Journal of the Week

Posted on March 25, 2026 by timlyg

3/28/2026 Saturday

We ordered takeout for the first time from Bollywood Tadka Restaurant on NJ-18. We love their all you can eat buffet. But take out for a lamb dish, tandoori chicken (6x), 1x lamb biryani, for about $70 is really not worth it because the containers are not really full portion. I told Nadia to eat their buffet (Friday - Sunday only for lamb/goat dish), or Hyderabad Spice for take out (they have good Tuesday deals: buy one biryani get another 50% off => totaling $28).

I learned quite a lot swimming at LA Fitness today around 5pm while Nadia's taking a nap. Because I met an elderly Chinese man swimming in the next lane telling me: You swim very fast. And we started talking after I told him that "I swim fast because I'm young" to which he replied "that's the key!". So I learned that Jonathan is driving a Model Y TESLA which has full self-driving feature and he's been using the full self-drive all the time, claiming that the car drives even better than he. This is really remarkable to me for I knew about these technology, as Elon Musk had been trying to promote self-driving taxies and even produce cars without steering wheels. But I've never met a person that has been through this until now. Nadia thinks I want to buy TESLA now. Jonathan, who is Taiwanese, is also a member of the Monmouth Community Christian Church (MCCC) 美門教會. He's a professor in Brooklyn once a week. What I just found out is that I should take Nadia to check out Bell Works (used to be Bell Labs), which is like a supersize complex mall-type business place in Holmdel. I do wish to see this Jonathan again. He seems to like Stephen Tong's Reformed sermons, but I think his son goes to CrossRoads Worship Center (Charismatic I think) in Marlboro (Cliffwood?).

I conferenced with Brian around 8pm to conclude his MySQL database project and he seemed to love it. We'll have dinner on Wednesday and I would be paid.

3/27/2026 Friday

I'm with Allie Beth Stuckey on this, Ashley Sheatz' husband (Trevor Sheatz) posting "controversial" X tweet detailing his wife's past promiscuity and bleak lifestyle contrasting with his virginity to show how God converted his wife and blessing him with a beauty. The conservative backslash came from folks like Michael Knowles [05:11] calling the exposure of a once-whore spouse to public as inappropriate as there are some things considered "too private" for public [I disagree, because only sinners believe that, I'm sure St. Augustine would agree with me]. Stuckey rightly rebuked these "hyper-patriarchy bros who call themselves Christians out there" as this whore-calling was done by themselves, not Ashley's husband. I believe these conservatives are actually revealing a hidden part of their darkness as they are being revealed by this X posting which is something beautiful, been seen by these hypocrites as something ugly, because perhaps they have themselves viewed women under such dark light and the concealment of a past sin as something of a hypocrisy to cover their believe in work-righteousness rather than the true Gospel. Turning something glorious (new creation: 2 Corinthians 5:17) into something shameful:

Ashley's favorite preacher is Paul Washer @42:50.

The only problem I have with the Sheatz dating method was after she met Trevor at church, they practiced "intentional friendship" for a year with chaperones to ensure purity [49:55]. Courting is courting, not friendship. But glad it worked out for them.

I learned this new vocabulary: "Manosphere" ideologies. Which is the pool of the "hyper-patriarchy bros bloggers/armchair critics".

I also love this conclusion from Google Gemini: The video serves as a defense of radical transparency in the face of a "shame culture." While critics argue that the public disclosure of sexual sin undermines the dignity of marriage, Ashley and Allie Beth Stuckey contend that hiding the past suggests that Christ’s redemption is insufficient or something to be ashamed of.

Met with Paul at H-Mart for lunch. Talked about his music making and my SUNO AI music process. Talked about movies like The 6th Sense, Predestination (Ethan Hawke's movie). It seems that Paul was pretty much out of touch with the film industry and I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing for him. We ate at the food court so we bought our own. But after lunch he suggested bubble tea so I treated him at HeyTea (I think where it used to be KungFu Tea or MangoMango) which only takes order via app.

