctrine from the Bible as a whole), but it may not be the case, according to the theologians we have today. And the Karl Barth vs Van Til debate, Vos is considered too far in the generation gap to be involved in. Though Olinger suggested that Vos would be backing his best student Van Til 100%.

Vos' focus was on Westminster's Standards, Chapter 7. Also, the reformed view: Should Adam and Eve passed their probation, they would have enjoyed the full presence of God instead of the coming and going of God.

Though Vos sided with OPC, he remained in Princeton when asked by Machen to join WTS. Thus, he's not well known among the reformed. Also, when he lost to the liberals when he tried to prevent Princeton from changing the Westminster Standards, he withdrew from public, possibly due to loneliness at the time because his best friends were gone (Warfield, etc.)

Possible reasons Vos didn't go to WTS:
- No $$$ (I would lose his Princeton pension)
- Wanted to keep Princeton on a straight path (according to Vos' daugther, Marianne)

Vos grew up with Herman Bavinck.

Anti-Fred Rogers community. Such is the reformed community. Perhaps a difference in emphasis on God's works vs. men's.

Last Presbyterian presidents of U.S.: Teddy Roosevelt -> Woodrow Wilson.

Vos saw right through Wilhelm Herrmann's theology, but Machen loved Herrmann at first in Germany.

Geerhardus Vos & J Greesham Machen were contemporary of each other. They were friends with Woodrow Wilson, professor/president of Princeton who later became the President of U.S. who's very Left, brought about the League of Nations (seen as the heretical social gospel movement).

One has to wonder, as a ruling elder of a Presbyterian church and a president of the United States, how would one go about the separation of Church and State?

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Gospel Tracts in halloween 2019

Halloween's coming...time to do this: http://www.freecartoontract.com/getting-it-printed/

Would be the first time in my new NJ neighborhood. First time since we moved to South Amboy.

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Andrew Brunson

After listening to the Mefferd's podcast interview with the missionary who was imprisoned in Turkey and was released thanks to Trump's administration, I have just one thought...

I'm not interested in boot camp survivors.

This is what most American missionaries are about these days, a "self-finding" journey. Speaking of which, I would suggest Anasazi, by the Mormons.

When a Western missionary dares to say to his government, please don't release me, or to those who pray for him: please pray for the souls here instead, then will I pay attention. Otherwise, I would rather hang out with the Mormons. At least the Mormon missionaries knew what they are getting themselves into, though as misguided as they may be.

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Vocabulary: onomatopoeia

Kathy’s Word of the Week (10/14/2019)

Weekly Brain Food brought to you by our VP of HR

onomatopoeia

Pronunciation:
on-uh-mat-uhpee-uh

Definition:
the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (such as buzz, hiss)

As used in a sentence:
The term hiccup is an example of onomatopoeia.

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Reset Quick Access/Recent Files in Windows 10

This caused some files not able to be removed or added in the Recent Files/Quick Access section in File Explorer.

Solution:
Run cmd as admin:

del /F /Q %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\*
del /F /Q %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations\*
rem del /F /Q %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations\*
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
start explorer.exe

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The Cruise: Holland America Cruise Line - Oosterdam

I'm typing this on the second night of the cruise, on the aft (observation/Excursion center) of Deck 10, at 10:56PM PST, on 9/16/2019.

Deck basically means floor. Nadia and I are in room 4070, that is on the 4th level, while my parents in room 8022 and her family in room 8024.

We'll be adjusting the clock 1 hour back at 2am, for Alaskan time, as we head for Juneau.

I can feel some waves on the boat. There's no storm, just perhaps that time of the year, or this may be a normal thing, I have no frame of reference, this is my first cruise. We are currently around the North-West of Graham Island as I type this.

We may have missed our first night's open seating dinner. But no matter, at least we know how the Lido deck's (9th floor) dinner was like.

Now here's a brief, belated journal about our trip:

- 9/14 (Saturday), Nadia, Willy and their parents and I woke around 3-3:30 am, packed and drive to one of Nadia's co-worker's neighborhood in Queens, parked at no street cleaning lot after dropping off Willy and the parents at JFK. Nadia and I then took Lyft ($20 including tips), 10 min ride, to the airport.

With Alaskan Airline, we flew about 6 hours to SeaTec airport, where we met up with my parents. Walked from the airport for about 7 minutes to Sharps Roasthouse, at around $100+ for 7 people. Then we walked another 10 mins to our Hotel - Aloft, which was built last year. Great rooms, great free shuttle service to nearby restaurants and actually even the airport which we didn't know to use. Though we wouldn't have walked to the Roasthouse restaurant, an experience I prefer myself. Free coffee/tea and lemon/orange water.

Nadia tried to walk with me but after 7-11, she gave up. I walked around at Angle Lake while everyone was sleeping. Great lake view. We then ate dinner at the Silver Dollar Casino. Interesting place where on one side, there are people gambling in this smaller than the normal casino size restaurant, on the other side, there's this Mexican focused restaurant. I had asked for menu, but it was later when we were there that me and my dad realized there's also Chinese menu, seeing another table of Chinese eating their special "Hot Pots". We ordered two (seafood & beef/chicken) and it was delicious and very feeling. My dad loved it. We ate some mooncake before turning in for the night. We all slept from around 10:30PM to 6:30AM, a satisfying 7-8 hours sleep.

