Psalm 1

Everyday I am going to write on a psalm from the book of Psalms, thus making myself to think about each psalm more in depth and thoroughly. Also I will type up the psalm if I have enough time as reinforcement learning. All passages will be written in the NASB version unless otherwise noted.

How blessed is the man is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prosper.

The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.

The first verse mentions about what the righteous man is with all the descriptions that qualifies such a person. How I long to become the ideal perfect person! Not walking in the counsel of the wicked, for example. Is not all of humanity wicked? How easy it is then to follow the fallen ways of the worlds, through the practices of both nonChristian and Christian friends alike. As for the standing the in the path of sinners nor sitting in the seat of scoffers, I need to remember to not get lost in the secular world view. Instead may I delight and meditate in the LAW of the LORD, and with this may I be firmly rooted in my understanding of Your Will, so that when temptations and my sins and the devil attacks me spiritually, I will not waver but remain steadfast. I will bear good fruit and be prosperous, overflowing in the abundance of God’s grace, love, and blessings.

The wicked are not acknowledged with much descriptions, but only with being “like chaff which the wind drives away”. Playing a strong contrast against the firm tree, not only will they not stand up against the world and their evil ways, but also later on facing God in judgment they will not stand up to the infinite measure of perfectness God requires.

Forgetting the Joy of Writing

Every time I stop writing in a blog, there’s always some different reason for doing so. My last reason was that honestly speaking, I started blogging during my college years because I wanted to communicate and share my thoughts to others, but in these past years, I have come to favor to talking with people instead of chatting online. Half of the time spent chatting online is to add additional text and emoticons because body language and the like are missing. But another thing I have been realizing for myself is that the less that I wrote, the less time I spent reflecting on my life, whether on a routine daily basis or to on the whole life basis (what is the meaning of life? ). While I enjoy talking to people spontaneously, my short-term memory is crappy, and anything cool or meaningful insight I think of is lost if I don’t record it down soon enough. That and my thoughts are so jumbled sometimes that writing helps organize my thoughts as well.

I don’t expect and need people to read this WordPress, although I’m sure some will. I’m no longer writing for others. I’m writing for myself.

Anime & Gaming Break

Sorry for the brief pause in this WordPress, I just have been a little busy in life. I’m going to try to finish the math logic section, as well as just talk about something – the new season premiere of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2. This is the awaited episode of all of this school year! Although I must say, it only poses more questions than answering the cliffhanger questions left at the end of the first season – but I’m okay with it, as long as they DO address these questions later on in the future episodes. But from just the first episode, I can gather that within the one year that had past, Lelouch and many others have lost their memories, and have many fabricated memories, such as Lulu having a brother. What happened to Nunally? But yeah, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Another anime series that I just watched (25 episodes in 2-3 days? What a waste of time ) is Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, which is kind of like a mystery, horror anime based off of a mystery game, in which you try to solve the secret behind the town that the story sets in. In short though, the anime goes through several possibilities of how actions will play out in the town, but people end up killing each other in gruesome ways, interspersed by a little girl saying “nipa!’ in the cutest way ^^. At least that’s what my future roommate thinks. *shrugs*

Finally, we downloaded the PS2 emulator and the FFX International version, meaning that we can now play it on the computer at a playable speed! (lowest running percentage so far is 80%). Of course, that is after YL switched his comp from power saver setting to high performance. What a N00b. Anyways, that is all, and I shall be back with more cooler details of life or math or God or something like that.

Infinity

The concept of infinity has always been something that has been very humbling for me to consider. It is an awesome feeling to be able to just look out into the sky and just imagine the vastness of space and time, and to really try to imagine the impossible, at least in the physical reality sense. But even in mathematics, to try to understand the basics that a line segments consists an infinite amount of mathematical points is pretty mind boggling, especially the fact that it is a finite object containing an infinity. And then there’s Cantor and his approach to infinities to consider, which is that while infinity is already hard to consider, we know that there isn’t just one infinity, but rather many, MANY infinities – in fact, an infinite amount of different sizes of infinity. And then to try to consider an all encompassing infinity, usually denoted as Omega – but that can’t really exist, or can it?

Infinities gets even weirder when we consider what it is like to deal with an actual infinity, as opposed to the potential infinity. We understand the concept of potential infinities – that’s how we define limits in calculus. But we actually reach infinity, as opposed to just attempting to? In the realm of mathematics, there is no issue with that, but when we try to see how it can be applied to the world and reality, it seems mind-boggling and impossible to imagine. I mean after all, can anyone really understand infinity as an object by itself?

But if anything or anyone was to be “Infinity”, that description would belong to God Himself, existing beyond time and space. It is ridiculous to think that we will be able to completely grasp the Omega, but we can partially describe Him – that is what one of the purposes of the Bible. Even still, it is awesome to understand just how little we are compared to Him.