This Presbycast episode, featuring Dr. R. Scott Clark and Wilson Van Hooser: The discussion distinguishes between revival (a sovereign, extraordinary work of God) and revivalism (human-centered techniques designed to manufacture religious experiences). Greg Laurie, Tim Keller, etc. were mentioned.

Dr. Clark defines revivalism as "manufactured spirituality" [15:58].

Modern worship often follows a "bipartite" structure: 30 minutes of singing followed by a 30-minute sermon, designed to provide a "dopamine hit" [40:18, 41:02].

"Bob [Robert] Godfrey said when I was in seminary was, (@1:03:57) we effectively replaced God's altar call, which was Holy Communion." [I don't think altar call is comparable to the Eucharist which is not really the primary point of commitment and assurance. [01:03:55, 01:04:04] ]

3/24/2026 Tuesday

I like this from Skye Jethani who distinguishes between Christian Activism (using faith to inform policy/values) and Christian Nationalism (the belief that the U.S. belongs exclusively to Christians and that non-Christians should have fewer rights) [37:56]. The whole 10 minute debate between Skye and Kaitlyn was interesting.

Painting of the day: The Last Supper by Jacopo Tintoretto. Mentioned by Stephen Tong, full of angels around contrasting it with Da Vinci's Last Supper which has no angels and humanist with mere Christian theme. Tong also referred to the 12 legions of angels. Nadia and I went to Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, Italy, but I am not sure if I missed it:

3/22/2026 Sunday

Sunday School at GCC on the Spiritual Radicals & Rationalists during the Reformation is an interesting one. We touched on names: Spiritualists: Hans Denck (Lutheran -> Spiritualist -> recanted to join the Swiss Reformed Church but may still be wolf in sheep's clothing), Sebastian Franck, Casper Schwenckfeld (still active today mainly in Pennsylvania). Rationalists: Michael Servetus, Laelius & Faustus Socinus (rejected Trinity and substitutionary atonement - Jesus was just an example, promoted work-righteousness, fled from Italy persecution to Transylvania and called their belief Unitarian). So they are essentially emotional-centered and rational-centered cults, respectively. And here's Google Gemini's result for Bible verses (it's wrong to say they rejected the Bible) they would have used for each's central ideology:

1. Verses on "Spirit and Truth"

The Spiritualist teacher Sebastian Franck specifically argued that the visible church had ceased to exist (Against teachings of Matthew 16:18) and that the true Church "only exists in spirit and in truth".

  • Likely Verse: John 4:24 — "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." Application: Franck used this concept to claim that even non-Christians, such as Muslims and pagans, were part of a universal spiritual church because they were in communion with "the one spirit" rather than a physical organization.

2. Verses Supporting the "Inner Word"

Hans Denck and other Spiritualists taught the doctrine of the "inner word," (against the written Word) believing that the voice of God speaks directly into the individual's heart.

  • Likely Verse: Jeremiah 31:33 — "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts."
  • Application: This supported their belief that inward conviction and "spiritual communication" were the ultimate authorities, even over Scripture.

3. Verses on the Indwelling of Christ

Caspar Schwenckfeld, described as the most intellectual of the group, rejected physical elements like baptism and communion, emphasizing instead the "indwelling of Christ" as the only important element. Christ is this "wholly other."

  • Likely Verse: Colossians 1:27 — "...which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
  • Application: Schwenckfeld argued that Christians only have contact with Christ in an "abstract spiritual way," making physical church membership and ordinances irrelevant.

4. Verses on Universal Salvation

Because they prioritized their own "inner movement" over objective theological structures like justification by faith, some Spiritualists like Denck moved toward universalism.

  • Likely Verse: 1 Corinthians 15:22 — "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive."
  • Application: Denck used his internal revelations to teach the universal salvation of all beings, notoriously including even Satan

Pastor Jeff Jou's sermon at Crossroads on Psalm 3 was no boring matter to me for I memorized this chapter.

First it was just the internet, www, then we have google, and now AI. These are just advances of tools to improve ourselves. Time and time again, we have people fearing it because they do not learn to improve themselves but merely want to rely on their convenient tools more and more. So the fear is warranted, no wonder. Using Google Gemini, a competitor of ChatGPT, I shorten the time for tasks I would do on exhaustive google searches for researches in theology, literature, virtually any knowledge. For lectures, meetings, Granola is amazing at it. And the summaries these AI platforms come up with are virtually identical to human ability.

