Fringe and Christianity

This MIGHT be a spoiler but it doesn't really ruin anything but if you are super stingy, then do not read.

A thought came up while watching an episode of Fringe. A priest talks with the main character who is a fringe scientist (fringe science is a branch of science that focuses on the supernatural sciences and stuff like reanimation, telekinesis, and other bizarre things). This is the bit of their dialog that I found interesting.

Walter Bishop (the scientist): [paraphrased] The man's energy when he died jumpstarted the girl's life force so that she was able to come back from the dead.

Actual Bishop (though he's actually only a priest, but I liked the play on words. Bishop vs. bishop): That's absurd!

Now, the reason I found this fascinating was because the Actual Bishop has no right calling anything absurd. If he is willing to believe in a man that died 2000 years ago and the same man claims that he rose from the dead to single-handedly pay the debt of all mankind for their sin so that the rest of humanity may have a chance of being in the favor of God, then how can the Bishop call anything absurd?

I just thought it was strange that the man of faith was the skeptic in this show. Very new approach. I liked it.

A Series of Firsts at It's a Grind: Coffee House

So I've had my share of firsts this week. Here's a list:

• First job I had in a very long time.
• First paid bathroom cleaning.
• First paid dishwashing.
• First coffee making experience: Road Warrior. The lady said it was really good and I was proud.
• First book to buy and read in a very long time: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I also bought The Zombie Survival Guide. Yes, I went on a zombie binge.
• First Work Schedule for a very long time. I'm only going in for two hours at a time though. :( Shucks.
• First time eating at Ginger and Wasabi: Sushi food. I had five california rolls and teriyaki chicken for $4.99.
• First BIG GULP (FREAKIN HUGE!!): Orange Bang, Sprite, Sunkist, Orange Bang, Pineapple Bang, Orange Bang, Sunkist, Orange Bang (order in which I filled the cup. It was a huge freaking cup.)

Yes. I can't really think of any more, but if I do, then I'll let you know.

A Run Outside in the Neighborhood

So I was craving cereal like a mad person one day while I was at home but I only had milk in the house. So I put on my sneakers, shorts, and shirt and I went out to run to Ralph's so I could buy some cereal. It was the first time I ran in months and needless to say, I was exhausted. Then as my mind was filled with complanatory thoughts that my legs were fat and my legs were weak and my stamina was low, I saw a man with an electric wheel chair going about the same direction as I was but in an extremely slow manner. After I saw him, all thoughts of pain and junk stopped immediately. I gained new stamina and I appreciated every single ounce of pain that shot through my leg and lungs.

Funny how it takes an entire crippled man to help me realize that things should not be taken for granted. I ran another two blocks until both my legs and lungs gave out. Then I walked the rest of the way to Ralph's.

God, thank you for sending me the Wheelchair Man to remind me of your goodness in everything. Things that we never think of even though those things are a huge part of our lives. Thank you. I pray for healing in the Wheelchair Man's life.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

I've read this poem recently and it is hauntingly beautiful and moving. I want to relay it to you all so I will retell the story. More or less.

In the town of Hamelin, the Mayor and the Corporation ruled all. They were in charge of taking care of all the problems that plagued the town and, in this case, the problem was a rat infestation. However, they could not get rid of the rats in the town.

One day, a strange man with a strange outfit and a piper around his neck showed up to the town meeting where the Mayor and the Corporation met. The strange man introduced himself as the Pied Piper and offered a solution to the rat problem.

"How do you suppose you'll get rid of our rats?" asked the Mayor.

"I have a secret charm that can draw all living things to me, whether they creep or swim or fly or run. I use this charm to vanquish creatures who harm humans. All I would want in return would be a thousand guilders."

"A thousand?! We'll give you fifty!" replied the Corporation.

So the Pied Piper went out to the streets, smiled a smile, placed the pipe to his lips, and played a magical melody. Soon the rats started flocking to him. Fat rats, skinny rats, lazy rats, active rats, sister rats, brother rats, smart rats, and dumb rats. The rats danced, pranced, and advanced after the Piper. The rats followed him through the streets, all the way to the river. At the river, the rats drowned. All but one. The surviving rat was strong enough to swim across the river and escaped to Ratland where he told the story of the beautiful melody that had caused so many of his friends to die.

The surviving rat told his tale:

"I heard a noise which promised me food, it promised me food for the rest of my life. Then I heard a voice telling me, 'Rejoice, oh rats, the world is your dining room! So eat to your hearts content!' As I was looking forward to the food, suddenly, the river consumed me and all of my friends."

