Raw files are automatically processed by Samsung's Gear 360 ActionDirector Windows app. These processed files have the word "_Stitch_" in the filenames. These stitched files seem to work in Meta Quest 2's TV app, after direct transfer from PC to Quest via USB-C to USB-C. However, a lot of these files do not work right away. It seems to take time to "process" by the Quest app.
The ActionDirector Windows app also has the menu feature called "produce" to produce 360 video, which apparently should be different than the automatically processed "_Stitch_" files. These produced files work right away after uploading onto Youtube while the _Stitch_ files do not work as 360 from direct Youtube upload.
I have made known my stand on this in several entries here before. This shall hopefully be the last entry with capacity to be expanded, to avoid confusion of multiple postings on the same subject.
The crux of the problem is: Do we distinguish theft from lying? That is, should we not conflate the 8th and the 9th commandments: Thou shalt not steal & Thou shalt not bear false witness, respectively.
I once asked Pak Tong the last time he was here in the States, he did not give a clear answer but recognizing that there are people promoting against intellectual properties; however, he also stated that his ministry STEMI does not allow people to copy their materials without permission. I cannot say that he supports Intellectual property rights in the common way because of this, because I believe even if someone pirated their materials, I highly doubt they would sue that person. 1 Timothy 5:18 comes to mind, which is not the same as the principle operating behind today's copyright law.
I would attempt to start by arguing from the fact that in the 8th commandment, God's physical material blessing must be recognized, and thus must be distinguished from the other commandments such as the 9th and the 10th. Though I'm not saying all these commandments are mutually exclusive. Therefore, to fail in recognizing material blessing, or to conflate material blessing with another kind of blessing such as talent, is to risk the same error as the Gnostics: diminishing the value of material, which is of the world, which God created.
Therefore, though it is true that the 8th commandment does not specify that the object of theft is a physical material one or not, what I shall investigate here is whether the notion of theft must only link to a physical object or can it also be associated with the non-physical such as the product of the mind or talent. Because after all, when we use the word "product", one can easily associate that with the physical, even though it doesn't have to be so. In the same way, we use the word "steal", for "someone else's idea". So the question is, is this meant the same way by God?
Though we must distinguish the two commandments (8th & 9th), we cannot deny that these two generally apply together to the crime of theft (of physical things). A thief who stole a car, if asked, would lie about how he got the car, generally. "Generally" being an important keyword here, because someone who steals may not lie about it and thus it borders robbing, which I think is aptly covered by the 8th commandment since there's no separate commandment that says "Thou shalt not rob". However, in the case of intellectual "properties", if we want to really call it that, there's no distinguishing of robbing and stealing.
For the sake of argument, robbing is always stealing, but stealing is not always robbing. Stealing is a bigger circle encompassing completely the smaller circle called robbing, in the Venn diagram. Stealing is taking without permission, robbing is to do so bolding in broad daylight so to speak.
But in the case of intellectual properties, there is no such thing as robbing, because when I copy someone's idea in "broad daylight", that's just simply copying, which is not a sin in itself. Only when I tell people that someone else's idea that I copied from, is mine, then have I broken the 9th commandment. But the West came up with this idea that we can "buy" someone's ideas (thus, intellectual properties) and subtly call it ours. Which is absurd, even if one works hard to not break the 9th by carefully calling it "ownership" of the rights, rather than "authorship". Because by calling it ownership, one inadvertently conveys authorship. The only reason to distinguish these two terms is to have monetary power, otherwise it's not true ownership nor authorship.
I can and should say more here, but it will be continued next time. This is an ongoing investigation of the subject.
The proponent of Copyright Law has this chief reason: To encourage creativity or sharing of it, which is pathetic. As if I need to pay a child to behave or not seek vengeance. What then, shall we oppose the government because of this? No. Here give unto Caesar is apt.
Key to spiritual Christian life - understand that man is lower than God but higher than nature:
On Ecology, Environmental care:
The theological care in the environmental cultivation should not be from the non-Christians. Evangelicals do not know anything about environment, only that man needs to be saved.