I have noticed that there are many useful quotes and witty lines these AI could come up with to make understanding clearer. I'm almost certain that the AI got these clever remarks from some human somewhere, and if so, I suppose citation is going to be a problem, we don't want to just keep citing "quote is from Perplexity, DeepSeek, etc." Nevertheless, I should certainly copy these smart lines that the AI comes up with from Sunday School classes, Bible studies, etc.

This morning while on the way to church, Nadia and I also argued over the choice of words used for a fan's "obsession of" vs. "dedication for" her idol. An argument that gone even worst at night. Which was gradually resolved the next day. I believe that this semantic should not be taken too seriously, as one could say "The sinner dedicated his large portion of her time for his idol" or "I'm obsessed with God's word." Many do not understand the idea of a neutral stance of a concept/word. Some words/concepts do not need the quality of good or bad. It's just like Bob asking the pastor yesterday in Men's Group: "How much of that inquisitiveness do you think is God's design as opposed to sinful nature?" But when argument gets heated, it is wise to seek peace and go with what they want to believe: that obsession must always be bad, dedication is for good things only, inquisitiveness must be divided into good and bad, etc.

I believe my methodology in argument was flawed. Nadia was trying to look up the words in the car while I was driving, I unwittingly stopped her doing so when I said that these semantics are relative and subjective to the interpreter in literary context, concluding that whatever she found may not easily help the discussion, I was driving so I thought I could speak fast. I should have played along and waited for her to search those words online, which is an act that I always promote in principle. Slow to speak means think first, think more, take time to pause, especially when driving.

Posted in Art, Computer Science, Faults, Theologization, Vocabularies | Leave a comment

Hyper-Calvinism

Posted on March 23, 2026 by timlyg

To explore this topic, because I've encountered various expressions of such at churches such as GCC, Facebook, etc., I shall begin with this:

Having claims to be elects while not behaving as elects even to a point of rejecting the works of elects as of the Spirit but of selves, does not invalidate the doctrine of election/predestination.

Posted in Theologization | Leave a comment

Journal of the Week

Posted on March 16, 2026 by timlyg

3/20/2026 Friday

After swimming for a few years at LA Fitness, I found out today for the first time that a single swimmer gets to occupy a whole lane for herself. When I asked, may I share the lane, as I usually do when pool is busy, I got the response "No, thank you." I couldn't believe it and had to confirm twice with her. She was kind of a slow swimmer, younger than the usual old ladies who swim at/walk in the pool. Not sure if she was mentally disabled so I didn't bother to argue further, as the unspoken etiquette of these pools is that two can share a lane. Apparently, even in California, LA Fitness pools have seen more than 3, 4 people in a lane. I didn't want to be physically attacked by a handicap, because the way she talked seemed like some autistic child. So I went to the next lane, which was used by an old lady who ignored me but did swim on her side so I could share the lane. I submitted a support ticket (record ID 395214) at LA Fitness website. Not sure if I would get a response, but I was responded to before a while back on other matters. This really should not be a big issue. But the unspoken rule could really be problematic when the pool is busy. I did start from rather waiting for an entire lane to free up before, to just be bold enough to ask to share the lane, why be so individualistic? But after this incident, I think I would need to watch out again, especially for these pathetic selfish placebo seeking folks who can't even swim.

Starting to work on Brian's project regarding his own database for students. This is via his Godaddy account with PHP MySQL approach. Project was actually commenced on 1/28/2026. Then I touched on it around 3/9, and then a follow up with Brian for details on 3/14. Again, this is my failure in discipline as I did promise a couple of weeks completion. This is now due around 3/28. What's amazing is that using AI to write codes have not only saved hours of time but also improved the quality of production.

Fascinations with AI includes new tech vocabularies (at least for me) such as CRUD: SQL Mapping: Create, Read, Update, Delete. Instead of saying "create a page that allows user to edit a MySQL table," just say "CRUD for table."

