Saturday, February 13, 2010
Mononucleosis
Monday, May 25, 2009
Getting Behind
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
I had a dream last night.
I flew across the world and saw cardinal directions with associations with the continents and the Antichrist. I was reading Isaiah.
I came home from Japan and met my family... Ashley, my older sister, was in confusion and muddy colors... My mother was in light with green plants swaying outside and white and grey shaded inside... my little sister Sarah was the same but with blues.
I saw the crafts of my mother and images on her pages; dark sky, a balerina hurtling, a woman in the foreground on the bottom right, rough dark and shadowed terrain in between...
There was a train I sat in beside a friend who was lonely and needed guidence, they wanted to pray to Peter or another apostle (somehow I had found them in the high wires of a bridge perching)... I eventually suggested Micheal, the archangel who "protects the people of Isreal"... I stood up to allow an old woman my seat. We were in seats facing forward like a bus. (I find this interesting since I think you should only pray to God)
An abandoned house with curled under carpets in a long hall like that of a hotel. Many pillows are piled in the rooms along it with various people I don't remember here and there... Two sworded men (one tiny and one normal sized) spar and battle (I think I'm the little one). The place reminds me of my past. Something about a book in a larger space of the hall comes to my memory.
A giant devouring and transforming snake near the end of the dream.
These are the images of my dream last night. They had so much more significance and detail in the dream and this morning, but I have lost most of my memory of it during the day. What a pity. Probably not even worth posting.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Where did matter come from?
Asking this question:
Where did matter come from?
With this explaination:
I am aware that matter can be formed from energy, but where did this original energy come from? By the second law of Thermodynamics, I think the existence of the universe is an impossible process... meaning it was created through external forcing. I think God is the answer... what do you think?
If matter has always existed and yet decays... why is the existence of an everlasting non-material being illogical?
Energy aside... you can't have an effect without a cause. multiply the size of the universe all you want, you still get the same problem... the increase of intropy.
The best answer I recieved was:
Speaking as a believer, I tend to agree that God did ordain the existence of matter.However, as a passionate amateur physicist I also have to agree that this is a somewhat unsatisfactory answer. After all, if we were to simply stick a "God did it" plaster over every gap in our knowledge and left it at that, we'd never discover anything new!To give you the (amateur) physicist's answer, therefore: it is generally considered the case (although not exclusively) that the universe began from a point known as a singularity. This is sometimes thought of as being everything in the universe scrunched up really, really small, but in actual fact it's far more complicated than that. The question of where the singularity came from in the first place is very much open - a popular theory is that it was the remains of an earlier universe that had gone through the "Big Crunch".Anyhow, singularities are inherently unstable and tend to explode (or rather, expand). Energy as we understand it (and as it exists under the Laws of Thermodynamics) didn't exist at this point. The rules, one might say, were different. Energy, of course, came to exist pretty quickly as the earliest proto-particles took form (possibly including the elusive Higgs's Boson) and their interactions took on the nature of what we, today, know as energy in its various forms.If it helps, you'll be aware that energy can be held, as it were, in abeyance as "potential" energy. The kinetic energy of a ball in your hand, for example, is potential until you choose to drop it. The singularity did not possess potential energy, because it possessed no mass as we understand it. But one might think of it as possessing potential potential energy.None of these hypotheses necessarily exclude the omnipotent hand of an immortal and loving creator. However, it is worth remembering that none of them indicate his existence, either. The best evidence of God remains - and will, I'm certain, always remain - the personal experience of his love and influence that even the most powerful and sensitive particle accelerator cannot and will not detect.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Taco Bell
If I can't get it then I want some Tex-Mex. If I can't get that, I want some Mexican. I want anything close to it and I want it now : ). I have been searching for probably hours now for good pizza and good Mexican food. It virtually doesn't exist in Japan. I might have to settle with Hard Rock Cafe unless I browbeat my way onto a US military base. Taco Bell was introduced to Asia in the early 90's or late 80's, but it failed miserably. What is wrong with the people here? Don't they like cheap, tastey, and filling? YES! Of course they do... but I think I know what the problem is. Japanese people tend not to like spicey food, and when they think of Tex-Mex, they think of Mexican and spicey and don't try food they have heard Japanese people won't like. But most of the Japanese students here who have studied in the US really liked Taco Bell. So I think Taco Bell should try again.
I also want some Papa John's. They don't exist in Japan. There are some in Korea though, a more pizza friendly country. I guess I chose the wrong country to study in : ( The only good fast food resturant Tokyo has is Wendy's... and I guess Subway is good too... but that's it. They have Domino's and Pizza Hut here but I'd rather eat chilli every day than choke down those grease balls for twice the prices they should have. I like a lot of Japanese foods, but I get so tired of the same flavors. I am greatful for the fact that my stomache can handle McDonald's because otherwise, I'd probably die.