The people of Hamelin were exceedingly satisfied. And the Mayor and the Corporation were planning on rebuilding the city after the destruction the rats left behind. However, right before they could start, the Pied Piper appeared and reminded them of what they owed.

"Please do not forget my thousand guilders," reminded the Piper.

"A thousand?! Surely you knew that it was only a figure of speech. We thought you were joking when you said a thousand. Here's some money and since we're so grateful, we spare you 50 guilders, now take it and leave," replied the Mayor and the Corporation.

The Piper was distraught and extremely distressed. He threatened the Mayor and the Corporation, "You have promised me a thousand guilders, and I need my thousand guilders. If you do not provide me with my thousand guilders, then I will use my secret charms, as much as I do not wish to, to cause harm to you, Mr. Mayor, and the Corporation."

"What are you going to do to us? There are no more rats in the country for you to bring back to our town. We have nothing more to fear of you, my dear vagabond friend. Now take your money and leave."

The Pied Piper rushed out in anger. He went out to the streets, smiled a smile, lifted the pipe to his lips, and began to play another magical melody. Soon, all the children of the people of Hamelin started gathering around the Piper. The children of bakers, the children of blacksmiths, the children of librarians, the children of store clerks, the children of the Mayor, and the children of the Corporation. The children danced, pranced, and advanced behind the piper in joy and delight. The children followed him through the streets, all the way to the river. And at the river, the Piper turned towards the mountains and skipped to the base of the mountains where cave opened up. The Piper stopped as the children went in and when the last of them went in, the cave closed and all the children disappeared along with the Piper into the mountain.

Did I say all, there was actually one child left, the parents of the children found him limping towards the mountain where the hole was supposed to be. The boy was crying and very sorrowful when they found him.

"What happened, young child?" the adults asked him.

The crippled child replied, "I was too slow. I just couldn't make it in time because I was too slow. The Piper promised us that we were going to a place of endless bliss and pleasure with his song. He promised us that we would never suffer again or feel anxious or bad. This is why we all followed him. He had also promised me one more thing. He promised that the place we were going to, was going to heal me of my lame leg. I was sure that I would be healed, but the music stopped, and I was all alone in front of the mountain without a cave."

The Mayor sent people out everywhere but no one could find neither Piper nor children anywhere.

Enjoy! I may or may not post another post analyzing this story. :D

A New Face

While talking to Yoojin, I came up with a new face.

Q_O

it's like a smirking smile. haha. I like it.

This Superpower Of Mine

I think I finally decided on a super hero super power. It is the ability to make everything around me malfunction at will. Of course I'd be able to un-malfunction things as well.

I'd be pretty much invincible and I would be able to cure cancer, more or less. Well, at least from my limited knowledge of how cancer works. I'd be able to malfunction the cancer cells so that they stop growing. If some fools try to cap me, I can malfunction the guns and if I feel particularly malicious, I can malfunction their respiratory systems.

I can malfunction fire arms and tanks so that stupid military leaders cannot do stupid things with their obscenely stupid amount of power.

So yeah. That's the super power I would want.

I was thinking of names like Malfunktor or Malefunction or Malfunctionator.

But I settled with this one: The Man Who Ate Richard Chung

:-D

Jackie Chan Hates Karate Kids

Haha. I just recently obtained a bunch of Jackie Chan films and I am excited to watch them.

John Malkovich and Leonard Susskind

...look exactly the same! O_o

whoa.

Appreciation of the Greater Things in Life

As I was driving home from Missions Rally Night, I was thinking of how I would have nowhere to watch the FIFA World Cup, Korea vs. Greece game besides my own home. I was kind of sad but whatever, I didn't really care much about the game. For some reason, my passion for soccer died four years ago when Korea failed and proved to the world that 2002 was a fluke (well, maybe Hiddink had something to do with it.)

Anywho, this depressing thought soon transformed into an imagining of what my life would be like if I suddenly had the "locked-in syndrome". For those of you who have watched the film or read the book, it is the same thing that Bauby had in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly".

I thought of how I would live and how I'd pretty much be able to do anything wanted because I now had the "pity card" in my hand to play whenever I wanted. I even imagined up my own conversation. Apparently, I didn't have full "locked-in syndrome" because I would converse. Strange. Anywho.

Richard: You know, I never accepted your behaviors as something Christians do even though you say you are Christian, I never really saw you as a Christian.

Random Person Who I Am Sharply Dissing: (in exasperation) You know Richard, this just isn't fair for you to say that.

Richard: You're right. This is not fair. It's just not fair...

