The Nicene Creed and Children

The Nicene Creed was created during a time when most of the people could not read and even complete Bibles were rare (if they even had an agreed Canon by then). When trying to get the entire knowledge of the Bible into your children's head, I find it to be extremely difficult because there is just such a large volume of information and stories they are not familiar with.

Each question that they have begets another area of ignorance that they have.

That's why I found it beneficial for things such as the Nicene Creed. For those who are not Biblically literate, it is a quick summary of the entire Christian faith.

I am aware that there are different versions of Creeds with the controversy surrounding the Trinity. I just explain that the Trinity is a bit of a mystery and that even I don't fully understand it.

I believe in one God,

the Father, the Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all that is, visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

the only-begotten Son of God,

eternally begotten of the Father,

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made,

of one Being with the Father;

through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven,

was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,

and was made man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;

he suffered death and was buried.

On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;

he ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,

and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father,

who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

I acknowledge one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

I look for the resurrection of the dead,

and the life of the world to come. Amen.

I also recognize that the sorts of heresies we are dealing with today are different than they were in the 4th century. But it's a good start, and from there I can build up on that.

I find that while I'm discussing with them about basic Biblical concepts, that I can fire off numerous examples from my head, but they are simply too illiterate to recognize those sections and match them together.

I think the next part will need to be sitting through entire books of the Bible, but in an audio book form, so that we can at least get through the New Testament. One Gospel, maybe Mark for being the shortest. I really like John's writings, but I think his wording is too esoteric for younger children to grasp. I don't think I fully appreciated John until I have grown older and experienced the darkness that he speaks of.

I have read the Bible numerous times and constantly since I was 11 years old. It was the church summer camp going into 7th grade that I officially "accepted" Christ. When I am speaking on pretty much any topic, my brain constantly fires off relevant Bible verses in relation to the subject.

I want to be able to have the same frame of reference with my children when I try to communicate philosophical concepts and help them discern between truth and lies.

When I was younger, I believed more on Faith that the Bible was true. It felt sort of stagnant, but I would push through it because it was my "duty." I didn't have any frame of reference since my life was so full of innocence.

As I have gotten older and experienced the sin in this world and those around me, the words in Scripture have come to life and manifested its truthfulness in a way that I could never had imagined as a child. I can feel the words of the Psalms much deeper into my soul due to the betrayals I have faced.

It is through suffering that the Truth of Scripture is even more true. Also, being able to see the Biblical struggles being played out in front of my eyes in society is another eye opener.

To me, the Truth of Scripture is the strongest it has ever been in my entire life, and I imagine it will be even stronger as I see more and more evil in the world.

I never had an adult while I was a child who could articulate the truth of Scripture in such a personal manner and with intellectual depth. I was always trying to figure stuff out on my own through trial and error. I had poor counsel. I was alone.

My children and grand children will never know how that feels because they'll have me to help direct them to the best wisdom and advice that has been time tested over the centuries. I am but a guide to point them toward greater wisdom than myself.

I am so jealous for my children and happy for them at the same time.

Socio-Sexual Hierarchy in the Family

It is interesting to apply the Alpha role I have as the father in the family and the way that my children are essentially an endless stream of shit tests.

For one of my younger sons, I have found that it is best for me to simply walk away if he's being uncooperative and wants me to do something for him that I know he can do for himself. I state I will help him do the task he's asking me to do, he'll refuse, I'll state I won't do it for him and that he can do it himself. I will state that I will help him through the process.

He adamantly refuses and demands that I do it for him. He starts crying in frustration.

I'm not in the habit of begging my children, and I don't care if they start crying. I will walk away. I will not waste my time trying to yell at them into submission or try to reason with them ad nausea like I tried to do with my ex-wife. It's completely ineffective and the other party just ends up resenting you even more.

So, I just walk away and say when they want my help, I am available.

Because they are so little, I will come back a couple minutes later after they know I will simply walk away, and they are much more cooperative.

They have to know that I am willing to walk away and ignore their crying. They are NOT the center of my world. They are one child of many that I have and I have a responsibility to all the children.

In my son's particular case, he didn't know how to put his swimming suit inside out. He wanted me to do it for him, but I knew he could do it. He just didn't want to try. So the other children were playing and having fun in the pool while he couldn't get his pants on.

It took a while, but eventually he was willing to follow my instructions and for now on, it will be easier for him to pull his swimming trunks inside out.

I recall as a child as well, that I would constantly disobey on purpose to mess around with whoever attempted to exert "authority" over me. It's an unconscious test to see if the adult is a strong enough person that I can rely on.