9/15 Sunday: We ate downstairs at ALoft. Regular American breakfast ($7 for egg, bacon, fries) Classic was what I ate. We played pool after that in the lobby. Then it was time to check out at 10:30AM. We were going to order 2x Uber/Lyft, due to the number of people and some sharp taxi driver tried to get our business, so for a fair price, we bargained down from $15/head to $70, which was around Uber's cost.

We arrived at our Oosterdam ship after passing and realizing how much bigger Norwegian Cruise where an European looking couple were dropped off from our van first. Piers 66. We are Piers 91.

The Cruise's check in process was rather fresh and grand to me. Instead of being treated like a criminal as if in the airport customs, the security for the Cruise was great, everyone, there was even one lady emphasized that "we are the customers they serve!" We tagged our luggage with the provided room numbered tags and have them scanned and delivered to our rooms as we continued through the check in process. The line was not but getting longer at around 11:40AM.

The process reminded me of a dream that I did not get a chance to enter into this journal. It was a dream perhaps a couple of weeks ago: Nadia and I were walking under the subway bridge and I saw very high Tsunami type waves heading our way from the other side of the overhead subway line. As we tried to escape, it was as if Solomon Page has prepared for all its employee a rather luxurious underground shelter. As we went through a secret passage through a rock seated in a park (I had to push and pull a disc-like latch in order to turn it to unlock and open a hatch) there underground shelter was just WOW, it was like an huge shopping mall made of glass walls everywhere. And as Nadia tried to show me our room, I woke up not finding our room. It's very likely the anticipation of the cruise caused me this dream. And the check in process environment was just about like my dream.

They took the parents' passports, which they promised to return before Victoria on Saturday. We ate lunch on the 9th floor (Lido) of the ship at around 1PM after checking into our rooms (4070-partial view for Nadia and I, 8020-balcony for Willy and his parents, 8022-balcony for my parents) where the luggage are still coming in. Great buffet. Ship started to depart around 4pm. It was a moment to remember as I see it from my parents' balcony from inside the room. Bought the $99, 300MB per day, 7 day wifi internet via the Holland America Navigator app, which has everything you need to know about the ship, including daily schedules.

I went to some Wild-Life talk in the evening with my dad as we came across it on deck 10. Dad and I walked around the top of the boat, discovering basket ball court on deck 11 or so as well as where to walk around the boat outside on the top floors.

Ate dinner still at the Lido, while we actually could have made reservation at the main dinning area on deck 2. The open seating that we had included in our fares.

I walked around the ship myself at night. Amazed from top to bottom. The Main Stage is a 3 floor (decks 1 - 3) opera style theater hall where they were playing Avengers Endgame at the time. I walked outside on Deck 3 as well as Deck 9's open Aft area. Great full moon casting amazing reflection on the waters.

9/16 - Monday: We woke up for dolphin watching and breakfast around 7AM. Saw the Sunrise while eating. Nadia's sea sickness returned since last night's dinner. Without Nadia and her parents, the rest of us went for the dolphin/whale watch at 8:30AM, first at the starboard, then at the captain's broadcast, we also saw some whales possibly breaching from afar off.

After that, dad, Willy and I went to book some excursion for next day. We wanted the Mendenhall Glacier. We booked a $99/person at first, which included salmon hatchery tour. That was because the lady at the desk told us that the rest were sold out. But when I asked another again later, the other lady told me that the other related excursion spots just got expanded and I immediately switched our 3 tickets to 7 $45/person Mendenhall Glacier Explorer package. This way we all get to enjoy the glacier together, after all, all these glacier hike/tour are very similar to each other.

Then it was lunch at Lido again. Then dad and I went to the Microsoft Studio workshop on OneNote at 3:30pm while mom passed up the Lincoln Center concert at 3pm for a sleep. Dad downloaded all 12-13 lessons from the lecturer via usb, as suggested.

Dad had some ulcer, gave him Watermelon powder. Ate great dinner at main dinning at 5:15pm reservation. Nadia couldn't finish her rissotoLost my keycard, had Guest Services at Deck 1 printed me one immediately, great service! Dad and mom enjoyed Lincoln Center concert at 8pm with good seating. Willy, his mom and I went for the 9pm magic show by Jessica Janes.

Now that I'm nearing finish and getting very sleepy. We made the second formal dinner reservation for Friday where we were told there will be lobsters. Our waiter host was Wishnu, an Indonesian who was overjoyed finding Indonesian comrades among us. He gave us some extra, such as the lamb racks. He did much to keep us entertained as well as well served. I shall stop here and return downstairs to sleep after hopefully doing some study about glaciers with my CUNY geology textbook.

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Hong Kong Protest 2019 Explained

Good one by Geography Now:

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Vocab: Peripatetic

Kathy’s Word of the Week

Weekly Brain Food brought to you by our VP of HR

peripatetic

Pronunciation:
per-uh-puh-tet-ik

Definition:
traveling from place to place, in particular working or based in various places for relatively short periods

As used in a sentence:
The peripatetic nature of military life.

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Vocab: 大失妇德

Loosing feminine virtue

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