Another fascination is that I setup 3x Cron Jobs (daily, weekly, monthly) in Brian's Godaddy account to backup two MySQL tables on a schedule. It runs a php script for such exports and keeps the 10 most recent files each table. I even use command line argument $argv[1] to pass parameter to the script to decide if the backup is daily, weekly or monthly.

3/18/2026 Wednesday

I saw on today's Community Observer (daily/weekly paperboy coupons dump on our driveways) an interesting ad: Sayreville United Methodist Church inviting the public to join them in a bus trip to Sight & Sound's Joshua show at 3pm. I checked the deal: $185 per adult: 9am - 8pm bus, show, and buffet lunch. Given the show is $93/adult, lunch can't be more than $20, the round trip bus ride would have to be $70. Which I think is a little bit of a rip off. I think these liberal churches are really desperate for some cash.

21 Coptic Martyrs, a free 13 minute movie/film based on true story. A look at present day martyrdom. That was animation. It seems that there's also a 2026 documentary made about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgN_ulfycTk

推背圖：ancient banned book that predicted the future, written by order of 唐太宗. I think it's still arbitrary, even if they based it on something viz. 易經:

3/16/2026 Monday

It's remarkable that "Clash of Civilizations" predicted by Samuel Huntington was mentioned by 石評天下. I first heard of Huntington from Pak Tong, now I have to read Huntington. Below is Google Gemini summary of the video:

The Five "Lost Cards" of U.S. Hegemony:

  1. Military Myth: The perceived failure of U.S. and Israeli defense systems (like the Iron Dome) to stop Iranian counter-strikes [15:34].
  2. Economic Stability: Tech giants (the "Magnificent Seven") may pull capital back from the Middle East, threatening the U.S. AI bubble [16:04].
  3. Petrodollar: The conflict incentivizes oil-producing nations to move toward the "Petroyuan" and away from U.S. financial dominance [16:33].
  4. International Relations: Western allies are beginning to distance themselves from U.S. policy to avoid being dragged into a broader conflict [16:47].
  5. Civilizational Conflict: The escalation has triggered a "Holy War" (Jihad) decree from 99- and 101-year-old Iranian Grand Ayatollahs, signaling a shift toward the "Clash of Civilizations" predicted by Samuel Huntington [17:19].

From the same video link above, @9:44, new vocabulary learned: 蠱惑 (gu3huo4) = 意指以欺騙、引誘手段使人心意迷亂或迷惑人，常作「蠱惑人心」。

I also learned of this 80s novel called: Satanic Verses that provoked the Islamic world, especially Iran.

Also interesting to note that the video brought up religion or China's "atheism" stand. Shi interpreted China's stand not as rejection of God, but more of a "宗教不和凌駕一切" @25:40, religion cannot be superior to everything, i.e. not allowed to judge politics. So I think it's more of an agnostic but idolizing politics/pragmatism.

So I commented this on SOLA Media's episode on ChatGPT:

While I thank you all for most other episodes, the treatment of this ChatGPT stuff is so poor.

The main problem people go to ChatGPT is lack of good pastoral examples. Sometimes it's due to overwhelming work load, sometimes just due to laziness. I remember asking Horton something but never got any response back, so why would I not go to ChatGPT?

Secondly, ChatGPT is really just a tool like one goes to the library. Do you believe everything the books in a library say? So it's just due diligence. Church leaders should educate members to not rely on pastors but on themselves to seek the Kingdom (if you say relying on the Holy Spirit instead, you're not listening even here properly to what I'm saying, forget your own members, you're really off the rail to be on the same page of what I'm talking about because you cannot be a true Christian if you don't believe in the Trinity.)

You guys reminded me of the complaints we keep hearing when cars were out replacing horse chariots. Com'n, you are not Amish are you?

Posted in Faults, Theologization, Vocabularies | Leave a comment

Podcast Addict App - Playback Speed and Dynamic Episode Duration

Posted on March 14, 2026 by timlyg

AI said there's no such settings before, but thanks to another googling, reddit gives the solution: The duration status bar display can be toggled in Settings/Display(Advanced)/Episodes/Duration with Playback Speed.

