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Beastybob
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Name: Sung Jae
Country: United States
State: Georgia
Birthday: 4/1/1983
Gender: Male
Interests: playin guitar...yeah
sports; love sports. hehe.
Expertise: I am an expert at being an expert!!
shipping shipping
Occupation: Other
Industry: Business
Message: message me
AIM:  seungbob
Member Since:
1/19/2004
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| Apples and BananaI used to love saying those words.
So phonetically sweet. Maybe that was the reason why, but I also loved those fruits.
I loved red apples over green ones. The red ones were sweeter, while the green ones tasted like sour toe fungus. Red apples looked more like apples, whereas green apples were apple wannabes. The red apples that came during the right season grew up to the size of cantaloupes. Green apples couldn't grow that big. I always hoped to find half a worm in my huge red apple as I ate it. That would be so cool.
Sometimes, I would just carry a huge red apple, contrary to what my mother encouraged, and eat it all day. I was only 10, and the apple was as big as my head. It would take hours to eat, but I would never get full from an apple. Plus, whenever I met a bully, I could just throw the apple at him. It knocked them unconscious for a long enough time for me to run away.
I liked bananas because I thought an idiot spelled it, and then it stuck that way. It sounded like a really dumb person talking. A homo-erectus that didn't develop enough mouth muscles yet to pronounce correctly and always fell short of vernacular.
"Bananananana..." is what he would say, while holding a banana in his hand. Then that stuck with it.
Bananas are just cool no matter who you are. They bend perfectly to get that banana shape. It's not necessarily a crescent, nor is it a semicircle. It's just, banana shape. Even if you only had cameo of a banana, you would know that it's a banana. Did you know you can make a gun with a banana? Yes. You can fire it.
You can also make fire with ice. Secrets that I will teach if you're willing to know. Both answers are actually quite simple and makes you swat yourself in the head for not thinking it.
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| SystemA system is "Instrumentality that combines interrelated interacting artifacts designed to work as a coherent entity."
In Physical Chemistry, it is the state of two matters in equilibrium. In Calculus, it is any array of numbers ordered in a specific and certain matter with the intention of calculation. In Ecology, it is the organization of living organisms co-habiting with limited resources. In politics, it's the way old farts do things.
A system is a family. A system is a group.
The world we live in is extremely systematic by nature. Biologically, Politically, Socially, Economically...
It brings predictability. It brings order. It brings understanding.
It facilitates calculations. It engenders logic.
I love systems.
Systems.
Mmm.
!
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| Quarter CenturyThat's how old/young I am. It is subtly starting to show physically. I still have the same strength and agility, but it costs more to perform. My sleep is dramatically reduced. I can't sleep past 5:00 AM anymore. Worst of all, my belly is coming out. Maybe that's just lack of exercise.
Well, I found the DVD series Tony was asking for. Now I just need to find my citizenship certificate. INS told me that it would cost $99 to renew it. I told them they could continue eating raw eggs. Yet I just might have to do that if I cannot find that certificate. I know it's somewhere in my house.
I've been reading and re-reading Haggai recently. A ran upon a few questions as I read along.
1. What is the significance of the detailed dating?
This whole ordeal happened apparently under King Darius' 2nd year of reign, which is approximately 520 BC. By then, Darius had settled into power of Achaemenid empire and the amazing Persian empire, which Cyrus had already established before him. Darius was only 29 years old around this time, and he had witnessed Cyrus overthrow the Meads and allow the Jews to return from Babylon to rebuild the 2nd Jewish temple. Unfortunately, this work wasn't completed, since Cyrus thought the Israelites were revolting, so he ceased the work.
Perhaps, this is the Bible's significance of mentioning Darius' reign, in that Darius allowed the completion of the temple. Yet the Bible clearly indicates even the day of when the Lord speaks. It says, "..on the first day of the sixth month..."
In the Hebrew Calender, that must be referring to 'Elul' which only has 29 days. The significance? I have no clue. Dates are mentioned a total of 6 times, but there are only 4 significant dates. Reason being, God spoke twice on the last date, which is the 24th day of the 9th month, Kislev. The third time a date is mentioned, 21st day of the 7th month, Tishrei, Kind Darius isn't mentioned. Yet the 4th time, King Darius' 2nd year is mentioned. The 5th time, we hear up to the month. The last time, we only hear the date, the 24th day, interestingly in which God spoke twice.
2. Why is the progress of the Israelites not noted?
Is it understood or implied? In Haggai chapter 2, God promises to restore glory to the new temple. As a matter of fact, he promises to make it even better. It seems as if he is encouraging the Israelites. He asks them, "Does it not seem to you like nothing?" In other words, some progress must have been carried out.
