I have called this type "low IQ" or lack of creativity, abandoning an important gift God instilled in man. They would even think that the Bible does not promote fiction, that Jesus' parables do not include use real names, in fact, some would even go as far as considering Jesus' parables as real history, real events that actually happened somewhere in time. To them, fiction = lie/false testimony and thus breaking biblical law. I don't know if they are honest with this belief or not. It may not have started honestly in the beginning but because they felt jealous for unable to keep up with the metaphors, they committed themselves into such shallowness to save their ego. My theory anyway.
I asked ChatGPT and this is the interesting answer I get:
There isn’t a widely recognized psychological term specifically for people who refuse to engage with fiction because it’s not real, but there are a few concepts that might explain their mindset:
Literalism – Some people have a very literal way of thinking and struggle to see the value in things that aren't factual or real.
Pragmatism Extremism – Some highly pragmatic people see fiction as a "waste of time" because it doesn't directly contribute to real-world knowledge or success.
Reality Bias (or Hyperrealism) – A cognitive bias where people overly prioritize real-world experiences and dismiss anything that isn’t grounded in reality.
Fictional Apathy – Not an official term, but could describe people who just don’t see the point of fiction because it doesn’t reflect real life.
Neophilia Deficiency – A lack of interest in imaginative or novel ideas, preferring only tangible, real-world things.
Some might even argue it's a form of "fictional nihilism"—a belief that if something isn’t real, it has no value.
Frederick McCubbin's The Pioneer in 1904, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, illustration of husband and wife starting a new life (left) - husband struggling while wife wondering their future, family (center) - new born baby, new generation by his parent's grave with the new city in the far background (right), Tong uses this to illustrate sabbath REST comes after hard work:
Painting of the day: Off, illustrating an apparent rejection by a young woman in a floral dress and straw hat: Painted by Edmund Blair Leighton (1852-1922) Painted in 1899, Oil on canvas Manchester Art Gallery, England. The artist is known for his pre-Raphaelite movement (due to the Nazarene movement/Christian Spiritual style painting: unrestricted by conventional academic poses of the likes of Raphael, Michelangelo) and painting style of women in medieval fashion yet popular appeal figure in romanticized scenes.
Painting of the day: The Rich man and Lazarus, drawing by Eugène Burnand (1850-1921), Drawn in 1899, Pencil and graphite on paper, Musée Eugène Burnand, Moudon. Burnand is the same artist that painted the famous Disciples Peter and John running to the Tomb 1889:
3/20/2025 Painting of the day: Saint Joseph and the Christ Child by Guido Reni (1575–1642). Painted in 1640, Oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston:
There are tons of contrast, bright baby, divine, authoritative, floating light, first fruit; old Joseph in the dark, fallen, hopeful, worshipful, happy, unburdened.
I feel that Guido's Joseph's kind of old. He should be in his 30s, so here is my photoshopped version, thanks to ChatGPT's 5-6 steps (duplicate layers, spot healing brush tool & clone stamp tool remove wrinkles and blend younger skin, Soft Brush tool paint hairs darker in new opaque layer, Dodge/Burn tool to brighten and darken areas), instructions, Guido will be proud:
I backed up the above two videos in my Chinese Films drive Under folder: 太平天国 The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom/Intro by Youtuber Jared Madsen.
3/19/2025 I wasn't aware that Westminster Theological Seminar (WTS) on campus study is free. Many Chinese believers believe wrongly that you need a calling to go study at a seminar, and by calling the Chinese refers to calling to become a pastor, preacher, etc. (so I'm not speaking of some generic calling, i.e. calling to do any "christian" thing like picking up laundry). WTS dispelled this lie in #2:
3/18/2025 Christian art of the day: Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (German, 1736–1783). A Hypocrite and a Slanderer, ca. 1770–83. Tin alloy. The title was given after the sculptor's death, so his true intent for this piece remains speculative. This is one of nearly seventy head pieces, or Kopfstücke. Combination of realism and caricature.
Understand these7 optical illusions to be a better designer.
