Catching up...

When was the last time I had a 10 day gap in updating... hmm...  pens up and lets's blast a little, shall we? 

• Olympics Opening Ceremony - subduded... underwhelming for Japan.  Best ceremony to date... 2008 Beijing.
• "Who would you root for?" I ask Joyce and Grace. "USA, of course."  "What about diving..." "Ohh... in that case, China."
• Hong Kong won another Gold.  First time since 1996.  In 1996, the medal ceremony was serenaded by "God Save the Queen."  In 2021, the medal ceremony echoed "March of the Volunteers." 
• They say there's no politics in the Olympics... BS
• They say there's no politics in Church... BS
• Weeks 2 and 3 of NN and SW's Galileo summer camps.  Underwhelming.  Can't believe CES and SDP did what we did back then.
• Was worried that NN would have trouble making friends cuz we jolted her around during these few weeks, "Did you make a new friend?" "Of course. Why?" "Cuz I don't know how to make friends." "Why? It's so easy." (Zing!)
• Got SW started on Dragon Ball.  Took a moment to tell NN... "You should read it too." 
• JC finally went in for her surgery.  She'll be discharged tomorrow.  We came together and prayed hard over Zoom.  Then took the hubby out to lunch... a 5.5 hour lunch.. trying to keep him distracted.  What else do you do when you're waiting for your spouse to come out of surgery?
• Met with Corporate Ethics, "None of the accusations are substantiated.  Hank... are you there?" "I'm here." "Oh... we usually expect a bigger reaction, a sigh of relief." (In my mind, I did nothing wrong.  This does NOT surprise me one bit.  Why react?)
• China has never swept the diving competitions.  I know, right?!
• 728 - I texted Carole again.  Last time I texted her... 728. 
• Delta Variant... sheeeeeeeesh

There's more.  But this is what comes to mind. 

有家教

 SW was eating chips today and he got chips-seasoning fingers.  He started to "touch things" when I gave him a stare.  He immediately wiped his hands on the paper towels... the entire roll!!!! I gave him another stare.  He immediately moved to peel off what he used.  Not the whole sheet. Not even the perforated half-sheet.  He peeled off the parts that were dirty.  Thereby...saving the remaining clean stuff for the next person.  That's my son.  Cheap, stingy, and frugal SW.  Heheheh

Sola Scriptura

Inspired by the Bible Project podcast

"Can someone pick up the bible, whatever translation they have, read it and is THAT sufficient?" Sola Scriptura, or "In Scripture Alone." Great question.  Solid theological dissertation. And probably... centuries of division. 

Theologians point to 1 Cor 13:9-10, "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears."  They claim that "completeness" points to the finished bible as we know it.  That with the bible, you need nothing else.  Those are the same theologians that do not believe in modern day prophecy... and even argue that we no longer hear from God. 

Theologians point to 2 Tim 3:16, "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives."  While there's no direct word or words that point to the sufficiency, the argument is the scriptures are enough to do what God intends. 

My answer to my question... I think the answer is "Yes."  You read the bible as is, no commentary, no explanations, no concordance.  Just whatever translation you end up picking up... Yes, the scriptures are sufficient.  

The real question is, "What is sufficient?" Where do you draw the line? 

Creation.  The Fall.  The Covenant.  The prophets.  The Messiah.  The birth, death and resurrection.  Jesus' teachings.  The epistles to further those teachings.  And Revelations.  For one to understand and accept salvation - the bible as written is sufficient.  

Now... there are other arguments.  

• Scriptures - is not for reading.  Within scripture itself, it encourages studying.  
• Scripture - is text. It is dead.  The Holy Spirit is alive. You can't just read it and expect to know the heart of God. 
• The bible, written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin, was written in context of the time.  Translating it into Latin, King James and modern day English, you lose the context.
• I started reading the Hawaiian Pidgin translation of the bible.  Their vocabulary is quite elementary and downright funny, in many cases, for Americans.  But as I'm studying, everything that needs to be there, is mostly there!! 
• God is speaking today.  He speaks to us every day.  Are we listening?

Now... having the benefit of studying, of learning a new language, picking up multiple translations to cross-reference, understanding the culture and meaning of the times.... do any of that really, truly impact the message of salvation???  Not really.  If anything, it further bolsters that gospel to be plain and simple.  