Cultural Mandate should not be from Non-Christians, evangelicals only know about preaching the Gospel. The most important lesson from Jesus is THE KINGDOM OF GOD, and evangelicals never thought much about this, allowing the modernists a foothold to dominate and corrupt the cultural mandate of God. Reformers such as Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Bulinger, Beza, Melanchthon, all concerned about the relationships between Church & Politics, Church & Art, Church & Culture, Church & Nature, Church & Philosophy, how the Church lift up the Word of God above all things in order to judge all wrongs in culture produced after the fall of man, such is the duty of Christians:
Man is created lower than angels, but higher than angels after salvation:
Angels are to serve the elects:
The Hebrew culture mishandled the position of angels probably because they believed that the law was given from God to Moses via angels, they viewed the angels second to God. And later, in old Christendom, archangels were viewed so high that they became as if the object of worship.
We are the children of God, angels are the servants of God. Big difference.
7/6/2024 Today, a Saturday, I have sometime to myself to look into one of the First Great Awakening folks: Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, whom I learned from last Sunday School from Bill, that he was with George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards in New Jersey, especially Somerset. Wikipedia shows that he also worked with Gilbert Tennent, the one who preached "On the Danger of an Unconverted Ministry" = Nottingham Sermon. Frelinghuysen's pietism is apparently in fencing the table (preventing people from the Lord's supper until they get their acts together). I'm not saying that fencing the table is wrong, especially when compared to how the Tabernacle was set up with sections forbidden to commoners, but it was how these revivalists policed the table. Stephen Tong on Pietism, which Frelinghuysen was really into:
到了十六世纪，改教运动完成以后，十七世纪，有没有危机来呀？有。第一个大危机就是腐败的生活、没有圣洁的灵性，侵犯改教运动的教会。信仰对不对？对。行为对不对？不大对。为什么？因为对信仰的重点，跟全面性，没有真正的了解同把握，所以误解信仰，产生偏差，特别是路德宗。路德宗最重要的一句话是什么呢？「因信称义」，这是马丁路德最大的发现。Justified through faith，我们是借着信，因为耶稣的宝血而称义。那么，一百年以后呢？「因信称义」啰，所以行为不要紧啰。既然我信了，我的行为乱七八糟不要紧，我「因信称义」嘛。一百年以后，在路德宗的地区，就产生一个反对这些败坏的生活，却持守所谓「纯正信仰」，这种偏颇，这种不平衡的教会的会友的运动，叫做Pietism (敬虔主义)。敬虔主义到底要教导什么呢？基督徒不单是因信称义，基督徒要过圣洁的生活；基督徒不单从前信主悔改了，基督徒要常常悔改；基督徒不单参加聚会跟人一同祷告做礼拜，基督徒自己要在家有读经祷告的私人灵修；基督徒不单自己领受赦罪之恩，基督徒要为上帝传福音。这几件都是很好的：圣洁生活、亲自灵交、努力传道。所以，这就对改教运动的教会带来了复兴的灵性，也就是圣洁生活的复兴，传福音火热的复兴。但是敬虔运动有几个大缺点：注重个人，忽略教会整体；注重感受的经历，忽略信仰的统一；注重小组的成立，忽略整个教会共同的益处。所以，就变成在教会中建立小教会，这叫做church within church。他们对教义也不大清楚、不大注重。它的重点就是个人要圣洁，最好不喝酒、不赌博、不抽烟、不这个、不那个，有圣洁敬虔的外貌，他们敬虔的实意有多少不大知道。但是，这个Pietism第一次在路德会中间刺激海外宣道的复兴的工作。
Here is an interesting article on Tim Keller's take on Reformed Pietism: Evangelism, mission and church growth. The pietist impulse emphasizes on the individual and the experiential. They are suspicious of an emphasis on social justice and cultural engagement. To further look into Tim Keller's take on this and his critics, I would have to look into the Reformed take on Cultural Mandate, which Pak Tong stressed a lot.
Last but not least, to look into the criticism of Jonathan Edwards, one can start from Scott Clark's article, cautioning readers about Jonathan Edwards.
7/4/2024Did John Calvin taught that Jesus was the Archangel Michael?
Came across this on Facebook, someone tried to discredit Calvin using his commentary on Daniel and thus my response.
That's why I said ForBiden school of thought. That's bad reading: Calvin on Dan 12:1 "...By Michael many agree in understanding Christ as the head of the Church. But if it seems better to understand Michael as the archangel, this sense will prove suitable, for under Christ as the head, angels are the guardians of the Church..."
