If I were asked to use one single word to describe all of my complex emotions regarding this mission trip, the word would be “Magnificent”. Everything was so magnificent! I am almost certain that there wasn’t a split second that God’s blessings were not presented within us, and from that – I literally drew myself closer to God.

Taking a part of this mission trip was not originally planned in one of my summer listings, and I guess at the moment where my mother signed me into the mission, God’s desire for me to learn begins. I struggled big time sacrificing my so-call “precious” time for God off my short stay in Hong Kong due to all the work I have to get done. Anxiety busted my head open at the night before the trip and my heart is simply not prepared (After all, 7 days of scarification is quite a lot!).

Jesus is the merciful God. Not only he revealed compassion for me, he offered me an opportunity to receive the greatest lessons of life. What I gained is far greater and far worthier than 7 days of normal work. To be concise, God taught me in these 3 major aspects.

1) Needs for Humility

We are the teachers. There is a natural tendency in me, and perhaps everyone else to place oneself at a higher spot simply because we think we are the contributing incomers who came from a relative prosperous city. Perhaps the variations between cultures naturally formed a sensational barrier between them and us. I saw people smoke at church; I saw people spit at church; I saw people use their used spoon and chopsticks digging into a big pot of soup prepared for everyone; I saw old people that stink so bad that I would never get close with. God reminds me to be humble all the time. God reminds me to leave all the pride and ignorance behind. Humility allows myself to truthfully experience what it means to be a servant of God. Having an attitude of humility has not only elicited an efficient time use in our programs, but it allows us to form a strong bond between teachers and students. The strong bond essentially allows ourselves to sense the students’ true needs, in which we offer our guidance for their own spiritual growth. Practicing humility is not easy; nevertheless, Jesus’ sacrifice provided me with all the motivations and all the reasons to be humble. Humility is a basic property of a God’s servant, without it – our trip means nothing but only to show the world how great and capable we are.

2) Power for Faithful Prayers

Back in a class I told my students that a faithful prayer is what God fond of. Prayers without faith are nothing more than talking to the empty air. God of course knows about me; he understands my needs, my desire, and everything in my mind. Nonetheless the father wants me to say it out. Prayers allow the development of my personal faith to God. Our mission trip is filled with prayers, we prayed for the weather, for the students, for the speakers, for everyone involved in the trip. I can hardly imagine what it is going to be like without prayers. Men are simply too fragile and vulnerable, praying to God offers a solution to fulfill our frustration with the warmest sense of comfort and security. I went to the trip with quite a lot of uncertainties and they indeed frustrated me. All the concerns are lucidly too great for us to handle. Gratefully, the Holy Father doesn’t just leave us in dark; he taught us that praying to him faithfully is equivalent to passing all our worrying to him, letting him to handle what is unhandled and unprepared.

3) Importance for Obedience

As fore mentioned, at the last moment I started to regret signing up for the mission trip simply because I think I am unprepared. God knows, and he opens up this opportunity for me to learn again. A father-son relationship is based on love, while it is the son’s responsibility to obey because the son knows the Holy Father has prepared the best for him. I was afraid of the environmental challenges I have to combat; I was startled from the pathetic quantity of sleep I am going to get; I was frightened by the horrifying public security of China; I was worried. And clearly now I understand that all the worries are unnecessary. We ate well; we sleep well; everything went well. Learning to obey is difficult, waiting patiently for signs is even more challenging. But I learned and I know – When God says: Go. I shall obey faithfully.

This 7 days mission trip is by far one of the most precious periods in my life. I worried, then I laughed, and finally I learned. There is nothing more valuable than to spread the words of Jesus. Despite me being a mentor and a teacher in the trip, God himself taught me the greatest life lessons. God enlightened me; I learned again to be humble, to pray faithfully and to obey loyally. I had once again stepped forward towards Christ.

Memorti

Here we go! Enjoy

Like the new layout of my photo presentation? :>

Memorti

If God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent just like the Holy Bible describes, does God has the ability to produce an infinite number? Fundamentally, both yes and no.

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Lets walk through this puzzle by answering the NO part first. Asking a question like this is similar to question God whether he can write a sentence in red using a blue ball pen, or asking God whether he can create the infinitely heavy object physically and holds it with his bare hands. The contradiction lays upon the philosophical limitation of logic. Essentially, one must understand the basic concept of  infinity before understanding of the contradiction at the higher level.  Infinity is not solid number mathematically, infinity is practically a philosophical concept. The nature of infinity has the fundamental ability to break down the hard-stoned laws of mathematics and science.