Sola Scriptura??? Yes, but..... 

Harry Potter

Joyce texts me: "Can kids read Harry Potter?" 

10-15 years ago... we wouldn't even ask that question.  It'll be an adamant "NO!"  But now... at this day and age... with the kids being exposed to what they've been exposed to... with all our other compromises... is it really still worth pushing back on? 

The Art of Making Friends (revisited)

Part deux to my "The Art of Making Friends"

Hung out with mom this morning and over breakfast she told me how she occasionally goes to lunch with another church goer, let's call her Diana.  Mom barely speaks English.  Diana doesn't know a lick of Chinese.  Yet... they're able to communicate to a point where Diana would take mom to a pancake / breakfast after church.  They'll have small talk and by small talk, it's the size of Ant Man (subatomic, at the end of Ant Man and Wasp).  They'll communicate via Google Translate!  Simple.  Light. No expectations. No strings attached.  

The pastor also invites mom out for lunch - Italian.  Mom always says "No."  Her reason being, "早餐好快完。 食意大利餐太耐喇." 

So sweet.  To invite a near stranger to break bread.  Our generation, we've lost that art.   Diana, what an {{angel}} .

Making new friends... again....

As we were getting ready for bed... Joyce told the kids (and me) that next week's Galileo Science Camp will be at another campus.  NN and SW immediately said, "I'll have to make new friends again?!" 

I immediately stared Joyce down with Superman's heat rays.  WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?  MAKING THEM NOMADS AGAIN?!?! Ugh..... right when NN and SW was just making new friends, they were hanging out together on Hangouts... playing online games together... eating lunch together... and now, we break them up.  

Sigh.... I didn't set up their summer.  I shalln't complain (too loudly).  There must be a good reason why we have to make them nomads all over again.  Maybe next summer... I take over the summer planning. 

I lost it (again)

Found out this morning that NN is building a chair in science camp.  That's cool.  Deep down... I've always wanted to be a carpenter because Jesus is a carpenter (heh).

Then she tells me that she's sawing and drilling... and right away I ask if she's wearing PPE's.  OMG...... the events afterwards blew up.  I gave her my goggles... trying to explain to her the dangers of working around any power tools.  Then I threatened to complain to the science camp that they're endangering the kids.  NN started defending them.... to my amaze.  "Parents aren't allowed."  To which I aptly responded, "What are they gonna do, arrest me?!"  

I can't believe she said that.... and she actually thought I was going to get arrested.  I'm not that stupid... but she thought I was over-reacting.  At that point, I really did over-react and.... Mr. Hyde came out.  Aye.... 

The Art of Interviewing

Just finished another round of interviews... and I ask myself... "I'm going to change the career, the life, of someone, based on a 45 minute conversation? Really?!?"  

I've been on the other end of this... I have a good 45 minutes, I get a new job.  I had a bad day... a bad half day... I didn't have good stories on the spot... and that determined my life.  Is that proper??

When I interview, I ask a bunch of questions during the interview.... and it's amazing how many people can't answer some of them.  

"Tell me something technical... but to a non-technical person".  Is it that hard to get people to communicate? They always trip up on this question.... and only once... in easily 30-40 times, did one person get it.  

"How many golf balls does it take to fill a city bus."  I get it.  It's a Microsoft brainteaser or a Google brainteaser that people have lobbied against.  I actually see the value in these types of questions.  First off...there is no answer.  You can't really be wrong.  But it shows the character of a person... being faced with a left-field question, right-field situation and you're at the plate.  Talk me through it.  Tell me how you can get creative and start solving problems.  You don't have information... tell me how you can get the information.  You don't have information... create some assumptions.  I even have people tell me, "I need a calculator."  And "Sorry... I need to pass on this question."  

Heh... Big Bro says if he ever gets asked these questions, he'll tell them he's lost respect for this company, get up and leave.  If someone did that to me... I'll say, "Thank you very much, you just made my life a whole lot easier to not have to waste more time with you."   

I hate "tell me a time" questions.... but when I asked my VP how he interviews, he suggested a follow-on to these "tell me a time" questions... "Knowing what you know now... what would you do differently..."  I like that.  