A very light weight lookalike for classic Photoshop: Fedit on Github, single standalone exe file under 800KB. Not bad considering the size, and it's opensource.
3/17/2025 On how Christopher Yuan view heterosexuality: "Homosexuality is fully wrong, heterosexuality is not fully right, it's a secular Freudian concept..." My comment on FB:
I can agree with that, that heterosexuality is more of an American-Christian view, not THE Christian view, nevertheless, I would have to seriously question Yuan's fellowship/family living, Jesus was quick to reject the kind of celibate lifestyle American Christians are advocating for some today, having the right attraction does matter, just not the American way. So singleness is not the result nor an excuse of a superstitious view of the lack of attraction.
Work, face challenges triumphantly, and always enjoy the Sabbath Rest in the Lord of the Sabbath whom we long, not just saying "Lord, Quickly Come", obey the Sabbath DAY, and avoid trouble. To say, "Lord, quickly come" is twofold. One good, one bad. One treasures grace, the other abuses grace. One is to diligently examine one's own life in order meet the Lord in triumph; the other is enduring suffering elusively until meeting the Lord in bliss:
A curious look at a 3 hour history of Music Videos, from this article:
Didache was covered in Sunday School. A brief survey by the pastor, may take two weeks. ChatGPT and others can easily summarize Didache very well:
@6:00 Pastor: The key is to know what's real. I think that's not the issue, as all opposing parties at this point in general do sincerely believe their own views to be the truth. The issue is always been who's interpretation holds more water, more faithful to what's real/truth.
@15:20 on Chapter 4. Various Precepts: My child, him that speaks to you the word of God remember night and day; and you shall honour him as the Lord; for in the place whence lordly rule is uttered, there is the Lord...Pastor asked what is it, Kathy answered: Is it saying that you should honor the person that is teaching you, your pastor = the Lord. Paradoxical view: I'm not sure if anyone in the pastor worship mode gets this.
@22:50 on Chapter 7, Baptism. This is a fun one. 1. Running/living water and cold water is preferred. I looked up, seems to be signifying cleansing nature of the living water as well as a shocking effect (awakening the soul) of the cold water rather than the warm cozy type of water. @23:55 Patty, as I have been anticipating since previous chapter of the Didache, as attentive as she has always been, finally had to speak up from her Oneness church's point of view, that the formula of baptism should be in only Jesus' name and not the Trinity, according to their understanding of Acts. I was relieved when the pastor answered it properly with the formula Jesus gave. However, I think the pastor messed up in @24:50 by conflating Jesus with the Trinity: "...but if you're baptized into who He [Jesus, per Acts] is, and He is?! Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as well as Son?!, then that's Christian baptism..." But at least this part is tackled against Patty by the pastor, that Jesus commanded so. Hopefully she will eventually learned that Oneness actually rejects the Trinity as a whole rather than redefining the word trinity, which is her confusion of it all and the pastor's latter part didn't help much in that. As for Acts, I've already done an in-depth take in another entry. I've told Nadia enough that she was anticipating this as well. So that was how I teach Nadia, through much patience in the theology and pedagogy of time. I told Nadia later that what would bring me joy is for Patty to want to baptize "again" properly. We shall see, until then, I am not making any business out of this since my priority is the Gospel and I'm not an elder.
@28:00 Pouring of water was apparently okay for the apostles. This results in a rather comprehensive discussion of Baptist's view. I told Nadia that Eleni conveniently (as a reformed Baptist) sat this one out due to her cold. Tom even made the pastor went on and on about infant baptism. Pastor: I do not believe Pentecost fully immersed all 3000 people. I tried to get the pastor say more by asking him what would the best defense of a Baptist on this. After he danced around (on what the word baptism means), I pushed, and he said, ask a Baptist. I'll take this as he just humbly admitting he doesn't know. He should think further as I wasn't setting it out to be a gotcha question, but at this point, I'm fine with it already, not surprising to me anymore.
