ggtggthn

I finally got high speed internet and the whole system (TV, phone, internet, computer, cable, etc). Now I found out the LJ is indeed slow which previously I thought it was my slow connection.

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[1]http://nicksmusings.blogspot.com/2007/02/facing-giants.html

Life is cool. Still spinning from all the partying. Haven't met so many people for a long time and it was a bit overwhelming. Previous new year celebration was much quieter. Right, because I went to bed before the ball drop. But not this year. We went to bed late and woke up late (my standard of course). Some would have wanted to sleep in a bit later.

Saw a few films over the holiday.
Evan Almighty - kind of okay. Strange dad. good message (about God giving you the opportunity to impact the world and we may not like it because it wasn't the way we imagine it).

AVP - This was too much for me. I don't mind the killing. But it all pointless. Love story didn't develop. Good guys (like the sheriff) died.

A Cinderella story - sweet story.

Alvin & Chipmunk - good. I like this a lot. about friendship & family. I like Uncle Ian; he is what make the story so good. I like the part about nightmare and he said his when he wake up doesn't go away.

Material Girls - didn't get much into it. It was okay.

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Psalms really gets me thinking.
right now I'm reading Psalm 119. I believe this psalm is a key to understand the Bible. I got my confirmation.

I'm been thinking on verse one over and over. Every word is meaningful. The chapter is boring only if you read it too quickly.

Been a wacko week. Cousins came from LA to visit. Squeezing time out to see them. Kind of fun that we stayed late and drank tea and ate dessert (dim sum). And was so tire the next day.

Watched Saw2 - horrible bloody movie.

Purchased a Game Boy Advance (GBA) with Pokemon Fire Red. Been playing on the Metro and got motion sickness (to the point of about to throw up). It was very bad this morning. It is funny that I can read the Bible or other books on the train and be alright.

Good news, that my speeding ticket is okay. It was covered by the blood of the lamb. Was an awesome moment of my life to stand before a judge. There is a judge that all of us have to stand one day and declare whether we are guilty or not guilty.

Saw Rush Hour 3 again. I don't know what to think of it. There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

I think the movie "Lion for the lamb" is interesting. Is it some kind of a trap/ a trade? A Lion for the lamb? It would make sense to sacrifice a lamb to capture a lion but other way around doesn't make much sense.

The movie Legend has an interesting title but it seems to be just like another movie of Being last one on the earth. It doesn't entice me to see the film.

-Shoot 'Em Up

A man trying to save a baby from being kill by the mafia. The first thought came to my mind was baby Jesus escaping from King Herod's wrath as giving the book of Revelation taking place as the Dragon chasing the woman and child. Why? because I just hear or read the exposition on Revelation of the passage some time ago during last week.

-Resident Evil Extinction
I like the trailer. The quote is so cool that having being able to survive the apocalypse and Armageddon but they are about to face extinction. Of course if we take it seriously all those terms mean end time (and really who would be able to escape from God?) But then it's still a good fantasy to watch and of course for the super girl's action.

-Beowulf
seemed interesting. I will make you King to reign forever if you would bear my child? go hunting for biblical analogy? nah. I haven't read this in literature class but I know is definitely a classic. Probably I would go to the library and check out the book, but those classics are hard to read. And I don't have a connection with poems especially the translated ones.

Watched on "Nova Now"[1] last night about bacteria talking to each other. Bonnie Bassler's discovered the mechanism called quorum sensing that bacteria use for see if they have enough of them around to do something together as a group, like let all glow in the dark. The bacteria she used is Vibrio harveyi.

[1] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3401/04-bact.html

Spent last weekend with the guys doing a service project, and hanging out afterward. We saw Spiderman 3. It is one of those movie I gotta see to find out what's next even though reviews for it weren't that great. Was I disappointed? Yes and no. I enjoyed it from a story side / and as a fan who must excuse the sloppy work of putting together mini events. I was a movie I kept on thinking through the next few days.

Major things for me are:
Movies is so much more effective in conveying life lessons than what I have been trying to teach in Sunday School for the past quarter. I'm not saying this is good or bad.

Sin or evil is represented by the black glob that possesses Spiderman. Ya, sin is a serious business. It influences you to do things you don't want to do and hurts those you love. It may seem innocently fun at first but it possesses.

It bothers me that it is something we can have controlled over - and Spiderman overcame his problem by getting rid of the thing while the other chose to die over it. We can be misled into thinking like Spiderman to use its special power fighting crimes and be cool for while and then worry about getting rid of it later. Also it comes across that if you have big trouble you better deal with it yourself.

But fundamentally, sin is it is in us - even we can try character improvement by getting rid of our big faults like anger (parallel in getting rid of the blob) - we are still bad. One can walk away from the movie accepting the world view that little bad is ok and big bad is not.

The question this asks is what so bad about ourselves? Why worry about something we can't change? Ya being perfect is a noble idea but everyone got to live with the small faults.

Throughout the week I keep asking myself why am I bother to put Christian values on a secular film. It is because of world view - everyone get one. We need to recognize what is being presented and what other people around us believe. A major point is because we need a deliverer from ourselves.

Anger and envy were a major theme[1]. There were lot of materials on relationship that didn't work out. What brought to mind was Young's examples of two perfect people doesn't mean a perfect relationship. And from the movie, Peter Parker deliberately made Jane Watson jealous with his special dance at the jazz club -- it left a big impression. Then the domestic violence scene afterward when he pushed her. - ya big impressions.

Third, was inconsistency of characters. How could someone be suddenly both good and bad? Ya a lot of them are under the influence of some kind. I like movie that good guys are really good and bad guys are totally bad.