Therefore, Calvin is considering and accepting both views: 1. Michael = archangel and not Christ. 2. Michael = Christ and not archangel.
The low IQ's response to this would be: "Ah, therefore Calvin's saying Christ = Archangel! because, What can be, unburdened by what has been"
So if you still don't get it, it's ok. Peace.
btw, anyone reading Calvin should already have the basic knowledge that Michael is derived from the Hebrew word: Like God and thus not necessarily must be God nor necessarily cannot be God.
A quick online search on this view, shows wide spread of this argument. But someone has already taken a good crack at it. By explaining Daniel 12:1, Hebrews 1:6 & Jude 9.
I note this here just in case someone brings this up, the response should be as easy as "Michael can be taken as the archangel or just someone like God but not necessarily not God".
7/3/2024This video of Jet Li on a Buddhism interview reminded me of my earlier response to someone at church that Christians aren't the only one who have good testimonies (i.e. in humilities, kindness, etc.) but Buddhists for example, are quite good at dealing with pride as well. Therefore, the source of wickedness is not really pride, it's self.
The German Rap song: Barbara's Rhubarb Bar, is becoming viral recently. I first came across it on Instagram @Jasminandjames:
Barbaras Rhabarberbar Es war einmal in einem kleinen Städtchen, da lebte ein Mädchen namens Barbara Und diese Barbara war im ganzen Land für ihren abartig guten Rhabarberkuchen bekannt Ja, man konnte sagen, dass Barbaras Rhabarberkuchen ohne Wenn und Aber, gar eine geradezu magische Erfahrung war Abara Kadabara Tja, dieser Kuchen war geradezu bombastisch und die Nachfrage danach erstarkte drastisch Barbara eröffnete noch im selben Jahr eine Bar und nannte sie „Barbaras Rhabarberbar“ In der Stadt gab es auch ein paar Barbaren die hatten von Barbaras Rhabarberbar erfahren und da sie fortan jeden Tag bei Barbara waren nannte man sie bald die Rhabarberbarbarbaren In den Folgejahren ließen die Barbaren nach und nach ihr barbarisches Gebahren fahren Sie waren, behauptete Barbara, fast noch sympathischer als Barbapapa Aber die Barbaren waren stark behaart und hatten alle einen struppigen Barbarenbart (gar nicht apart), daraufhin schickte Barbara ihre Barbarenfreunde zum Barbarenbartbarbier Der frisierte den Barbaren sogar den ganzen Kopp in seinem Barbarenbartbarbier-Barbershop Er war zwar ein fürchterlicher Laberkopp Aber der Bart war danach total tipptopp Darauf luden die Barbaren ihren Bartbarbier fein nach getaner Arbeit noch in die Rhabarberbar ein Da tranken sie dann gemeinsam an der Bar noch 'n Bier Die Rhabarberbarbarbaren und der Bartbarbier Und aßen dazu bar jeder Barbarei ein Stück Rhabarberkuchen Ich glaub, es waren zwei Ja, da wurden sogar ganz harte Männer nahbar und das alles dank Barbaras Rhabarber Drei Barbaren und der Bartbarbier saßen eines Abends in der Bar bei 'nem Bier, da kam die Polizei: „Ja, wo wart denn ihr?“ Drei Barbaren und der Bartbarbier
Barbara's rhubarb bar Once upon a time in a small city, there lived a girl called Barbara And this Barbara was known in the entire country for her abnormally good rhubarb cake Yes, you could say that Barbara's rhubarb cake, was without any ifs, ands and buts a downright magical experience Abracadabra Well, this cake was downright amazing and after, its demand increased drastically in the same year Barbara opened a bar and called it “Barbaras Rhabarbar Bar1” In the city there were also a couple barbarians they found out about Barbara's rhubarb bar and because after that they were with Barbara daily they were soon called the rhubarb bar barbarians In the following years the barbarians let go of their barbaric behavior little by little They were, claimed Barbara, almost friendlier than Barbapapa But the barbarians were very hairy and they had all a scrubby barbarian beard (not special at all) consequently Barbara sent her barbarian friends to the barbarian beard barber He even styled the barbarians' entire heads in his barbarian beard barber barbershop He was indeed a terrible chatterbox But after that the beard was totally tiptop After that the barbarians nicely invited their beard barber after finished work in the rhubarb bar Then at the bar they drank a beer together The rhubarb bar barbarians and the beard barber And ate in addition without any barbarity a piece of rhubarb cake I think it was two Yes, then even very tough men got approachable and that all thanks to Barbara's rhubarb Three barbarians and the beard barber sat at the bar in the evening with a beer then the police came: “Well, where were you?” Three barbarians and the beard barber
Consider one possibility: The more people in church, the more shame. ~ Stephen Tong
7/2/2024 Ben Shapiro interviewed Bishop W. C. Martin, Baptist pastor who in known for his support for adoptions. He's also the one who inspired the Angel Studios movie: The Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot. It's interesting that he grounded his adoption ministry in adoptions throughout the Bible: Moses, Esther, and he would go even as afar as Jesus, which I may not completely agree with since Jesus' technically not orphan, having a single mother.