I needed to disable it because I was used to figuring out the duration in my head as I am aware of what speed I'm playing as well as I need to know the standard duration of each episode.

Posted in Computer Science | Leave a comment

My WordPress gave this error: "Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension" after upgrading php (version 8.4) in Godaddy

Posted on March 12, 2026 by timlyg

I upgraded PHP "manually" in Godaddy to avoid the $35/month PHP up to date feature. I think it's also time to find a new web space host with the coming renewal on 3/26 for $15/month. IONOS seems to be the choice on Reddit (over Hostinger).

Google AI overview solution works:

Step-by-Step Guide for GoDaddy cPanel

  1. Log in to your GoDaddy account.
  2. Navigate to your Web Hosting product page and select Manage next to the desired cPanel account.
  3. In the account Dashboard, select cPanel Admin.
  4. Once in cPanel, under the Software section, select Select PHP Version.
  5. On the PHP Version page, check the boxes for the necessary MySQL extensions. You will likely need:
    • mysqli
    • pdo_mysql (sometimes enabled by enabling mysqlnd)
    • mysqlnd (often a core component for modern PHP MySQL interactions)
  6. The changes should save automatically, and a success message will appear.
  7. Reload your website to check if the error is resolved.
Posted in Computer Science | Leave a comment

Those who love to say if you're not Right (or left) you're not Christian...

Posted on March 11, 2026 by timlyg

True Christianity is neither Right nor Left. The main flaws of right & left wing Christians are generally Christological:

Right wing Christians essentially deny the CREATED nature (humanity) of Christ;

Left wing Christians essentially deny the UNCREATED nature (divinity) of Christ.

Though neither would admit it on the surface.

I've also posted this on Facebook to see reaction. This is because I have seen too many Christian conservatives blaming only the Left for all the problems in politics.

Therefore, the Right wing Christians' Christ is essentially a superstitious one; while the Left Christians anthropomorphize everything (i.e. pets, and even God) anthropocentrically.

Posted in Theologization | Leave a comment

Butterfly Swim Technique - Training for lift creation via body undulation instead of arm strength

Posted on March 9, 2026 by timlyg

https://www.facebook.com/reel/929151969662506/?tn=%2CO

Two key takeaways:

• Use your body undulation to create lift through the chest so your arms can focus on moving you forward. Fly is rhythm first, strength second.

• Pinch your shoulder blades on recovery. Scapular retraction lets your back muscles carry the arms instead of muscling through with the front shoulders. Flow with ease.

This is the kind of detail we love breaking down — because fast swimming is built on mechanics, not just grit.

Posted in Biology | Leave a comment

Database Project for Brian

Posted on March 9, 2026 by timlyg

This is a simple php database project that will imitate the school's database, but web-based. With a simple login session token as security.

I am to recall some programming skills from the past: Login mechanism with session tokens, phpMyAdmin/MySQL database: 3 foundational files: Login.php, dashboard.php, logout.php.

First, we needed to connect his godaddy nycfox.com domain with his economy hosting plan. This was done from the CPanel's domains category. After the link just wait for a few minutes (standard max is 48 hours.)

Here's outline of the project:

  • Create MySQL database tables
  • Create table form on website that has pagination logic (next button that scrolls through table records.)
  • edit capability of each record fields
  • addition/deletion of records
  • Search feature
  • backdoor for self-destruct (standard project practice in case of getting screwed by clients)?
Posted in Computer Science, Projects | Leave a comment

Journal of the Week

Posted on March 9, 2026 by timlyg

03/14/2026 Saturday

I get newsletters from Hillsdale College, they have podcasts, they have articles on conservatism. They are also claiming to be a Christian school, founded by Free Will Baptists. However, if they promote so much to be affiliated with Trump's White House, it would be interesting to see if they could maintain that relationship with the White House when Democrats took over. A test of hypocrisy-proof so to speak.