They started working on the 24th day of 'Elul' or the 6th month. This month only has 29 days. So if we count the day they started working, then they've work for 6 days on 'Elul' and 21 days on 'Tishrei' the 7th month. So, they've been working 27 days, but if we take 3 to 4 Sabbaths, then they've worked a total of 23 to 24 days. I'm assuming they didn't work on the Sabbath.
So basically the Israelites fear God on the 24th day of 'Elul' and get to work. They understand that their priorities were misplaced, and they get to work, but don't hear from God, or at least there is no record of it, until the 21st day of the next month. When they do hear from him, he encourages them, and makes them a promise. He doesn't scold them for being lazy. So can we assume that they indeed have been working?
I wonder if they literally put in everything they had into this work, or if they continued to live their lives. The Bible doesn't mention much details here about the Israelites having the convenience of working their jobs while working the temple of the Lord, though it was their highest priority, which probably makes it safe to assume that they were all in. I have no clue.
3. When was the 2nd temple completed?
The Israelites don't hear again from God, or at least it isn't noted, until the 24th day of the 9th month, Kislev. It has now been 62 or 63 days depending on what rotation it was. Sometimes 'Chesvan' the 8th month, had 29 days and sometimes it had 30 days. Usually it has 29 days unless it is a "complete year" which I do not know if this was that year.
God gives the people a blessing which doesn't seem to be a blessing until the end of verse 19 of chapter 2. In fact, it seems to be a chastisement when he compares the Israelites impurity to the contagious impurities of dead bodies according to the law. This is very interesting for two reasons.
First, it shows that God himself was very mindful of the details of the laws he set down with Moses, hundreds of years earlier.
God gives the illustration at two different angles. The previous, he shows how an impurity can cause the pure to be impure. The latter, he indicates the the pure can become impure if mingled with the impure. Both angles explain the same concept, I think. So God is making a point, no? He then blesses them, which magnifies his blessing considering he just reminded them of how low they were.
Well, we then Zerubbabel become God's signet ring, which probably means it's safe to assume the construction of the temple was completed, right?
Wrong. Some scholars like to believe that the 2nd Jewish temple was completed in 515 BC, which is 5 years after the initiation. So what does the Bible have to say about the completion of the 2nd temple?
4. Why Zerubbabel and not Joshua, the priest?
I guess there isn't too much to say about this one. God chooses who he chooses. End of story.
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SJ
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| What do you think of when you think of Queen Elizabeth, the final of the Tudors?
With all the things on her mind, did she not do a better job, if not just as competent, than any other man? Does the destruction of the Spanish Armada not give you a chilling sense that there is a higher authority governing human affairs? If so, what exactly was England going that pleased God as opposed to whatever Spain was doing?
I borrowed Antonio Rodriguez's "Song of Solomon" DVD series about 2 years ago, and now I don't remember where I put it. Sir Tony has inquired of it, but I have yet to find it. Unfortunately, there are many things that I can't find as of now, including my sanity.
Of the higher importance, I cannot find my citizenship certificate. It is in my house somewhere, but somewhere over the course of time, I forgot where I placed it. I thought of it only as a document. However, as I prepared myself for my European road trip, I realized that I needed to procure a passport. This required my citizenship certificate along with a $100 or so.
I had the latter.
"What happens when I lose my citizenship certificate?" asked Sung Jae.
"You lose your citizenship." said Mike.
"Really? What if you already surrendered your previous citizen status?"
"Then you get tossed into the seas. You have no citizenship."
"Haha. That's funny."
"..."
"Really?"
"No, I just know that it's not very good."
I need to make a passport quick, in order to do some international traveling. But I need to find my citizenship certificate first. Maybe God is trying to say something to me first before I travel.
I am unusually tired right now.
I may not wake up.
Good night.
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| ProgressI don't know why but I have an obsession with looking straight into the sky when it's pitch black outside. At some point, I begin to feel that I'm falling into it. It helps me remember who God is.
Coffee makes me jittery, and Pho makes my stomach hurt. I do both.
Milk is my natural laxative, Chocolate gives me cavities, Television makes me lazy. I love all 3.
I like to sing, but I'm not very good at it. I play the guitar, but I know less than 10 songs. I love sports, but I never make the team. I think I'm smart, but I know I'm not.
That's me. I'm confused.
That's me, and that's how God made me.
It's interesting how if you put anything in the right hands, you can get anything.
Give Edison a few wires and some glass, and you get a light bulb.
Give Ali some gloves, and you get a champion.
Give Beethoven a piano, and you get a masterpiece.
Give Papa John some dough, and you get pizza.
Give a carpenter some tools, and you get a sofa.
Give a mechanic some tools, and you get an engine.
Give blacksmith some tools, and you get a key.
Give a plumber some tools, and you get things going.
Give God nothing, and you get everything.
Give God my ransomed life, ...
A pastor from a youth camp taught me that.
Give God your life, and what could happen?
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