渾身解數

That time of the year again... where I clear out all our outgrown clothes, unplayed toys and unused stuff and donate it to Goodwill.  

On top of that... I took all our bottles and cans to a local recycling company.  Maaaaan it felt good!!! We even got $28 dollars back from all that recycling.  I tipped the counter lady $3 - to which she was ever grateful.  I tipped the dude who saved me a parking spot and helped me with the bottles $5 - to which Joyce chastised me for overtipping =(.  And the remaining $20.... I lost!!!! HA!!!  Well... hopefully I dropped it somewhere... and someone in need picked it up and was able to get a good meal.  

We're such a luxurious, extravagant society... we simply have too much sh*t.  Plain and simple. Too. Much. Sh*t.  And boy... it feels nice to rid myself of some of that sh*t. 

What's the dream...?

One of my biggest dreams (and hopefully not biggest regrets), is to go on a vacation with mom and dad.  Correction, mom OR dad.  <sigh...>

In my recollection... I have never, ever, ever.... taken them on a trip. We may have taken one day road trips here and there... but that's it.  Never overnight.  The closest one was for Chun's wedding back in 2012... but Hurricane Sandy put a dent in that idea.  And many years later... I find out that I'm the black sheep of the family cuz I never made it to my cousin's wedding when they rescheduled it.  Heh... 

Out of the blue today... mom says, "I want to go on a 3 day 2 night vacation." Mom never says that... she doesn't like to travel.  In fact... when the folks were together and dad was working for Hyatt... he booked all these international trips to Japan... Thailand.... only for mom to cancel last minute. 真掃興! 

I improperly thought of sending mom on one of those Chinatown bus tours (Shame on me!!)  Then we start talking about Jerusalem... the Holy Land.  Ohhhhhh.... my bucket list.  How I would love to walk the paths that Jesus walked on.  And to do it with mom.  The questions are... do we do it with a Christian tour guide? A Catholic tour guide? If we do it in Chinese...will the kids understand? If we do it in English... will I serve as translator?  And the biggest question... will Big Bro come with us??  

Sigh.... to dream.

A new perspective

The past couple of summers... I've hired a teacher for the course of 8 weeks.  The idea is to bridge industry with academia so they can take things back to school and help bridge the real world with textbooks.  This summer... I specifically chose a non-STEAM teacher.  In fact... she's a librarian with a degree in English Lit?? Why would I do that??? I wanted to give her an opportunity, a chance. I wanted to challenge myself.  I wanted a new perspective on running a department in an engineering firm.  And my.... how much I've learned in the past 4 weeks.  

I don't think she's anywhere near the caliber of my previous hires... but I've learned so much in hiring her... that she's left a bigger, deeper, more everlasting footprint in me... than all the previous teachers combined. 

For better or worse....

For thousands and thousands of years... house wives (homemakers) have taken care of the home without a word of complaint. In many cultures and societies... homemakers weren't just homemakers... they held a full time job as well.  And what did the husband (spouse) do?? Nuthing.  Absolutely nothing!!!  What did the wife (spouse) do? Nothing, either.  They didn't complain.  Didn't grumble. Whatever it took to keep a family going.

Well... I'm not that spouse.  I am going to complain.  Ugh!!!!  It's not fair!!!  Ugh!!! Why can't she pitch in a little... for dinner.  For cleaning.  For spending time with the kids!!! Ugh!!! Why?!?!?!??! Oh..... she did.  She dumped a bunch of her extra shoe boxes.  Donated a bunch of extra clothes.  The past two days... she cooked lunch and dinner.  She cleaned up the kitchen.  And when she knew I got upset... she went out an quietly bought a bottle of my favorite wine.  Heh.... "For better or worse...."  Vows are not to be taken lightly... huh? 

What a waste

 Pet Peeve #12

Before the beginning of every school year... we're told to buy this and that for school supplies. At the end of every school year.... they come home with a bunch of unused junk.  Including, even, 100 page spiral notebooks that have 10 pages of stuff written on it.  Why buy the notebooks if you're not going to use them??

Yes... I tore away the 10 pages... and will reuse that notebook next year.  Wouldn't you?