Even when I was a camp counselor to younger children when I was in late high school and college, I always notice that the "problem" children were always drawn to me. Probably because I didn't pander to them or overreact in scolding. I would generally talk to them like they could rationalize things, and I would call them out on their bullshit like I would to any other adult that had the same behavior. 

We're talking about kids with ADHD. They always respected me and would behave with me when they wouldn't with anyone else.

I am extremely direct and truthful, the children can't say or do anything that will shock me, and I can exercise my wit and play with them with genuine enjoyment that they recognize.

122 Book Delivery From Amazon

I recently got one large delivery of book primarily fueled by Amazon's "Buy 2 get 1 free" book deal. There were probably around 40 packages at the post office we had to pick up and they threatened to charge us $1,000 if we used them as a warehouse again. Due to the wonky laws of Puerto Rico, my house does not have a physical address to have mail delivered to.

About 22 of the books delivered were not packaged very well, so they had corners bent on the book. After about an hour on the phone with Amazon, I was able to get a $70 credit. About six of the books delivered had some major damage or manufacturer's defect for which I will have to send back.

The most expensive books that I received are the Incerto series by Nassim Taleb (~$111) and Confessions by Augustine (~$70).

If I do video reviews of the various books, I may do a YouTube video instead, but I don't know if I really care enough to do so. Maybe for the more expensive books.

I still have quite a bit more books coming. I've been cataloging them on my goodreads profile: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/16836762?shelf=physical-copy-owned

I think more important than money are these books that I will be able to pass onto my children and grand children. This knowledge will serve them well if they bother to read, and I can rest easy that even should I die early, that they will be in the hands of intellectual giants that I have learned so much from and will learn so much more to come.

I particularly look forward to reading a "Modern Translation" of Confessions.

A Negative Post about Sean Connery

We can always admire Sean Connery for portraying unapologetically masculine characters on the big screen, which is what most of the world has chosen to do on account of his recent death.

Whether this account for the life of Sean Connery is true or not, there doesn't seem to be anything in the description of his behind-the-scenes life that seems to far-fetched:

For one solid week I had this actor in the same room with me and thus learned way more than I wanted to about him, his social life, his vices, his hygiene, and his women. I am not predisposed to be awestruck by any celebrity, but this actor’s presence screamed "you will notice me and bow down before me."

One reason why I find it so believable is because I could imagine myself acting in the same way as Sean Connery if I shared his same attributes. I mean, why NOT?

He's Sean FUCKING Connery!

Do you think Genghis Khan had to ever worry about his personal hygiene?

Fortunately or unfortunately, I will never be able to share the same level of brain-numbness he did. My body cannot tolerate even a single serving of alcohol. Living inside a fraternity completely sober and witnessing the debauchery and sloppiness quickly eliminates any sort of "appeal" that kind of lifestyle could ever have. This includes the death of one of my brothers in the house who is believed to had fallen to his death while trying to pee over the 2nd floor balcony. Also, running night clubs and bars doesn't help either. There is no glamour.

Even when I went to the 10-day boot camp in Las Vegas, it was policy that when hitting on girls in the clubs that you remain completely sober.

In general, seeing girls "sloppy" drunk or even slightly drunk is a complete turn off from me. The drunk girl voice is really annoying to me, even in Spanish.

Asian Immigrant Children Worship the State

Chris Roberts wonders if Asians will stay woke. 

In presidential elections, the Republican Party used to win the majority of Asian votes. Now it barely wins more than a quarter.

The answer is no. And they never were really "woke" to begin with. They import the politics of the country they are coming from, which, *surprise*, do not value Western Civilization.

The other reason is that Asians tend to remain in enclaves, without integrating, primarily along the Coasts. I am particularly familiar with the Seattle and Los Angeles Koreans. I will speak about them.

What pretty much happens is that the immigrant parents are too busy to really instruct their children. Assuming they are economic immigrants, they are in "search of a better life" which means they have to work more hours. They also tend to be less educated, because it is primarily the poor farmers without any real future in the Korean cities which go to the United States which they consider a better chance for them. City Koreans recognize the Korean red-neck accents and readily discriminate.

Because the parents are not really educated themselves, they venerate education as though it is Korea and consider it almost a religion. They are in America, so they wrongly assume that the public schools will teach their children how to be real "Americans." The classic, over achieving, Asian student stereotype applies. The belief is that if the child is super successful in school with test scores and grades that they will be able to land a corporate job, or government job, that secures their job into the future. (Reference the Japanese corporate model and high levels of suicide). The Korean immigrants do not want their children to carry on their business.