Flint Marko, Sandman: Ya, he seems like a bad guy in the beginning but he is basically good. Why did he almost killed Spiderman? Was he truly sorry for killing Spiderman's uncle? He is a good guy at heart but just can't control his need for stealing and the great power he has. Oh I also like how he is invincible.

Venom is most fun to watch, ya seems like a really good guy in the beginning but ya he wanted Spiderman dead and he prayed to God about this (and it was just so funny). It is like the director just decidedly chose him do the bad deed - someone need to the bad thing to end the movie (Judas allusion?).

Harry Osborn, New Goblin: This is a conflicted guy. Spiderman treated him as a true friend but time again and again he tried to kill him. For me, I would stay as far as I could. Yes, maybe he is under the influence of his father or maybe some of the stuff he injected himself to become the Green Goblin.

Spiderman he was a good guys but the blob turned him into that (Young, yup, would say that's us inside most of the time).

Fourth: forgiveness. I didn't go too well with me. It seems Spiderman is a good guy and he is expected to forgive everyone. I think Spiderman do truly forgive the Sandman, The Venom guy, and Harry even though each were trying to kill him. It bothers me that forgiveness didn't come with a cost.

Overall, the movie is very serious and it covers much. I liked it but those probably caused it to not sell too well. I believe in each Spiderman movie, the director tried to cram in as many villains and topics from the entire comic series into that short hour and half movie trilogy. Of all three movies, I like this one the best.

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[1] http://ladylavinia.livejournal.com/36681.html

Secrets of the dead: Battle of the Bible
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_bible/index.html?campaign=pbshomefeatures_2_secretsofthedeadbrbattleforthebible_2007-04-25

I had a refreshing evening watching the PBS documentary Battle of the Bible. It was well done. I think this can be shown in the public school's Bible classes (mentioned in a recent Time magazine's article).

I learned some history like William Tyndale may have fled to Germany to finish the New Testament. He was later betrayed by a friend who turned him in to authority. Also two months after his death, his last wish was fulfilled, that the Bible in English was freely read throughout England -- King Henry VIII made his Bible a must read book for everyone. Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, was much behind the transformation and he too was later burned at the stack during the reign of Mary.

I like the point that Tyndale Bible was printed in as a pocket size so as to be easily smuggled into England, but besides that it was to be easily carry by people and to be read whenever and where ever. His point was to make the Bible accessible. And also on the point that Tyndale aimed to have his Bible to be read out loud. There was the image that a farmer reading the Bible to his people gathering around him while contrasting that in a priest reading the Latin text alone in a church.

If the young people finding the Bible hard to understand, boring, heavy to carry around, uncool, and not dangerous or revolutionary, we are missing something. This reminds me of what Post-modernism does: we lost the meaning, can't communicate and we are always on-the-go. But if suddenly, someone would say to his friends, listen to this little book that says "Cool are people who are poor in spirit ... " (That verse was repeated many times during the film). This reminds me to try to get a pocket size The Message Bible.

One of the biggest issues that fractured the church then was the people can determine by themselves what the Bible say rather than a priest or the church. Bible should be the final authority on church doctrines and practices (sola scriptura). A certain theologians, Tyndale included, came to believe that salvation to eternal life cannot be achieved by a person's good work or influence but solely on God's own choosing and can only be obtained through faith alone (sola fide). Justification by faith alone became the central pillar of the Protestant movement.

People can walk away from the documentary thinking that the Bible is no longer relevant today. Though it sparked the democracy tradition of religion freedom in England and in America but that is all there is. Religion mattered so much then, but now is a play on one emotions. The proof is seen from many forms of Christian denominations and they all seem to be the same stuff, weirdo.

Harry Potter:
Just been catching up with the movies. Thank you Steve and Amy.

I think they were good. Either you are a fan or you not. I can see why some people can't like it. In the movie the main plot is harder to follow because there are fewer retelling of what happen as in the book. So you can't jump around or jump in the middle of the series and able to understand. Why would you do that? With movie people sometimes just watch with their friends when a new series come out and they haven't seen the beginning. They hope they can just catch up. So there are things that seem just stupid why Harry Potter does a certain things.

And also unless you really like about magic it seems silly to them because it just a mumble of words and why it can solve every problem. It begs the questions why not use magic and do it.

The special effect made it worth seeing I think. I like how they showed the patronus used against the Dementor. Animal transformations were good too. So were the quidditch match.

Ron is really funny.

Seen so far:
Chamber of Secrets
prisoner of Azkaban

throughly enjoy them.

update 9/4/06: Finished too Goblet of Fire.
All of them are good. Though I don't think they should deserved PG rating. I fell like it was a PG13. I was scare while watching the Chamber of Secret. Also I don't like seeing Digory get killed. I don't know how I will able to handle when they kill off Serius Black and Dumbledore in future releases. There were quite emotional stuff.

Funny on the side note, that Luther is rated PG13. Somehow they should try to remove some violent scene and bring the rating down to PG.

Bad internet connection has prevented me from posting much the past week. I think it has something to do with the hibernation function of Windows. Love Linux but is still using Windows for most of the work because I haven't learned enough Linux yet to be fully competent on the system besides there is no internet connection on the Linux box.

Good bye to the Tree's as they go to MO. We spent time together during the past weekend. Loading yes. And watched movies. Thank to the Louie's for hosting a sleep over. We watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Les Miserables and some other too. It was my first for both films. So I got a cultural update. Les Miserables reminds me of the The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. When I look them up, I found out they both were written by Victor Hugo.

Kudos to Esther for winning the Clues game.

Someone said that Pastor Tree played the human version of Tetrix.

I'm up for more Tennis. It is good.

Note to self: don't play monopoly with only two people esp with your sister. That game should be banned (hehe).