If Christianity is true, people don't die; they change location. They go from this life to the next life. And it's up to God when that happens, not us.
I almost liked it. Turek was dealing with those who worried about death. This is his way of comforting Christians. So I'm not going to make a big deal from his presuppositional error in "If Christianity is true" here, but I would say, that Christians don't change location, they are resurrected. This is uniquely Abrahamic faith (Romans 4:17). The Egyptians don't have resurrection, they have the "next life".
6/28/2024 Learned about how tobulk delete users on web portal of Office 365 admin. Very useful, almost same way as Salesforce bulk deletion: Download the template/full list, then use that list to modify and upload again so the system knows which ones to delete.
I think someone on Reformed Forum said that the superscriptions (the bolded titled lines in most Psalms in the modern translations) were not originally in the scripture. Was it Jim Cassidy? I can't remember.
However, most sources point their existence to the earliest manuscripts (i.e. Masada Psalms Scroll (MasPsa) from the late first century BC, Aleppo Codex (ca. AD 930), the Dead Sea Scrolls, etc).
I wonder, when those who said that it's not part of the original scripture, were they basing it on some obscure manuscripts or even worse, that because these superscriptions do not, according to their view, convey any spiritual meaning and thus not considered part of the INSPIRED Scripture.
6/23/2024 I think Willy shows sign of mental breakdown, dementia, senility, what have you. This morning, after listening to Tim Keller's talks on revival, which I played in the car on the way to the church, where I anticipated the Sunday School lesson on Jonathan Edwards' view on The Great Awakening, as he promised a week before when he finished the series on Solomon's Song of Songs. I can't remember exactly but the question Nadia came up with after the Keller's talk was around "Why would pastor Chris just keep saying - you want to know God's will, just go to the Bible, just go to the Bible", all answers are just "the Bible". In which Willy, thinking he's the genius himself as he has always been, raised his question which "trumps all questions", you just need to ask: How can you be 100% certain that this is God's work?
First, it's off topic, second, there's no correlation to original question a typical Willy-method. Second, I had to revised his question into: "How can you tell real calling from fake calling?
Then in the evening, when he went through our tax return, he couldn't give simple answers to our questions. Answers could have been: "You pay more if your withdrawal is too little", "your expense is too high", etc. Rather, he chose to answer using jargons like "penalty", "interest rate", etc. When it comes to creativity, he reminds me of my friend Brian, who's the main reason I stepped down from being Manger of NYGC, because I found that we either couldn't communicate properly or he couldn't be straight with me in order to work together, so I couldn't even tell if it's a trust issue or a language issue, perhaps it's also just a mentality issue on Brian's part. So the tax talk which would have been no more than 5 mins, became 2+ hours long with him trying to play with numbers into incoherence and refusing to admit his lack of IQ. This I think is also a problem with many, such as Phil at church.
But one thing to note from Willy on Tax issue is such basic detail on NY tax: Social Security: 6.2% Medicare: 1.45% Federal: 12% NY: 6% (No need to worry about NJ as he said that NY will pay NJ somehow) Totaling: 25.45%
Also on Withdrawals (= Federal: the default tax we cut out of our paycheck for the government, according to him) must be at least 12% to not incur both late payment penalty & interest.