I've been wanting to do this for a while. First it was motivated by Stephen Tong decades ago when he spoke of Christian Arts in NYC. Then Ron Choong had his book about the MET's artifacts that linked to ancient Christian influenced cultures. I also saw from time to time, at the MET Museum, a prolific Bible Tour group called the OASIS Biblical Tours, which is a Jehovah's Witnesses affiliated organization, whose tours at the MET I'm not familiar with (wonder if I just piggybacked it for free instead of $39?). So I've been wanting to catalogue my own Biblical tour of the MET.
Christian.Art is perhaps a good source for this as well. A Catholic run program with newsletters and forums. They probably don't target the MET in general, but the first short article I was emailed from them was a white marble Table Base with Jonah Swallowed and Cast Up by the Big Fish sculptor in Asia Minor in the 300s at the MET. I don't even know I've seen this before.
So, let's begin here, with the MET & Christian related Arts.
3/13/2025Bible Study at GCC on Proverbs 20:22-21:4. I spoke more this time. So here's some disagreements and agreements:
Proverbs 20:22, can be looked deeper than "vengeance belongs to God". Retribution wasn't quite touched on seriously, though it's not the focus of the verse, it does beg the question, because it's important to not just turn away from all evils.
Proverbs 20:24, Non-Christian view was discussed more: "wanting self-control against God's authority". I tried to focus this from a Christian's perspective, as most Scripture really is targeting Christian listeners, not non-Christians and certainly not for Christians to laugh at non-Christians. Rob rightly pointed to Proberbs 16:9, that a person's active action is still important.
@18:30 Pastor rightly corrected Patty's misunderstanding of verse 25 in reverse: Esau lets go of his birthright. This verse is about claiming something godly, not letting go something godly.
@19:30 Phil rightly used the Acts 5's Ananias with Sapphira's case for verse 25, even though the pastor said it's more about deception. Those who rashly devoted something holy are falsely exercising deception wither one admits it or not. To the pastor's credit on this, the verse is a warning to the seriousness of making vows, the second part of the verse was not "apparent" by Ananias and his wife. However, the entire verse can still be applied to the couple in Acts 5. John Gill would agree with Phil on this verse.
@22:40 Pastor used Martin Luther's example of making vow to become a monk to St. Anne in lightning storm. The pastor seems to want to believe Luther did it out of sincerity, I would agree as Luther did fulfil his vow without a second thought. This is not to justify a praying to a patron saint or being a monk. So I think the pastor used this as a counter example to vain vows.
@23:46 The pastor does not condone marrying a "random" girl just because you got her pregnant, as traditionally imposed. I would say that the pastor is in direct violation of the moral law in Exodus 22:16-17. This disagreement would take a long time and I had a soundbite response/question: "So how is the alternative better, unless doing nothing is always better which is another error". But I did not use that, instead, I foolishly said something based on another assumption, that there's a chance for the child to be raised right despite the fact. I think Phil would also disagree with the pastor as well, if not more in the crowd, but only I, Phil and Nadia spoke up/question the pastor's opinion. @28:50 When Nadia challenged the pastor by piggybacking my response, "What if they meant their vow", she caught his Achilles's heel, because the pastor's response was a bit lame: "They meant it it's good, but this verse is when they don't mean it", as if the pastor was going for either there are fake vows, which is not the context of this verse, or that failure to fulfil a vow invalidate the sincerity at the time of the vow. The pastor is wrong again @29:20 "getting married for cultural reason", the context being the example he gave (so I'm not talking about everyone in the village is married so you must be married), because God does sometimes use cultural pressure as a secondary means of grace to enforce of his precepts, i.e. to maintain a family structure rather than some anti-family orphan upbringing. The fact that "your heart's not there, thus the vow is invalid" is also a stretch. Sometimes holy things can be passively moved by God. Also, the alternative can only be worse anyway (viz. Destruction of society) so man up and learn the vow. Other than Phil and I or Nadia, seems like everyone else's responses really just somehow missed the fact that they are comfortable with abandoning the baby or giving the baby away somehow, for I don't know how else are you caring for your baby rightly before God if you are not a married parents. The pastor would only be right if we are applying absolutely the principle of "other people's business is none of our business" which I would say is unbiblical for a Christian.
