10/27/2024 So we left for Europe already on Friday 10/25. I shall have a separate entry for Euro trip. However, on this Eurotrip, it seems that my home PC was somehow shut off, disconnected, so I couldn't remote in from abroad.
10/31/2024 It seems that VLC 32-bit cannot play 4k videos. Must upgrade to VLC 64bit.
10/24/2024 I woke up today with an old film in mind, Life is Beautiful (1997). I thought of it because though a great art, it has no allusion to Christ or the true Christian life in it, obviously. So, it is a good point to show some shallow Christians, who love to argue that only Christians know how to enjoy life as if the rest of the world only know pain. This is not the end of the argument, but a means to begin a deeper discussion. I shouldn't even have to make this point, had I not recently hear such shallow talk in church. The Buddhists do charity very well as well. Other religions have selfless contributions as well.
GCC Bible Study on Proverbs 10:11-11:6:
@7:30 The pastor at least acknowledged the general truth of it, not absolutely. "when are they true, when are they maybe not true, when they are maybe abused", [I would fix this so: ...when do they seem not true...]. He just didn't seem to want to use the word "relatively", which is more apt. @9:25 Phil was wrong about not bringing out others' sin out of "grace". @10:25 Fr twisted verse 13 as "don't speak = wisdom". The pastor concluded with Fr on verses 11-13, as "blessed are the peacemakers" in err, perhaps fear of being "politically incorrect" and thus the justification of "don't judge" "don't cause tension" when situations may on the contrary, actually demand them, which would actually be more apt for these verses. @14:00 v.15, the pastor answered Phil shallowly by just calling that verse "just an observation", failing to see the wisdom in verse 15 - alone: i.e. do not focus on your poverty. This is a fail of their discussions for not getting the idea of relativistic knowledge. @21:50 Interesting that E quoted verse 17 using the LSB (John MacArthur's Legacy Standard Bible version): "...he that refuseth reproof erreth" (kjv) vs. "he who forsakes reproof makes himself wander about"(LSB) - there are plenty commentaries on the grammar of either translation. @24:50 pastor: "If you never stop talking, most of what you say is not worth saying" - again a fail in the distinction between absolute and relative. Thus, led to another err in R's response in Job's friends' case. @30:50 P mentioned about our words will be judged, P used his what I think is his erroneous "God will not touch on a believers' sins on judgment day" principle. @39:00 the pastor erroneously defined sluggard/lazy as selfishness. @44:40 Pastor critiquing sarcasm, those who keeps using jokes. I agree, in a funny way, because I think I know who he was talking about in church. @59:30 G asked a good challenge, as politely as he could - "I could come up with something that can counter these verses" - basically the problem of not distinguishing absolute and relative, which this group fails to grasp. I could use Proverbs 26:4 vs. 5 to tackle this issue. I also love the pastor's reaction, basically, don't be sorry G, everyone has these questions, you're just brave enough to ask it.
A note from a prayer, @1:08:00 P mentioned one of her student's "friend"? 6 year old, wants to die and wants the parents to die...I wonder if it's depression or demonic presence.
Reflection: I really need to study ahead before these Bible studies because I was too slow in catching up with their problematic discussion.
10/23/2024 Free books for designers.
So the French also has pig/pork blood in their cuisine, one called Boudin:
10/22/2024 Chinese Vocabulary on the 4 significance of the death of Christ, by Tong:
1. Substitutionary（代替性的死）
2. Redemptive（救贖性的死）
3. Propitiation (挽回性的死)
4. Reconciliation (複合性的死)
10/21/2024 What is Senior Software Engineer? I guess I'm not the only one who sees that today, developers are being labeled "senior" with minimal experience. The bureaucracy of big tech companies conveniently allows promotion for entry level programmers based on time of employment, rather than skills. I suppose this is what Jesus commanded about using unrighteous mammon (Luke 16): Not being like those parasites myself, but to exploit these loopholes for me to do better things.
Came across this link about Reformation Sites to visit in Europe. Mostly German sites. Rick Steves, famous travel guide, is apparently a member of a Lutheran church.
10/20/2024 Sunday School a pause on Gurnall's book on Armor of God, we talked about a Refresher Lesson on Understanding the law - Ceremonial, Judicial & Moral.