I write all these down so that I can refer back when I really look into these myself.
6/20/2024 Recap of Dr. Stephen Tong's principle: 医病是恩赐；赶鬼不是恩赐，赶鬼是权柄。
6/19/2024 Using Audacity to batch convert/process multiple files. I needed to amplify all of Pak Tong's seminary audio files so that I can listen to them better when I swim in the pool. I believe my SONY MP3 Walkman NW-WS413 player's dB limit is < 13 for amplification. It turns out that Tools > Macro Manager can easily create a new Project with Amplify step. After that, just add a "Export to mp3" step. In View > Preferences > Directories, Macro files path can be set, or else it goes to Documents/Audacity by default.
And to align and merge multiple files/tracks, which I have yet to do (The STEMI audio files were very short and too many, which would make sense to append them all into bigger chunks):
Learn Axe Throwing (Bury the Hatchet) for $32/hr, or 2 for price of 1 on Tuesdays 4pm-11pm. It's better to make reservations online than to walk in. The one I checked out (didn't play) was in Matawan, when I lunched at an Indian restaurant (Royal Curry Exotic Indian Cuisine, good taste but too expensive) next door. Bury the Hatchet also offer free firewood in Matawan. Just drive around their back and help yourself. Probably from the used up woods as targets from all the axe throwing.
Taiwanese Student Association (TSA, not TASA: Taiwanese American Student Association) at UC Berkeley. Watching Eric (of DoDoMen) revisiting his alma mater, made me wonder how did I ended up in Arkansas and the East Coast naively thinking that America everywhere is 90210, Hollywood, etc. The asians (Taiwanese in particularly) really have deeper root in the West Coast than the East. I wonder how I would turn out had I known enough to get myself end up in California. Would I still be reformed? Able to cope in non-Asian community. Probably not, despite being successful in the world, finding refuge among the Asian community:
6/18/2024 On the Catholic vs. Orthodox understanding of Original Sin. This is interesting on FB: Where we sort of have 3 different views: Reformed, Catholic and Orthodox => cursed/guilty nature, culpa(culpable) vs. reatus(liability, which the Catholics claimed Augustine used instead of culpa)/infection, inherited nature/ancestral sin. Respectively.
I think the Catholics tried to explain away Augustine's use of culpa in infants:
In this life, even the baptized are subjected to evils, so one can hardly avoid the fact that humans are born under a yoke of affliction. Yet if God is just, there must be in infants guilt (culpam) deserving such punishment (poenam) (Ibid., VI, x, 31) Here, for the first time, St. Augustine clearly says there is culpa in infants, as opposed to mere reatus. He does this on the basis that justice demands there be some culpa for every poena. Yet the culpa that is in infants, we have just seen, is not their own by action, but Adam’s. It is theirs only by contagion. It is only after making this distinction that St. Augustine dares to ascribe culpa rather than reatus to the descendants of Adam.
Would my mosquito analogy work on this? It's clear on the Reformed view: we kill the larvae simply because it's of the cursed species. What about the Catholic's "diseased species" view? It seems to be in the same category with the Orthodox's "inherited traits" view. In that they want to maintain that there's still some good in the mosquito such that you should not even think about killing its larvae. But perhaps you only kill the larvae if you cannot find a cure at the moment? Or that it's the disease/inherited trait that you're killing and not the creature which then became a collateral? Bottom line, the Reformed place humility completely in humanity, while the East and the West placed certain dignity in humanity, accusing, falsely, the reformed for destroying the human dignity and thus humanity. I of course, am of the stand on humility in the complete reliance on God defined in humanity (covenantal theology), while I would say that Rome and the Greeks considered reliance on God is defined separately from humanity, so without such divine reliance, a human, according to them, is still a human, albeit all the flaws passed down to him. Whereas the Reformed would view the cursed human as a whole different kind, not really the kind of human God has intended. Therefore, I would say that the Reformed further Augustine's uses of culpam and reo, no in contradiction, while the Catholics changed Augustine's meaning to fit in their view of a always dignified human quality with or without the right relationship with God.