@33:10 Nadia rightly brought up Jephthah and his daughter. It seems that the pastor is one opined with the idea that he killed his daughter, which I would also agree.
@43:20 Proverbs 20:30 I can agree with the pastor, that this is not just about spare the rod spoil the child, but also corporal punishment. However, our differences come when the pastor does not condone non-relative's corporal punishment (@48:45). This only raise a lot of obvious questions: Define corporal punishment (i.e. does pushups count? running rounds? writing 20 lines on the board?, etc.), so the government has no right to punish...corporally? etc. I foolishly again to just claim that I was more familiar with corporal punishment when the pastor said [in the modern West] that corporal punishment is a strange thing. I should have worded better, i.e. "we, the East, don't agree the American way, but we also need to play smart by not getting into the legal issues of the West" @46:50 Though Esther's parents are wise to schedule corporal punishment, so not to mix abuse of anger, "despising you" with God's wrath, I do not agree (even after discussing with the pastor briefly after the session) that it was right for her father to apologize while executing the punishment. To quote 2 Peter 3:9 "...not wanting anyone to perish..." or that @1:08:20 "no judge really wants to kill anybody" [shifting to capital punishment--off topic?] being harmed and thus maybe apologizing (or proclaiming "regret") to the criminal for the punishment levied, still do not justify saying sorry or feeling bad or tearing up while executing the judgment. It is not biblical because like God, we do not mix justice with mercy/regret/sadness/apology, and certainly not apology. It actually is a kind of unholiness. Perhaps Rob agrees with me I don't know @1:11:25. Execution of punishment does not imply desire to punish. Apologizing in sorrow and tears does not properly convey the true goal of discipline (erroneously advocating compassion from sinners instead is having sinners own their sins and repent for the grace of God).
Proverbs 21:3 @52:15 Nadia enjoyed bringing up Taylor Swift's line "Band aids don't fix bullet holes. You say sorry just for show", to the pastor's agreement of the use of this example. and even playing it in the car again.
@53:20 Mary pushed beyond the decided last verse of the day to verse 4. I appreciate the pastor @54:10 being honest indicating he's not prepared to answer that after giving a brief explanation. I believe others have expressed praise for this rare character of the pastor as well. @54:03 On verse 4's "plowing of the wicked" Interesting that Elizabeth's Bible version "fallow ground..." is LSB (Legacy Standard Bible) which is from John MacArthur's The Master's Seminary in 2021. And interestingly, the word ניר H5215 for plowing or fallow ground could also mean lamp H5216 (HASB, ESV, NIV).
A comparison of AI: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity.
3/12/2025 So far the best interactive mapplotting all battlefields since 2500 BC. Using Wikipedia as source.
Chinese titles for foreigners explained: 老外，洋人，鬼佬 (Cantonese)=白人/诡诈：
The video did not mention 红毛人(Hokkien), but that's self-explanatory.
We spent 3 cents to make a penny. Hence Trump wants to stop it:
Tin Pan Alley, 28th Street between 5th and 6th Ave., historical landmark for music, Mr You had a video at the end of this clip about it (the next video below this is the full version 5 years ago), I should open my eyes next time I come across it, as it's so close to NYGC:
The AAA free class on this was hosted by Stan Honda. Suggested website for tracking information is timeanddate.com. Stan know photography. So this is in anticipation of the coming Lunar Eclipse.
Honda's suggested exposure setting:
Telephoto zoom: focus on moon Wide angle: focus on distant building or bright light
Manual mode, don't use Auto. Partial phases: need to "overexpose" by 1+ f-stops to maintain brightness Suggest using spot meter setting in camera At start - similar to full moon: ISO800, 1/1000 sec, f5.6 Closer to Totality: ISO800, 1/125 sec, f5.6
For Composites: Need sequence of images at regular intervals Suggest 1-minute intervals Use wireless/wired remote interval timer or internal interval timer in the camera May need to adjust exposure setting leading up to totality Will need to adjust exposure for totality Check focus every 20-30 min. Star trail photography freeware recommended: StarStaX
AAA has tutorials on various related subjects on youtube.