03/13/2026 Friday

In my Japanese studies (realizing that Japanese are quite a hospitable culture, bringing you food when you're not expected, yes I was watching Nodame Cantabile), I looked back to the time when I was at Ouachita Baptist University. Apparently they are still actively doing exchange student program with Japan as of 2026, according to Google AI: Yes, Ouachita Baptist University (OBU) continues to have a partnership with Japanese universities, including a long-standing 50-year partnership with Seinan Gakuin University. What I regret, is that I did not use that time to immerse myself with Japanese friends I met there. Many of whom were very nice. A Japanese female student (I could hardly remember most of their names now) even served me some soup or tea while I was posting for dormitory security at her dorm. I was too childish back then. Backward in social skill and discipline.

The raid on Cambodia's scam telecommunication center is quite enlightening:

03/10/2026 Tuesday

MBC's Behind the Pulpit Podcast: Just War Behind the Pulpit S4E21. On dealing with disabilities in the church - after grief, progress to belonging over inclusion of them to the church.

03/08/2026 Sunday

This marked the 2nd week of our return to Grace Church's Sunday School, thanks to Crossroads Church's split into two services. At this rate, we're going to the later service (11am) instead of the earlier one (9am) after Easter choir performance as planned. If we go to the 9am Crossroads service, we cannot go to GCC's Sunday School. After Crossroads Church service I explored Main Street a little to downtown by foot and came a cross an interesting plant store which offer classes (bonsai, terrariums): Spotted Leaf Plant Company. I had to rush back when I realized that it was already 12:53pm, because choir rehearsal was at 1pm, and I wasn't aware I started my exploration at 12:30pm, and not 12pm.

I do enjoy GCC's Pastor Chris' Sunday School in general. A lot more than his sermons. And with the help of AI, I certainly learned a ton:

For example, today, we were talking about John Calvin, these are mostly from my AI assisted learning:

  • This got me looking up 16th Century European Social Cohesion (one shared faith of the entire city) vs Anabaptist's Voluntary Church which was seen as dangerously radical. The social cohesion is understandable especially due to immediate conversion from Catholic to Protestantism.
  • Anabaptists differ from general Baptists mainly in that Anabaptists want total isolation from the world: no civil duty, no military participation: ancestors of Mennonites, Amish, and Hutterites.
  • Reading a few pages of Calvin's Treatise Against Anabaptists
  • AI correction of Pastor Chris' note that Michael Servetus advocacy of death penalty to heretics (Servetus only advocated for capital punishment against his nature when he was invoking Lex Talionis - eye for an eye retaliation, against Calvin's accusation)
  • The fact that Infant Baptism in the Rome of Protestants (Geneva) was viewed as birth certificate (You can't be church member if you are not citizen or vice versa) Rejection of it is considered treason/social sedition.
  • How post Catholic Geneva was funded by Calvin's rejection of Roman Catholic Church wealth which was mainly used for civil affairs under the culture mandate, rather than for clerical greed from the rule of Prince-Bishopric Catholic system. Moving "inherited" Catholic wealth (Bishop-owned estates, gold plated altars, etc.) from Sacred Realm into Common Realm.
  • Calvin's Duplex Regimen: Spiritual Kingdom (led by consistory) & P0litical Kingdom (by magistrates), dreaming for a holy commonwealth of separate functions rather than separate rules.
  • My own conclusion: Calvin's Institutes can be recognized as a combination of Biblical Theology and Systematic Theology, predating the categorization of these two.
  • My opinion: The secularization of Geneva today, and the like-European countries, is not necessarily due to a State-Church (State supported church) system, but a lack/rejection of a Gospel/Evangelical centered life.
  • Philip Melanchthon's Loci Communes as the first Reformed Systematic Theology work. Calvin then took it to make it more organic.
  • Constantinianism - Emperor rules both church and state. Roman Catholicism - Bishop rules both. Calvin's Genevan experiment - church is like public utility, ministers are public servants, not human sovereign ruler for/from either church or state.
Posted in Reflection, Theologization | Leave a comment

The Complex Origins of Chinese Surnames EXPLAINED

Posted on March 4, 2026 by timlyg

There are films that go with this youtube channel. A good source of films to learn about Chinese History.

Posted in Geography | Leave a comment