@22:00 On slavery, the pastor tried to justify Christian view of true slavery using Philemon. Though the relativistic contrast that he lacks would be Eph 6:5, etc. that commands slaves to remain slaves. This is not too important since no one's challenging this. He's only focusing on one side of the issue, that is, how is a human being treated, regardless of their status; not how should we keep our status in God honoring way. @29:40 N erroneously said that if everyone kept moral law then there's no necessity for most judicial law - a fail in understanding of purpose of the law (not to be righteous but to know we are sinners) and the foreshadowing of Christ, which the pastor already mentioned minutes before but I guess they both failed in such discernment of words. @33:00 P: "How do you keep a moral society? It's tricky because the Bible is written to the Church" - I think it's not tricky because the Bible is not written to just the Church, the Bible is written to all men, to give grace (both common and special) and to judge the reprobates. @36:10 On eating blood, shallow and may even be erroneous view on life is in the blood: "Your godship over the blood of animals" - The real answer should just simply be: Christ's blood is the only kind of blood we need, so be content. @40:15 on Tattoos - P: tattoos as scripture verse = Uzzah holding up the ark. I think it's a wrong correlation of verses. It's also contradicting the pastor's earlier comments few seconds before on not judging people with tattoos (@39:50). Tattoos are more on the conscience and science side of things, Uzzah's in the category of self-anointment. A good question against such err would be: So what should someone already with tattooed do with this?
@43:50 Pastor brought up Paul cursing the high priest as sarcasm. A vocabulary term I learn from the pastor: "dog whistling" = garnering support without provoking opposition. A kind of ultrasonic dog whistles concept which are audible to dogs but not humans. I can agree with the sarcasm. The pastor used this term as Paul's "non-apologizing response".
Later in the service, in the sermon on Revelation 8, the pastor gave a quick, shallow, fundamentalist response to questions like "Why do we pray?" - Because God said so. I was going for something like "relational dependency on God", but Nadia later told me of Pak Tong's answer: Because God wants us closer to God! Best answer so far. So I can conclude this way with Loyalty vs. Faithfulness: Loyalty - Don't want to hear any oppositions/challenges; Faithfulness - welcomes all, so that God is glorified.
W8
I think for general knowledge, other than the Trailhead Tutorials, this Iman's Webinars are not bad.
10/19/2024 The definition of Priesthood, Dr. Tong contrasted Hebrews 2:14 & 17, to show that the priest is the representation of Man to God as well as God to Man:
Therefore, no wonder the OT priesthood is merely a shadow of the Christ to come, the Perfect Sinless Priest. Because Jesus Himself is God to man as well as Man to God, not just mere representation.
Kanna Curry Houses are apparently very well known for Banana leaves dishes. And Mamak restaurants are supposedly 24 hour, interesting I have to learn these Malaysian restaurants from a non-Malaysian:
10/18/2024 In the world of hidden-opinions, I have to also secretly rejoice when left-wing companies like META (previously Facebook) fired employees for abusing free meal credits for house goods, not sure how left-leaning bias the reporting media, The Guardian, is on this. Reuters, which is more neutral politically, also reported similar case that makes me smile: Amazon AWS CEO recommended those workers who couldn't do 5 day a week in office policy should quit.
Interesting polyglot black man who speaks tons of Asian languages. Real name is Moses McCormick, AKA Laoshu. He has also passed away in 2021 due to heart issue. I came across him via the Learn Chinese Now youtuber's ranking of famous youtube westerners who speak Chinese, by Ben Hedges & Jared Madsen. I think they misplaced June Mu, because they didn't hear enough, but had they seen his face, which I recognized immediately as half Chinese (he said his mother's Chinese), they may have judged it differently.
These are the ones they ranked in "god tier":
In the Morning, talked to my mother for a second time about my father's stroke better condition, saved in media drive. After much of Nadia's urging, I tried to get my mother to speak to the doctor despite doctors are well known for being too busy to speak to patients' families. This is Pantai Hospital, allegedly best known for handling stroke, despite Nadia's information about Island Hospital being the best, which is where lots of Indonesians love to go to, apparently, even my father's doctor said so.