This is the time table for Perth Amboy:
Magnitude 1.1782 Duration 6h, 2m, 41s Duration of totality 1h, 5m, 20s Penumbral begins Mar 13 at 11:57:28 pm Partial begins Mar 14 at 1:09:40 am Full begins Mar 14 at 2:26:06 am Maximum Mar 14 at 2:58:43 am Full ends Mar 14 at 3:31:26 am Partial ends Mar 14 at 4:47:52 am Penumbral ends Mar 14 at 6:00:09 am
3/8/2025 Aquarium Update of Green Hair Algae condition from 1/26 - 3/08, RO/DI first used around 2/27. Today is the second water change with RODI.
3/7/2025Stateful vs. Stateless Architecture in Software Development: An overview.
3/6/2025Roy Lee of Columbia University used AI to cheat on Amazon tech job interview (FAANG's brutal technical interviews) and Leetcode got a lot of attention. He was ratted to his university's discipline and he saw no point to stay in the school, sharing his knowledge on GitHub and a video that's been taken down by Youtube claiming Amazon copyright. Amazon was mad and Lee documented the reactions on X.
After Stephen Tong on George Muller, I looked it up, his servitude by faith was impressive, like Stephen Tong, Muller was also known for not soliciting donations, google AI answer:
George Müller, a 19th-century preacher, famously relied on prayer and faith to provide for his orphanages, never soliciting donations or incurring debt, and famously had stories of miraculous provision during times of need, including food being miraculously delivered.
Here's a more detailed look at George Müller's faith and his orphanage ministry:
Unwavering Faith: Müller, a man of deep faith, believed that God would provide for the needs of the orphans under his care through prayer and faith alone.
No Soliciting Donations: He never asked for donations or engaged in fundraising activities, instead trusting God to move people to provide what was needed.
Miraculous Provision: Stories abound of God's miraculous provision for the orphans, often at the last minute, including instances of food being delivered unexpectedly.
A Baker's Story: One famous story recounts how a baker, feeling led by God, woke up in the middle of the night and baked bread for the orphans, delivering it just in time for breakfast.
A Milkman's Blessing: Another story involves a milkman whose cart broke down in front of the orphanage, offering his milk to the children, as it would spoil otherwise.
Charles Dickens' Visit: Even the famous novelist Charles Dickens visited the orphanage after hearing rumors of starvation, but he found that the children were well-fed and cared for.
Educational and Spiritual Focus: Müller not only provided for the physical needs of the orphans but also focused on their education and spiritual well-being, establishing schools and providing Christian instruction.
Caring for 10,000 Orphans: During his lifetime, Müller cared for over 10,000 orphans, demonstrating the power of faith and prayer in providing for the needs of others.
Leaving a Legacy: Müller's ministry left a lasting legacy of faith and trust in God, inspiring people to rely on prayer and believe in God's provision.
3/5/2025AI Voice - using imperfection to imitate human better.
First kind of faith (Rom 1:18) = natural faith, from realm of common grace:
The 2nd kind of faith is the special group that we should focus on in evangelism ~ Stephen Tong. First kind is built in in all naturally to grasp common revelation, 2nd kind is those who do not wish to suppress the first kind. This 2nd kind is not the same as the kind that is produced after listening to the word:
3rd kind of faith - from listening to the Word:
4th kind of faith, from the Holy Spirit in order to serve (1Cor 12:9):
3/4/2025Aquifer - underground layer of water bearing material. Learned this via facebook: The Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer, which is the largest aquifer in New Jersey, taking up the entire south of the state. Aquifer is said to be mapped via borehole data (samples from hole digging), geophysical surveys, pumping tests, distinguishing layers of sand and clay to map it. But generally not done by GPR (ground penetrating radar) which is useful only for the first 100 feet or so depending on soil condition, etc.
3/2/2025Jacob Stopak made learning Git simple by gamifying it from Git-Sim to Doom game.