(fade into darkness)

Here, I am using a fallacy of equivocation, however, I am doing so in order to prove a point. The Random Person Who I Am Sharply Dissing is talking about how it isn't fair that I am using my "pity card" to diss him or her without fearing the consequences. However, I am using it to refer to my current situation being not fair. I am making the word "fair" used by RPWIASD (guess what that means. Hint: it starts with the word "Random") mean something else when I am using it. Just a bit of a philosophy lesson here. Watch out for Fallacies of Equivocations!

Anywho, as I was thinking about being a cripple with "locked-in syndrome" plus speech, I thought of how bad that guy must have it and how bitter I would be. I thought of whether or not I could easily forgive the drunk driver who put me in this position and it turned out to be inconclusive. I am not sure how easily I could forgive him. I also thought of how bitter I'd be towards God. Then I thought of all the times I blamed God for the junk I got myself into.

Don't worry, this is where things start looking better.

In the midst of all this morbidly depressing thoughts, I reached my home. I parked, got out, and as I was walking to my front door, I experienced a couple things.

1. I felt a breeze.
2. I said, "Lord."
3. Then I realized that I had full movement control of all my limbs, plus feeling.

I can't say I know why I said, "Lord" but I am so glad I did. I think it was Holy Spirit telling me that I have so much more than I think. I have my nerves set normally. I have feeling. It was the first time in my life I have ever appreciated movement in my body and feeling. I've appreciated some weird things in my life. I appreciated the ability to pee. I've appreciated having sight. I've even appreciated eating some weird nasty foods. However, nothing was ever as basic as movement and feeling. So I'm thankful. God is good.

I think at this point, only Jon Barker would read this far so I'll give him a shout-out. And just for fun, Simon but I'm not sure. Whatever. Props. If anybody else has read this far, then let me know, and I'll give you a shout-out the next time I have a Holy Epiphany when I am emotionally unstable. :-D

Good night. and I hope South Korea wins the World Cup. If not South Korea, then North Korea. Don't know why Koreans gotta hate on Koreans just because their Commies. I don't understand. Just close-minded fools. :-D AND, IF NOT NORTH KOREA, then fine, America. Since I am not an ungrateful buttplug who freeloads off the blessing that is America. So just to be clear, these are the three teams I'd be rooting for:

1. South Korea
2. North Korea
3. United States of America

Perhaps, a little bit of the passion is returning. :D

Richard's Thoughts on Children

I have always held children with the slightest bit of contempt. I loved Jurassic Parks I & II because it allowed me to hate on children with everybody else in the room nodding in agreement.

Whenever the topic of children come up, I am almost obnoxiously adamant that I would not want any children of my own. I would adopt, but I'd prefer not having my own flesh and blood.

I just watched an episode of Lie to Me where a father shoots a man because his 16 year old daughter decided to sleep with a 22 year old college student AND film it. By doing this, she risked the future of a 22 year old black man, she caused the death of a prosecutor, and her father is not going to spend a lot of time in jail. This episode kind of helped me realize why I disliked children so much.

It is because children have no idea what they are capable of. They have so much power yet all they do is complain that they have no freedom. They have so many blessings but all they do is abuse those blessings and desire more. A child could melt the hearts of men with their adorableness. A child could get away with doing stupidly retarded things. A child could make their parents kill for them.

Now, all haterade aside, just while writing all this down, I also came to another much more important realization. I realized that it is our jobs as adults to nurture the powers that children possess and direct it to good. Ultimately, it really isn't the children's fault that they abuse their powers and junk. Children are stupid. It's just a fact that humanity has known forever. It is our job to get these children who do not know better and just sit through their idiocy and be patient. Patience is one of the few abilities that adults have that children lack. We have to apply the crap out of it.

This is why it sucks when adults do not do their jobs. They either neglect the children or they abuse the authority they have over children. It's a very sad sight. The two most horrific things in the world to me, incidentally, are child soldiers and child prostitutes. Killing and having sex does not make you an adult, however, they are things that only adults should do. The innocence of children should not be so quickly dashed away.

Believe it or not, I was going to make this post a rant on my hatred for children but apparently, I matured in the last five minutes. I still despise children, but I do recognize my responsibility to nurture and contribute to the growth of children around me. I still do not want children of my own, but I will not disrespect people who have children. :-D

Now, I said that I was fully willing to adopt children and most likely, I will. Given that they let me. While I dislike children and I don't want to make a brat of my own, if a child is already in the world, and through my parentage I could make the world a better place for that child, then I would love to have a child I could call my own. I think it is one of, if not, the best illustration of God's fathership over us. To show that to another human being (yes, I think children are still human beings) would be a beautiful thing.