10/14/2024 Get to brush up on my PHP skill with these new SalesForce requirements for the job. Some cool and easy Excel formula such as =SUMPRODUCT (for counting matches between two columns). The best skill is learning how to manipulate Word and Excel files (docx & xlsx) and the likes, using PHP, all thanks to Github's PHPOffice libraries. Finished the project this morning. It was truly some Eureka moment! I believe this in the long run could actually replace the need for Apsona.
10/13/2024 Ground News. Recommended by Youtuber Doctor Mike to be the best non-bias news media that compares multiple news sources from various perspectives.
On Sunday School, we're still on William Gurnall's work. @25:00 Nadia asked, very cryptically, about sinfulness in irresponsibility. The pastor answered to his best as theologically correctly from the surface of the question. Cl responded about prayers that asked for forgiveness of sins committed unknowingly, the pastor also sharply warned against treating such prayers as absolving our sins, perhaps a Catholic's view. N brought up the argument of paying for products made by tortured slaves in China, a bad example I would say, because I would still buy these stuff with clear conscience regardless, I am not affected by this first world problem: Business transaction is only a relationship between buyer and seller. Not buyers and workers of how that product comes about. Also, if you want to embargo a business because you hard this horrible story about how they treat their workers, what are you going to do when you hear later that that was just a propaganda, you will need to be very inconsistent with your business principle and perhaps even your moral compass. So, that means, first: we to make sure that we are talking about the same thing using the same words because torture doesn't mean child labor. Second: It is haughty foolishness, in fact, to boycott truth or in this case, product of unrighteous mammon, even Jesus does not condemn but praised it in Luke 16. What is ethical would be an immediate just action to halt any unrighteous act. I'm beginning to notice that N, though is smart, often make his speech with some kind of false assumptions/wrong judgments as an unquestionable unspoken basis of his arguments/questions: i.e. there are some who are truly innocent in calamity, it is unethical to buy products made by tortured slaves, there is no point in battling against evil regime because there will always be other wicked ones rising after that, etc. Tom answered more appropriately, saying that we should seek out what are the sins we're not aware of. This, I think many doesn't know, was what happened between Job and God. Job was eager to know his sins, God showed him his sins in the end and he repented.
@31:35 The pastor quoted Rom 7:24 "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?...", but Eleni and maybe the other, perhaps out of pride, tried to recite the verse as if they want to show off they've memorized it, made it hard to hear what the pastor was saying. This is a lapse in wisdom on their part.
On Sunday Sermon, which was on Revelation 7, @17:48 the allusion to "You can't lose your salvation: if you can lose your salvation you would have done it...it means your sin is greater than God's grace...", from his notes 1.c: Preservation and Perseverance, was perhaps due to J's argument before as to why she left our church. It was theologically sound, E & R later mentioned to us that they wish J had been there to listen to this sermon and she would have learned it, but I disagreed right away to R. I didn't get much chance to explain my disagreement, it was just too obvious to me that I didn't expect them to not get my point themselves. There's no strong verse in Revelation 7, that can tie to the doctrine of OSAS (Once saved always saved), as correct as it is. I remember C once asked the pastor to make his verse references clear in his expository sermons, but I guess it's still not done so. The closest verse I could match it was verse 14, which can be seen as the imputation of Christ's own righteousness upon all His elect. But the pastor did added a verse in the bulletin to his sermon, which was John 6:37-40, but I would say he would need to do more work on tying this in with Revelation 7, otherwise, this would only push people like J away even further for being seen by them as a one directional manipulation tactic using the pulpit against those who have disagreement. In that sense, since it's of Christ's, one cannot lose it by one's own volition as an elect. But this would be a stretch. OSAS is best done through other verses.
The benefit of it is obvious. And Americans the likes of Ben Shapiro love promoting Capitalism. Especially when the only alternative is communism. However, these aren't the only two choices. It should be more complex.