Public schools are factories to indoctrinate their children into Leftist ideology. Because these immigrant parents aren't smart enough to read the same material as their children, their children have no counter-narrative. Even if the parents did read and understand what was being taught to their children, it would be so foreign from their Eastern upbringing, that they would just assume it is "American" ideology. The children of these immigrants are then turned into raging Leftists with the blessings from their parents.

The Eastern Traditions of the Korean culture are thrown out, and replaced with Cultural Marxism.

The immigrant children are taught by their parents to venerate the education system. It is no surprise then, that the children believe everything that is taught to them.

In a joking manner, you could also say that they eat way too much soy infused products, which means they have lower testosterone, which means, they will be more like Leftists.

The only Asian I know from my Seattle days that has become woke has always had excess testosterone and participates in high testosterone, competitive sports. But, even he, has to stay incognito because to reveal himself would mean ostracism from the Asian herd.

In my particular case, I always had a knack for detecting bull-shit from my "elders" (including teachers) and my father, so I was always the one "talking back" and "disrespecting my elders." My social circles were always with the Whites, and because I knew I was going into the Air Force (probably never seeing any of those jokers again), I could maintain independent thought without fear of ostracism.

Sous-Vide Everything

For almost the past two years (when I found myself effectively single once again), I have been using the Sous-Vide cooking method almost every day. My primary go-to is ribeye steak. I have basically been eating ribeye steak every night for for the past two years. My current wife can't stand it. She's already sick of it, but I seem to have a knack for eating the same thing everyday. Breakfast and lunch have also remained the same.

For breakfast, I eat two eggs, spinach, and guacamole. For lunch, I have one egg, two strips of bacon and bacon. I will sprinkle liberally with some aged cheddar cheese.

This made it very efficient and streamlined for me to shop at Costco about once a month.

With the updated custody arrangement, I am now having to feed myself and my four children. If it weren't for Sous-Vide, I think things would be even more nutty. For my baseline, I can easily throw in my steak into the Sous-Vide bath water, and also any other meats that the children would want. I throw it in after lunch, and then after about 4 hours, it is ready for dinner.

I throw the meat onto my grill and reverse sear the meat with my flame thrower (weed killer). At the same time, I'm able to throw in something into my larger tabletop "air fryer" that can cook whatever pastry item one of my especially, picky eaters will have. It has a timer to turn off automatically. Sous Vide also acts in a way that it is very difficult to overcook (basically impossible unless intentional).

So pretty much, all the various meals are prepared beforehand, placed in vacuum sealed bags, and I can have some fairly high quality and nutritious meals ready to go for the kids to enjoy with minimal, active cooking. I just put it in the vat of water of Sous-Vide or into the electric oven that is timed.

Theoretically, I could have cataloged the "favorite" meals of each of the children, have them vacuum sealed and frozen, and then whipped out so that each child could have their "favorite" meal for that day. It just takes a little bit of planning and preparation in advance.

I would say it is very easy and quite pleasant to prepare the foods for my children and myself and I find satisfaction in seeing their happy faces enjoy my cooking. My stress level is minimal because I wasn't "slaving around the kitchen" for the hours leading up to the meal. I will note, that it is helpful that I know I have a housekeeper that will be coming by to clean the dishes. I will leave it to her to do the clean-up. This is also mitigated by the fact that I use plastic plates.

I recall when I was married to my first wife how much she complained and hated cooking. She was stuck in the mindset that she had to cook the same meal for everyone, and she was the pickier eater than all but one child. She thought that if she cooked a different meal for each person, then it would be more work. It is the mindset of working harder, rather than smarter.

This is another area in which her so-called "suffering" was predominately self-inflicted.

Maximum Lifespans Have Been the Same as 3,000 Years Ago

The span of our days is seventy years,

eighty perhaps for those who are strong;

yet their sum is but toil and sorrow;

they are soon gone, and we fly away.

Psalm 90, ESV

I find it interesting that even after 3,000 years since the Psalms was written that the average lifespan still remains around seventy years.

Time and time again I am surprised by the descriptions of the Bible being more accurate than modern Scientism.

To be fair, they are not comparing the same things as they didn't have statistics to measure "average" lifespan, but the maximum lifespan seems to have remained the same, no matter what sorts of Scientific advancements we have been making.

One can criticize that there were more deaths through famine and war back in King David's time which will greatly diminish the "average" lifespan. I will note that if you include the number of babies that have been aborted as year 0 deaths, you would see modern lifespans to be significantly less than the 72.3 years we are seeing today.