I need some greasy, nasty, unhealthy food every once in a while, because if I continute to eat healthy I'm going to be chronically constipated and fat. I know this makes no sense to most of you, but carbohydrates lubribate my metabolism. If I don't get them and in the most unhealthy way, my body shuts down, and it's only time before it starts producing fat. I try to eat as much carbohydrates as possible and am pleased to find my wait has stayed pretty stagnant. If anything I want a little more fat, but not here in Japan. Everyone is a toothpick just like me in Tokyo.
I simply much have my filling, cheap, and delicious Taco Bell. I'm afraid I'll gorge myself on it when I can, but it'll be soooooo worth it.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Don't Trust The Japanese
If something in Japan claims to be pudding do not trust it. It is probably JELLO. If something claims to be yogurt, do not trust it either... despite the fact that it looks like yogurt with little chuncks of blueberries mixed in it... it is proabably JELLO. If something claims to be jelly... that simply means that it is JELLO. I have yet to try the custard, but as you can tell... I'm having a few reservations about it. It was bad enough trying yogurt, pudding, and jelly, and having to throw half of it away... They even hand out milk JELLO with your lunch at the cafeteria here. It is so nasty... I have a hard enough time as it is with fake cherry JELLO, let alone that stuff. Okay, so moral of the story... don't trust your eyes in Japan... or the words written on things... trust your gut or if worse comes to worse... if you don't know what something is... it's probably JELLO.
Adam
Friday, October 10, 2008
North Korea
I went to Freshness Burger down the street from Toyo University with Crystal (Texan) and Hayley (Australian). We at first started talking about American politics based upon a few questions Hayley had about it and it exploded into an intellectual flurry of thoughts. Crystal definately lead the stream of thoughts and discussion followed by Hayley. I don't like debate that feels like arguing so I remained silent. It would have worked so much better if we had a stick to pass around because you basically had to intrupt someone in order to speak. But the discussion basicly flirted upon the topics of nuclear weapons, the Middle East, why we went to war, how war has changed, what the world is becoming, the morals behind modern motivations for war and war tactics, how the world veiwed September Eleventh, how it veiws the US, and so on. There were many things we talked about.
So, today I have been feeling an overwhelming sense of God's workings in the world. I feel a decline in the strength of America, and a looming dark cloud to the East. It's like my relocation to Japan has altered my sixth sense and caused me to feel even stronger than before. I see what the world sees about the US from people that would never go there. It scares me. Not in a sense that I am afraid of death, but in a way that dampers my soul and gives me a greater love for people and a longing to understand. It is a good kind of fear rooted in love. Does that make any sense? I have been feeling this and knowing it through people since I got here.
Eventually our conversation turned to North Korea. And it basically boiled down to this... The Japanese news often refers to North Korea and the other day it showed footage inside a South Korean courthouse were evidentally South Korea has found evidence that North Korea is manufacturing short range nuclear weapons. Short range... North Korea hates South Korea and Japan. In our conversation at the table today, Crystal was commenting on how Japan isn't a giant military power and that China wouldn't do anything about North Korea because they are allies... and all that would go through my mind was a dream I had maybe three years ago. I was in Japan and people were running around in terror. Everthing had turned a shade of red with two moons in the sky and I heard a voice call out to me, "Japan will boil". It was terrifying.
Sitting at the table and listening to Crystal speak I then remembered that I was in the largest city in Japan... Tokyo. Not only that... but in the center of that city! Not very comforting... however fear does not grip me, because I have faith. It is something I cannot explain properly. I trust in God. I know that whatever happens God is there and He is just. I know that pain may come my way or enormous terror may grip this planet... but God is just all the same. I know He judges the heart and He knows every good and bad thing. There is no reason to fear because God is just. There is nothing I can do or need to do becuase I am not God. I can never be a good person because we all fall short of that... however, I can be greatful and trust in God. He knows what He is doing.
I know that no good author puts something into his book that is irrelivent. I know also that the US isn't as stupid as it sometimes may seem. God's allowing a mystery to be built in this modern world from multiple angles that I am sure will have major repercussions once revealed. I think this modern world is advancing so fast that it isn't even sure about much of anything anymore. Today has become more of God's arena than anyone could imagine. I can see Him tying up the loose ends of history and finishing off many equations. Much has been revealed to us of late, but we are just on the threshold of a mystery that will soon rear its ugly head and send tremors throughout the earth, as far as rocking its very foundations.
War has even become so confused that nations are invading other nations based upon rumors! Morals are being questioned and motives weighed like never before in history. With the existance of weapons of mass destruction, it has become acceptable however highly debated, to invade another country based on the fear that is may attack. It has come down to this... "Should we wait for them wipe out half of our population, or should we attack them first and dismantle their capablities before they are fully capable?" War has become such a beast that it comes in the form of fear itself... and unlike anytime before in history, it is now global and involves lands unrelated.
There is a mystery building and the day will soon come when it is revealed... that is what my feelings are for today. I great sense of meaning rooted in fear rooted in love. If that makes any sense....