Here I will focus more on the bad of Capitalism. I've been wanting to do this for some time now. Ben Shapiro loves to promote capitalism as driving charity, I simply don't think so. Unless you are saying it is alright to have a dignified pride for doing philanthropy. If so, I don't want part of it. Because these people, when they lose, they would be sore losers, feeling too proud to enlist help from others. As long as America is great, and they are American citizens, they are free to feel as proud as they want against other nations. This pathetic pride, of course, is not limited to just advocates of capitalism, but to also, and particularly, nationalists as well. In fact, it is the other side, the adherents of communism, or the Democrats, that have a more selfless character for helping others. They wouldn't for a second thought think to live among the poor, suffer with the poor, being rich themselves, seeing themselves equal with the poor. Of course, this is over generalizing. There are extremists, who choose the foolish path of feeding even the lazy ones.
I came cross some interesting point from the Netflix Korean drama series: Strong Girl Nam-soon: Ep. 8 (Light and Shadow of Gangnam) @29:00, when Capitalism 자본주의 (pronounced very similar to Chinese - 资本主义) is mentioned: You can only win if someone else loses. It is true in a sense that we are not talking about a win-win nor property rights, we are talking about advocates for the survival of the fittest, of copyright laws, and such to their most wicked justification.
I first heard from Stephen Tong about this. That Americans used to think it was calories that made a person fat, so everyone focused on losing calories, but later studies showed that it was actually carbohydrate.
I later read contrary reports. But it seems that these reports may just be bias in their interpretations of the data.
I did a quick google with these keywords: calorie is not as relevant as carbohydrate to being fat
And this is the AI result:
While calories do matter for weight management, the statement "calorie is not as relevant as carbohydrate to being fat" suggests that focusing on reducing carbohydrate intake, rather than just total calories, may be more important for preventing weight gain, particularly when considering the impact of processed carbohydrates on insulin levels and potential for increased fat storage in the body; meaning the type of calories consumed, especially from carbohydrates, can play a significant role in fat accumulation, even if total calorie intake is controlled.
Key points to consider:
With this 2021 report (Obesity and weight loss: Why overall calorie intake may not be so important) that supports the claim that carbo is affects fatness more calories. And this article (Cutting carbs, not calories, may be key to long-term weight loss).
NEVERTHELESS, to be fair, cutting calorie is not without its benefit. As when it comes to eating less, particularly pertaining to lower calorie, studies seem to show longer life as a result.
This is the study of the Biblical Tabernacle and the architecture of it. Perhaps eventually a 3D model of it will be built in the VR world.
A good source with biblical dimensions can be found here.
By Hyperion Knight.
Lesson 1:
He played Clair De Lune by Claude Debussy beautifully as an intro.
Great art of any kind is one that stands the test of time. So it's not just a subjective thing (beauty is not just in the eye of beholder), thus called classics.
But classical area = Greek & Roman civilizations from 8th century BC to 8th century AD.
In music, Classical period = era of Haydn, Mozart & Beethoven. Western art music, eruption of musical geniuses in the Baroque era after Medieval & Renaissance Europe.
Goldberg Variations, Aria by JSB played.
Distinct from other culture's music by scales.
Played: Greensleeves, Traditional English Folk Song, attributed by Queen Elizabeth I to her father Henry VIII [thought Wikipedia denied this attribution, but recognized how some have tried to do so].
Why Baroque artists aren't well known in music, which lagged behind other arts by millennia. From Pythagoras' mathematical understanding of music, thus became a branch of science to how to properly tune a keyboard scale took 2 thousand years (mix of superstition, taste changes, need for advanced mathematics, need for writing music down). White notes were easy to figure out but the black notes on the keyboard were struggled to understand for centuries.
Played Over the Rainbow by Harold Arlen to demonstrate octaves (2:1 ratio).
Played Blackbird by John Lennon & Paul McCartney to demonstrate perfect 5th (3:2 ratio).
Bridal Chorus by Richard Wagner to demonstrate perfect 4th.
Major thirds (5:4 ratio)
Pythagoras worshipped numbers. We get all 7 white notes just by playing only perfect 5ths (circle of fifths) start at F.
Played Heart and Soul by Hoagy Carmichael to demonstrate playing only 7 white notes.