There is also another abortion argument for having adopted children but I'm kind of "meh" on that one. It goes a little something like this:

• If we don't want women to get aborted babies, then what are we going to do with the babies that are born? The mother doesn't want it. We ought to be there. Anti-baby-killing (yes, this means anti-abortion, but let's not play the euphemism game here, :-D) and adoption goes hand in hand. It would be irresponsible for Christians to be so adamantly against baby-killing (abortion) yet passive on adoption.

I agree with this statement very much, but it's not the argument that got me. The one that completely changed my view on adoption was the image of a father, or Holy Father, adoption one that is not his own.

Anywho, these are Richard's Thoughts on Children. So go adopt a child. And stop baby-killing.

A Love Story: A Short Film by Spencer Susser

Whoa. O_o

Paprika

"Science is nothing but trash in the presence of a profound dream."

This film has really brightened my summer vacation. It is the first animated film I have enjoyed in a while. The MUSIC IS FANTASTIC. I highly recommend it. I might be recommending it because of the music. MUSIC!

It was without a doubt, one of the more refreshing movies I've seen in a while. That is the perfect word to describe it: refreshing.

Strive For Glory(fying)

I was talking Simon today and he brought up the topic of our current "grade". We were going to be seniors soon. This is the time when my imagination went out of control. This is what my mind went through when he mentioned that we were going to be seniors.

Thought Process of Richard: "Wow, it's been so fast. Life is so fast. My life is so fast. Fast means short. My life is short. I'm going to be adult now. Then I'm going to marry. Then I'm going to have children. Then I'm going to get old. Then I'm going to die. Then I'll be in Heaven."

I don't know why, but the concept of me going to Heaven at the end terrified me. I loved the ending to Chronicles of Narnia where everyday was a new adventure and each adventure was better than the last onto infinity. But for some reason, I was just afraid of that word: FOREVER. Right now, in my sinful state, I find that there is a struggle inside me. The Saved Richard and the Depraved Richard. Every choice I make is a battle between the Two Richards inside. The Saved Richard wins sometimes, the Depraved Richard wins most times. Despite this utter loss, I find comfort in knowing that the entire arsenal of Paradiso, the ten thousand legions of the battle angels of Heaven, the infinite might of God's left pinky, has Saved Richard's back. I find great comfort in it.

However, I know that in Heaven, I am going to be a different person entirely. I am not gonna be Saved Richard and Depraved Richard inside, I'm going to be Holy Richard. Now this is what freaks me out. I don't know who Holy Richard is. Because I certainly am not Holy Richard. I'm the constantly failing Saved Richard of Earth battling it out with Depraved Richard. I want to sin so bad and knowing that Holy Richard will not want to do the "same" sinful things I want to do right now is what caused me to think that Holy Richard and I am not the same.

Now in my fear, I decided I wanted to sing a praise song to make myself feel better. I know, lame. But still, I am happy I did. I asked Simon for a good praise song and he gave me "Hosanna" by Paul Baloche.

Praise is Rising, Eyes are turning to You, We turn to you

Hope is stirring, hearts are yearning for You, we long for You

'Cause when we see You, we find strength to face the day

In Your Presence all our fears are washed away, washed away

Hosanna, hosanna

You are the God Who saves us, worthy of all our praises

I remembered something EXTREMELY important. This is the main point of this post. And this got me past my pride and rather misplaced fear.

Our ultimate goal is not to get to Heaven,

but it is to glorify God. This is where

our greatest joy should come from.

We shouldn't strive to go to heaven. We should strive to glorify God is all that we do. I just have to do everything in my power to glorify God without worrying about what would happen to myself. God will take care of the rest. I will find joy in glorifying God. No matter who I fear becoming. I just lost interest in all the minor things.

Now knowing this, I hope I actually DO glorify God more in my daily living. Huhuhu.

Time to go sing Hosanna. I'm going to try memorizing it.

Summer Blog Post

I've wrote another version of this post but things got weird really quickly so I decided against publishing it. Anywho, I've been chilling a lot with my little brother. He's pretty artistic. And he's grown fond of me. for now. I think I love him.

I'm searching for jobs. I hope I get the Christian Academy job at CPC but I must move on if I don't get it. Although, I have to say, my life would be much more difficult if I didn't get the job. I hope Zenia and Andrew are reading this and decide to give me the job solely because of my blog post. :D I know, I'm shameless.

Summers been pretty uneventful, but, to be fair, it has only been two days. It feels so much longer. I need to chill with people but I have no gas or money.

All I need is some Jesus and I'll be good. I just hope my heart and body starts realizing this and not just my mind.

Pray for me.