My Journal

11/17 Got Gutter cleaned from same guy Phil. This time he brought a helper. It was windy, around 30-40sF. They came at around 3:30pm. Sun would set around 4:30pm. I was busy with SPG so I couldn't pay much attention to their work. Not sure if they thoroughly cleaned the top roof gutters as I saw Phil cleaning out some leaves at the end when he helped me with a loose downspout I showed him by the chimney. It was spotted by Willy months ago when he saw tiny birds flying in and out of it, as if making nest in the soffit (eaves). He was so willingly to fix it for me I didn't mind giving him $30 on top of the $150 fee for the cleaning.

Because it didn't look too bad after not having him (or anyone else) clean it for two years, he felt that we don't need to install any gutter guards, which we did buy from Costco. So we likely return them, if not, I could install them at the lower level because the labor ain't cheap (roughly $1k for the whole house).

I also got him to advise me on how to fix that racoon/squirrel/bird hole at the lower soffit outside of the master bedroom, above the mudroom. Basically, bend a aluminum foil/plate and nail it to seal the hole.

Here's some terminologies for the roof and parts of a house.

Source: https://www.pjfitz.com/about-us/additional-resources/glossary/

At 11:30am on 11/17, I did a postponed (was so sorry for missing the first conference/survey) survey interview by MicroStrategies on cloud security among other IT related matters particularly that could help NYGC apparently in Microsoft Defender (available at A5, and does deal with ransomware though not sure how great compare to Carbon Black which seems to be very expensive and does better job) installation, migrating MS Access to Azure (AVD) virtual environment for cloud access (an alternative to converting mdb to SQL which I still prefer because I am not yet to be familiar with Azure that well), hosted by BeTechly which was the reason I agreed to this as they would order GRUBHUB free meal for me, tips included for the delivery, as well as sending me a tile pro (short range tracking device). This lead to my criticism on my once favorite Indian restaurant nearby "Royal Indian Restaurant". They used to be cheap, under $8 for lamb biryani, and even supposed to have lunch buffet which I was not aware of, but since COVID19, they went up to $15, and now $18. And on my last visit to pick up the food, they have new staffs who didn't seem all that friendly. So I am taking off my favorite sign on google map for this and looking for other Indian restaurants worth visiting. Perhaps returning to the once more expensive ($18 now for lamb biryani) Tower of India, which I thought they shutdown permanently because of COVID19. BeTechly even had a hard time ordering for me via GRUBHUB from Royal Indian restaurant because for some reason, even after waiting an hour until their opening time 1PM (yes, this late on Thursday), the order got canceled by the restaurant, allegedly (makes me wonder if they were just lazy or incompetent with their business - food's still good though), and so we went for Tower of India. They were going to order me two Mango Lassi before, but with Tower of India, just ended up with one biryani and one mango lassi, as with tips, would maxed out the $35 budget they offer.

I could consider getting NYGC on 1 A5 subscription license, mainly mine, for the server, just because of Defender, we'll see. I need to do further study on this.

A few weeks ago, I saw a need to do a deeper study in the Original Sin, after pastor Chris didn't seem to know what I was talking about when I was trying to relate some passages in Ecclesiastes 7 to the Original Sin. Because during the Thursday Bible study, many have opinioned in such a way as if the problem of man is that we are imperfect, almost alluding to the fact that we were created imperfect by God though they would deny it, because they only wish to compare our lowlihood to God level. That kind of imperfection, that kind of lesser being. Nothing about the original sin. Sure, the pastor immediately interrupted that the whole book or even the Bible might as well, is about original sin. Either they lack the knowledge of original sin or they refuse to actually admit original sin. "The book of Job is telling us that we are not God", the pastor said. I used to believe that, but after Pak Tong, I learned that No, it's not about telling us that we are not God, but God was teaching Job about the original sin. And after this Bible study on Ecclesiastes (so I suppose some credit does go to Pastor Chris' zeal in teaching/leading in a biblical way), I have further concluded that the book of Job, even Ecclesiastes, is about the difference between having the (right) KNOWLEDGE of GOD vs. having a (right) RELATIONSHIP with GOD. In Job, we have Job repenting saying "I've heard of you (knowledge) but now I see you (relationship)", while in Ecclesiastes 9:4-5 we have he who is joined with all the living has hope - this living IS a relationship with GOD. Only in such do we have true living fellowship with other living ones for God is the God of the living and not of death. I should start with Jonathan Edward and others' works in the Original Sin.