But if we keep on extending the circle of fifths, we end with black notes, but also E# (which looks like F natural) and B# (which looks like natural C natural). Advanced math needed because E# is not really F natural and B# is not really C natural because the intervals of different ratios do not sync up with each other and thus not able to have a piano that has all notes in tune with each other. Knight made reference of this to Godel's incompleteness Theorems. So Pythagoras couldn't access all 12 notes (chromatic scale).
Thus, from the discovery of music as a mathematical science, first thousand years was superstitious, because Pythagoras treated irrational numbers as not divinely sanctioned, the black notes, being irrationals, were being avoided.
Then after fall of Rome, Christians were more tolerant with such "irrational" matters. But it wasn't until Charles the Great (Charlemagne), 8th century AD, who united Europe which then became the Holy Roman Empire, couldn't stand various noteless singing of churches, that along with his father Pepin the Short, that they began a project to make the monks chant (i.e. Gregorian chants = plainchants = modal music[vs. tonal music]) the same notes in aiding the process of unifying Europe. Hildegard of Bingen is praised by Knight as musical genius for such music. Guido of Arezzo (c.990-1050) created sheet music.
Then with written music, monks started harmonizing (organum = like an organ instrument) in 4ths and 5ths. Played Czardas Macabre by Franz Liszt to demonstrate this gothic effect.
Monks in Britain were criticized for harmonizing in thirds: "not singing but howling in 3rds". But 3rds are most beautiful to harmonize. Played Chopin's Minute Waltz to demonstrate that you can harmonize anything in 3rds.
Then because of the 3rds, the musical community was forced to tempered all out of tune notes equally. "Out of tune" because they are not of pure ratios such as 4ths or 5ths.
Arezzo also invented musical clefs to indicate where middle C is for different instruments, voice ranges. Then sharps (due to treble clef treatment of C & G scales) & flats (due to bass clef treatment of C & F scales) needed to be introduced to have the same scales for each note. Then modal music shifted to tonal music. Scales also evolved as Gregorian modes changed into major and minor keys. But not without much struggle/battles.
Sir Isaac Newton sided with Pythagoras, preferring 7 pure white notes and thus invented 7th color for rainbow: indigo. Kepler also on team Pythagoras: The music of the Spheres in Kepler's "The Harmony o the World" (scales dedicated for each planet's elliptical orbit).
However, the real deal began with Florentine lute player, Vincenzo Galilei (screenshot of his music shown: Contropunto 1 meaning counterpoint 1) and his famous son Galileo Galilei, created the first nonlinear mathematical equation in history because abstract math just simply wasn't enough, as real world phenomena such as change over time was needed. Knight: "the modern science of physics resulted in part from trying to properly tune a scale on an ancestor of the guitar". Vincenzo then started creating pieces in all 24 well-tempered keys: all 12 notes of the chromatic scale in major and minor scales. This sets the stage for the tsunami of the Baroque period.
JSB planted his well known "The Well-Tempered Clavier" = the well-tuned keyboard: 12 Preludes and 12 Fugues, for all 12 keys. Knight played JSB's Preludes and Fugues for C Major, C minor, C-Sharp major, C# minor, D Minor.
Knight: "Bach's fugues are the highest form of counterpoint, which had already reached dizzying heights of complexity in the Renaissance" Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli, Kyrie orchestrated as demonstration. Knight praised Josquin des Prez (c. 1450-1521) as genius for contrapuntal polyphony (i.e. his Ave Maria). Palestrina's conservative polyphony for the counter-reformation, in anointing new popes.
JSB's Mass in B Minor was orchestrated but not quite explained yet as to the detail of its genius in harmonic structures and tonal center.
Italian has remained the language of music because of Venice and Florence (i.e. adagio, cresc, etc.. Venice preceded Florence in music. But Florence invented Opera (plural of opus = work), as Vincenzo Galilei discovered that ancient Greek dramas actually sang their words in theater which was why it was popular then.
First true Baroque masterpiece, 1607, by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), in his opera "L'Orfeo" about Orpheus rescuing his love, Eurydice in the underworld. L'Orfeo: Toccata by Monteverdi orchestrated.
Knight: "The Baroque period was a godchild of the Renaissance."
Harpsichord Concerto No. 1 in D Minor by JSB played to demonstrate the full force of Baroque period.