Using a Tablet With Attached Keyboard to Write Blog Posts

I have found that the inspiration to have thoughts come at the spur of the moment while reading an article. I will place the article onto Trello, and when I get to my computer, I will write something out.

The thing is that my computer is a very busy environment and it tends to get my very distracted. I have a 4k monitor, and then two additional 1440p monitors, and a 1080p monitor. The multitasking is quite distracting.

So, with a tablet, it is a much simpler environment that helps me focus on the writing. I may still get notifications, but the level of distraction is much less than it would be at my computer.

I also discovered that through the use of an OTG USB adapter, I can hook up a full sized keyboard. I prefer the MX Blue switches which make a nice clicking noise while typing.

Anyway, if I manage to get a fast, and convenient setup, you should be seeing a lot more shorter posts, perhaps similar to what you would see on a smart phone.

When I was using Facebook, I would just immediately "share" the post on my Facebook feed. My blog will most likely be in a similar manner, but with the typing speeds of a full sized keyboard rather than an android tap keyboard.

I can type upwards of 100 WPM so typing on an Android phone is excruciatingly slow.

The one thing that is a little annoying typing directly into the Blogger website through Brave is that the spell checker does not provide the correct spelling. It will mark that I spelt a word incorrectly but not list the correct one. I suppose this will improve my spelling.

The other annoying thing is that I remapped the Caps Lock key to backspace on my computer, and I have become accustomed to that. I'll have to look into figuring out how to solve that problem.

Night Time Swims

I am finding more benefits of having a pool in my backyard. The latest one is being able to go swimming at night. Normally, community pools do not allow this. For younger kids, this adds another level of excitement and a way to burn off excess energy before going to bed. It's also convenient because we usually all need to take showers before going to bed anyway. I think in colder climates, the time around a camp fire are bonding experiences. Here in the tropics, being able to swim at night and the water not being freezing is probably its equivalent. It's not very comfortable to be in hot tubs here in the tropics. They are not too popular here in Puerto Rico. I imagine I will be enjoying a hot tub at night though in colder climates. These are the kinds of shared experiences that envelop all the senses that the children will be able to reminisce and bond over.

Two Legal Actions Pending For My Posts On This Blog

I have two legal actions pending against me for my writings centered upon Christian doctrinal disputes. The plaintiffs both chose not to go down the route of a full-blown libel case, but went through other means through the Puerto Rican court system for which they do not have to prove the untruthfulness of my posts.

Some observations:

1. Vox Day is correct in stating that "free speech" never was intended to protect the Christian worldview. It will be interesting to see how the Judges decide to punish me in light of the religious nature of the dispute. I am 100% against Free Speech since it is rarely, if ever, applied uniformly.
   
   
2. Even though I was born in Seattle, the US Territory of Puerto Rico equally discriminates against all its residents in its disregard for the First Amendment through the Puerto Rican Supreme Court. My only recourse will be the US Supreme Court, depending on how the Judge decides to punish me.
   
   
3. Because the Plaintiffs chose not to go through a standard defamation case, the actual "truthfulness" of my claims are not the primary metric. The primary metric is that what I say is "offensive" and "demeaning." That is enough to convict me. The Bible is offensive by its nature. Speaking Truth is offensive by its nature.
   
   
4. Anything that I have written in my blog is nothing compared to the tweets of President Donald J. Trump and much that goes on Social Media. Nothing in my blog comes close to being as offensive as the Prophets, Jesus, and the other writers of Scripture.
   
   
5. Over the past 6 months, this blog averages 189 views per day. I don't consider that to be high traffic. It is likely my Facebook posts receive much greater attention if I were to use it. In fact, none of my friends or family regularly read my blog. Most people just don't care. By filing the lawsuits, all the evidence will become public record, including the posts that they deem so "offensive." Streisand Effect is in play.
   
   
6. I know my writing effectively incorporates both the Dialectic and Rhetoric.
   
   
7. I know that some of my most devoted readers of my blog are my enemies and their attorneys. Imagine hating someone so much that you have to read every single one of my posts because you are afraid of what they might say about you.
   
   
8. The plaintiffs are completely incapable of publicly countering my truth claims, so instead they run to the Government to silence me.
   
   
9. I side on the Catholics for mandating celibacy in its Priesthood. The risk of gay orgies is much less than Churchians too afraid to speak the Truth due to the consequences it will have on being able to feed their children. Luckily for me, I'm independently wealthy with "Fuck Me" money. I heard this from Adam Corolla. I will willingly hurt myself for a greater goal.
   
   
10. The Plaintiffs' best bet was to simply ignore me, and I would just lose interest. Instead, they did the complete opposite. Conflict is the air I breathe.