Many-Worlds Interpretation to Life

A brain exercise, or rather something that at times I can’t help thinking about, is how amazing I am alive at this moment. I know that this is a wrong way of thinking things, especially in a Christian context, but I do like to imagine what-ifs scenarios in my mind if such a practice is possible in some alternate universe. Looking back in my life, there are many times I remember where I “could” have died, or did something that would have shifted my lifestyle to be something drastically different than who I am now. What if I never jumped off that bike? What if I chose to go to UCLA instead of Berkeley? What if this shady guy that walked right past me decided to kill me instead of having nothing to do with me? I know these are some far-fetched thoughts, but it does get myself to really appreciate the Sovereignty of our Lord and Savior.

But if we were to ascribe some validity to the Many-Worlds Theory of universes, in some alternate universe, I would be filthy rich, or even perhaps I was born a girl, and my sisters as boys. Some deeper things I think about at times, not trying to be morbid, is how life would have been different if my dad didn’t pass away at the time he did. But in any case, it then also makes me think of a philosophy that is proposed by Voltaire in Candide by a character named Pangloss, though in a ironic pretense – that this is the “best of all possible worlds”. Is that really true? Are all then the negative trials and failures and pain that I have gone through really add up to the best possible world that God can prescribe? Or is it that I just end up in a world that believes that it is the best, solely it cannot detect any other possibilities of state of the world that it makes the presumptuous claim of being the best there is?

It is in our human nature to doubt and question God about all things, especially when it comes to his Sovereignty. Why does it feel like at times God’s response to our prayers and circumstances seem so off? I do not mean for this to be arguing against God’s wisdom, because I am completely aware of the fact that I am at no position to question God. And not even to say that I am against God at all, but there are times when the first impressions are sour to the events happen in life, and when that happens, we have to refocus our attention back to God’s plan, and not ours. I know that at the end God loves me, and that while I may feel like there is a need to desire or wish for a better world, I do see that this world isn’t the best it can be, but what God has done for us by sending Jesus Christ, was indeed THE best thing that has and will ever happen in the universe. And on that note, I don’t really worry much about these things as much anymore, but it is interesting to note the effect: what can WE do to shape our lives and choices so as to choose the best future route? The past is one, but the future is many – be sure to choose the one that leads you closer to God.

Mexico Outreach Prayer

Lord,

I pray that you can be with my sister and the rest of the youth right, to lift up a generation of people who are after Your own heart. I know that as of right now, they have already endured half a week of dirtiness, and most likely tensions as well. God, I know that my sister has a heart for you, but she carries an external temper outside of that – I pray that you may be able to soften her, to really seek you Lord, and to desire more and more to be useful and glorifying to you oh God. Also for the rest of the CYF people that went down – that they may also experience the joy of being able to serve on this short term missions trip. Please humble their hearts as they are there for a week, to be able to put aside their culture, and be able to understand the new culture, and not let that be a hindrance to them, but rather be able to relate in the most basic level – in God’s transcendental love over all people groups. Not only that, but I pray that they be humbled in knowing that within this week, there won’t be anything to boast about in their actions, but instead to plant the seed of the Gospel in the children’s hearts, waiting until God’s good timing to bloom into salvation.

I pray for the leaders Lord, for those who have help organize, that you may be able to provide guidance and council to them. The rest of the team looks up to them, and I pray that You may invoke the Holy Spirit within them, and so be a good testimony to all who see them as representatives of Christ. I praise you Lord for having provided these leaders, as you have always provided even as it seems unlikely or impossible. I also want to lift up the Christian college that had set this program up, and mostly I praise the porter potty cleaners – they are the least recognized servants of you Lord, that deserves some recognition.

Lord, I know that You are good; please continue to just watch over the team and the yet-to-be-saved people in Mexico as well. I thank you god for listening in to this personal request to you God.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen

Pi Day!

So today is the coveted Pi Day, where pi gets all the glory it deserves by the sheer importance to the everyday world, as well as in the realm of math. So here’s some thoughts to consider:

• Why not try memorizing all the digits of pi? Okay, okay, not all, since not only is it infinite, but also transcendental, meaning that there is no overarching pattern between the digits, unlike the number 1/7, which is .142857142857142857… , and the pattern is just the digits 142857 repeated over and over ad infinitum. I can do around a hundred – how about you?
• Eat some pie. Yeah yea, it’s not really pi, but hey, without pi, one can’t make in the favorite circular shape that we associate with yummy goodness. Mm hmm!
• Pi is not really the ratio between the circumference and diameter of a circle, but rather a Greek letter that represents that ratio. Go find some other usages of the letter, whether in math, or even go to the Greek NT and count how many times it is used there, maybe you’ll find a secret message …not. =P

What are you implying?

So last time I mentioned about going over some of the basics in mathematical logic, and what vacuous truth meant. But in order to understand that, two simpler concepts must be understood, which are modus pollendo ponens and modus tollendo tollens. These two terms form the most basic and intuitive understanding of implicative statements, and I will deal with them in a more formal manner.