In practice (I don't like the word "applications" as some would in shallowness), I think therefore the Catholics have a greater mercy ministries than the Reformed. Not because they are better, but that the Reformed generally falls behind in upholding both a higher theological standards and the care for strangers; while the Catholics merely need to focus on the care for strangers, regardless of who gets the ultimate glory (YHWH or Buddha, etc.) because Soli Deo Gloria is assumed by the Catholics to be already taken care by God, God's own business, not a concern for men who already obeyed the sacraments of God.
6/16/2024 I think I'll start inserting Sunday Service/Sunday school in the Weekly journal rather than as a new entry. Just prioritizing what's important. The Sunday schools are still great in that I get to learn everyone's characters in fellowship, but due to the overall shallowness, I am taking another angle of how to deal with this. In Sunday School, last week's of survey on Song of Songs, J.S. mentioned that he doesn't get excited much, that excitement, the word asked in the pastor's notes, "what is exciting about the company of the one you love? Do we know this excitement with God? (Son 8:1-4 The Church Expresses love for Christ's Fellowship), J.S. defined it as: it never gets old. I think it's a shallow definition. Also, for J.S., I would say it's disingenuous to say he never gets excited much. He's probably thinking of the kind of excitement that's more pronounced in the charismatics/evangelical circle, jumping, dancing, enthusiastic in activities, showing zeal, etc. I say disingenuous because who laughed the loudest every time the pastor cracks a joke? J.S.
I answered these questions the pastor noted down in his sermon notes, in a provocative manner:
Why are even Christians so short sighted when it comes to this world and the next... ans: low IQ: Foolishness.
What is your greatest struggle with authority... ans: proper interpretation of authority
Does your life proclaim the knowledge of God? How can you cause that to happen more clearly? ans: Having I-Thou relationship with God
6/15/2024 GCC Men's fellowship led by Phil on Lamentations 3. My take of it is shallow, but then again, I lost interest in my attention, so I can't really tell what he was talking about, just that it was boring - just adding different words and adjectives to something everyone already knows: "God is in control", "this is glorious", "there's nothing that El Elyon is not capable of", etc. I thought he said "LL Young" in his pronunciation but he meant El Elyon (the Most High): Lam 3:35, 38, etc. He's probably trying to contrast Jeremiah's greatness in suffering and trying to use that reliance of God against the modernists and non-Christians. He spoke mostly so not much discussions until the end when some tried to chip in.
D asked @43:00 of Lam 3:21, what was being recalled by Jeremiah. I don't know if I had misunderstood the situation, as Phil and others tried to answer from their own, because the answers are simply in the next verses, literally.
@46:55 Clyde's response was interesting, which was fresh to me: on Psalms 137:4 - where Israel were taunted by their enemies the Babylonians to sing the Lord's song while they were weeping by the Babylonian rivers. However, Clyde's take of it was that the Israelites were too distress and blinded to see God and thus, not able to sing. I am with most commentators on this, that like Machen with his no support for "Bibles in public schools", the Lord's song is so sacred, and thus, not to be sung in any place, or at any time, and in any company; which would be but casting pearls before swine, and giving that which was holy to dogs (Matthew 7:6) ~ John Gill. Caldea was not worthy of the honor of having God's praises sung in it ~ John Calvin. These ancient commentators sure are way smarter than us.
@57:35 F: This election...God doesn't need my vote to help Him...I can sit and take an outsider's view of it...Sounds like F is more likely influenced by the extreme hyper-Calvinism: We do nothing, God does everything.
@59:05 C: The LORD is my shepherd - Phil's: That's eternal lord. But that's just YHWH, not Adonai. Minor pick, no big deal.
I thought my Surface Laptop has a front camera and spent about 10 mins during Phil's talk trying to figure out how to take the front shot until I realized there's no front camera. So I took this with my phone, while he's not looking:
So bottom line, I don't share their fundamentalist narrow minded shallow view of certain people of God.
6/12/2024 Stephen Tong on different levels of miracle, the work of God, in his Hebrews series (Chapter 2):
How Taiwanese view living in Las Vegas (very good place to live, only one con: too hot From July-Sept):
6/11/2024Online Payments101 for Developer: Learn terminologies
BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) Timeline. The web timeline is interestingly designed with possibly cool frameworks.
SUNO: An AI that creates music based on description.
6/10/2024Email Protection using SVG on the web. Against spambots.