So what is modus pollendo ponens? Actually, the name is pretty long, as you can see, so the most common form of the phrase that most people use (including mathematicians) would be modus ponens (and the same goes to the other phrase, shortened to modus tollens). But what modus ponens means is just this: for statements A and B, whenever both “A implies B” and A are true, it is necessary for statement B to be true as well. This is the essence of the literal translation of the Latin phrase, which was roughly to prove assert something to be true due to other true assertions. And so following in the same vein of thought, modus tollens acts in the exact opposite way – whenever “A implies B” is true but B is false, then A is false. In a nutshell the summary goes as follows: starting with “A implies B” is true, then the rule when A is true, then B is true is called modus ponens, and the rule when B is false, then A is false is modus tollens. Doesn’t this all sound blatantly obvious? Well, at least the first rule. It’s how we always thought of what if-then statements worked, especially in a world where causality is mostly taken as a unquestioned assumption. Modus tollens isn’t all that hard to figure out once the rule is considered at hand. Here’s an example to consider:

Suppose that you had a unlabeled bottle in front of you, and you are very thirsty. You want to drink it, as you’re dying from thirst, but do not want to die in a more painful way if the bottle happens to contain poison of some kind. Thus the thought “if it is poisonous, then I’ll die by drinking it” isn’t all that irrational. But then more time passes along and you decide “oh what the heck” and drink that bottle of mystery liquid. Hours and hours pass, but you don’t die, you actually feel better. Thus since you didn’t die, then the bottle was shown to be not poisonous.

I know many people will look to this example and then try to point out “oh, but it’s a slow working poison, he wouldn’t have know yet” or other trivial arguments against it. However, in the context of mathematical logic, and if the statement “he didn’t die” be taken as a rigorous mathematical fact, these are some things that be drawn out of the example:

1. The drink is poisonous is either a true or false fact, and truth and falsity is exclusive of one another, (meaning that this statement is a proposition)
2. Poisonous drink implies death (from now on, a true proposition will be stated as is – only when it is false will I say for a given proposition A, “A is false“
3. No death occurred

Following from these statements then, we can consider the case when “the drink is poisonous” is true and see where that leads us. If that is true, then by modus ponens death should had occurred, but I had already noted that no death occurs. Since a statement cannot be both true and false at the same time, then the case where “the drink is poisonous” can never happen, so the statement must be false as well. This is the principle of modus tollens – using modus ponens in a state of contradiction to create a rule in a counterintuitive manner. Doesn’t this also sound familiar? Anyone with a basic high school math background should recognize this concept with another term: contrapositive. But in any case, now you know that when people use these implicative, or even accusatory, statements, we now have to tools to diffuse any bad logic employed by them. But how to stop people from being irrational is another story… >,<

Next time: modus tollendo ponens and modus ponendo tollen

Mathematical Logic

So when I was reading through Tim’s WordPress site, and I came across his rant, or rather, his confusion about what a vacuous truth is, I would be the first to say why yes indeed – even now there are debates among scholarly mathematicians, logicians, metamathematicians, metalogicians, etc. about the validity of classical logic (the logic we are all used to, the two-valued logic – either being true or false). But don’t worry – I am going to attempt to list out all the basic terms of logic that one already knows in a more normal manner; but almost all will be listed in fancy Latin phrases, just to sound snazzier. Here are some of the basic and well-known logical terms:

1. Modus ponendo ponens (Latin: mode that affirms by affirming)
2. Modus tollendo tollens (Latin: mode that denies by denying)
3. Modus tollendo ponens (Latin: mode which, by denying, affirms)
4. Modus ponendo tollens (Latin: mode that affirms by denying)
5. Vacuous truth

Doesn’t this make it sound even more complicated? But don’t worry, I’ll go through each of these fun statements, and at the end of it, you can use these and recognize how much we use these concepts without even thinking about it! But I’ll leave these explanations for later; if you are very curious and want to know more about this now, now, NOW – Wikipedia gives a good enough explanation of these concepts.

Enduring Hardships

I remember about a year ago, I began looking up a verse passage online, something that God uses to comforts us – to know that everyone is within God’s providence, that God can take care of us, but more importantly, God does not let us have more than what we can handle. Having found the reference, I passed it along to Grace (since she was the one who wanted the reference), and also underlined it in my Bible, and not much after, it has became a passing note within my mind. But while flipping through the Bible tonight during Bible Interpretation class, I rediscovered the verse, and it really came as an appropriate time for me (underlining my emphasis):

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

This promise that God makes to us is very powerful, knowing that at times there will be temptations, trials, and hardships all over the place. Even if there is no large catastrophic event that would cause immediate distrust or unwillingness to rely on God, if our faith is left unchecked and lacking in nurture, slowly but surely everyday unpleasantnesses catches up to us. I know this is the case for me – I have been slowly consumed with much of the slow hitting distractions and worries in life, as well as some larger events, that I have finally fell into a minor despair; and having been lacking in communion of thought with God, it was pretty harsh at times.

But ironically enough, even when I am lacking, God uses so many ways to help me and to get back on track, similar to what Paul says about “the way of escape”. But more importantly, I can rely on God to know and have faith in that even at times I would normally fall into despair (in times of more than the healthy amount of stress), I can remember this verse, and know that no matter what I am struggling through now, even if the world abandons me to my own demise, God wouldn’t – and not only wouldn’t, but have already given us the tools beforehand to survive and continue through the path of life ahead of us, always seeking to reach the glorious end of the road to be with Christ.