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Perhaps you had never noticed before – we naturally accept the concept of infinity without any scientific proves.  Infinity does not have a mathematical end point, the entire concept is simply presented by an elegant symbol ∞, yet magically we sense the nature of infinity conceptional. Or take this to a more proximal approach, our brain is restricted by a practical cognitive limitation although we think we understand infinity. Although we can “sense” infinity, or imagine the “largest” number we can think of, that number is essentially finite because we’ve all know, we can take that number and add 1 to it. Our brain contains approximately 10^27 atoms, and based on calculations of the molecular brain structure, there are approximately 10^70,000,000,000,000 kinds of “cognitive combination” we can facilitate. Such astounding increase is responsible by the brain’s complex neuro circuitries and multiple neuro-synapses. And

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if 10^70,000,000,000,000 + 1;

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The mathematical number stated above is beyond our mankind comprehension. Infinity originates here. The complexity from there is “infinitely” difficult to comprehend by our tiny brains and can only be understood as a “sense” or a “feeling”.

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So if God facilitate a number of 10^70,000,000,000,000  + 1, should we conclude that number as “infinite” because it is beyond human comprehension? Well, initially it is a little tricky to define what is infinite.

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Lets assume we have a bag that contains infinite numbers of marbles, we have (∞). Next, we take a marble from the bag and we have: (∞ – 1). The bag still has an infinite number of marbles only it has one marble lesser from the beginning. If we take another marble from the bag of infinity, we have: (∞ - 2) and so on. Ironically, regardless of the (n) number of marbles we have taken from the bag, we will still have infinite marbles left. Taking this idea to an extreme, we take away ∞ numbers of marbles which results in: (∞ - ∞) and yet we still have infinite number of marbles left in the bag! In fact, we cannot distinguish the quantity of infinity nor can we analogize or compare the fundamental nature of infinity.

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Taking from here on, we understand that infinity is a theoretical concept that is virtually beyond the laws of mathematics. The almighty God cannot create a number that is infinite because an “infinite number” itself is a logical fallacy. We can assume God cannot write a sentence in red using a blue pen because if a “blue pen” writes in red, the pen is essentially a “red pen”. Thus, NO in a sense. Please also kindly keep in mind that the answer “NO” of God does not equal to God’s failure to be omnipotent.

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The yes part of our question is slightly easier to grasp. The omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God is able to take oneself off from the domain of logic, science and mathematics, of all are the necessary properties of physical laws. An approach to answer “YES” from the question cam be demonstrated by the fact that the almighty God has the ability, as fore mentioned, to create a number of infinity that is beyond our cognition, that number is intrinsically classified as an “infinite number” at a certain extent regardless of its logical contractions.

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After all, there is one more point I wish to introduce. As we have walked through the basic concepts of infinity, perhaps we can go a little beyond and answer the “now what?” question. Blaise Pascal, one of the greatest mathematician of the all time (or should I called him the greatest gambler…) evidently illustrated the dominance argument based on logical probabilities.

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Specifically by a two by two matrix,

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I think the chart is pretty self explanatory. As a man, there are only four possibilities one can have.
A) If you are a believer, and God does exists, you will be rewarded “infinitely”.
B) If you are a believer, and God does not exists, your loss is finite (ie offerings to ones church).
C) If you are not a believer, and God does exists, you will be punished “infinitely”.
D) If you are not a believer, and God does not exists, your gain is finite (ie time spared for ones material life)

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There is another approach from the above case, we assume believing in God & God does not exists results in no benefit and ultimately is a “finite loss” case. Interestingly, theists does live a relatively happier life statistically from the sense of religion comfort compared to atheists; hence we may categorized that kind of happiness can results in a “finite gain” in a believer’s case.  On the other hand, living a life not as happy reduces the level of “gain” from non-believers. The original “finite gain” of non-believers is reduced and we can assume the “finite gain” of a non-believer is lesser than the “finite gain” of a believer given that God does not exists.

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As illustrated, Finite quantity can be comared while infinite quantity cannot, at least from the human cognitive approach. Based on the most simplistic probability calculations, and regardless of  whether God truly exists, believing God is the most rational belief to have.

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Of course I am not to naively concluded Pascal’s logic is entire correct practically because considerations of other elements must be taken into account (ie, whether the christian God is initially and ultimately omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent). Nevertheless, viewing the issue at a fundamental basic aspect, believing God is mostly rational.

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“Eternity’s a terrible thought. I mean, where’s it all going to end?” quoted from the brilliant British playwright Tom Stoppard. infinity is indeed a terrible thought at first, but it is not too terrible when one tries to understand it logically.
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Memorti

Right. I finally got a good computer to work on my photos. I think I owed everyone and myself.
1) Photos from Hayes Section

2) EF BBQ

3) Leaving Edmonton. Me and P

4) All the food photos from my D300s

5) Lan Tau Island Trip photo

6) Leo and Kerrie’s Try-out photos

7) And more and more HK photos

Oh man, my schedules are soooo tight and I only have couple more days free this month. Seriously need to finish the photo editing and finish up my new website and portfolio. (Argh! I need a better network, right now its sitting a 10kb/s download…)

Alright, here are a few more. Enjoy and Stay Tune for the rest! (need some patient skills though)

This place was empty only because Spring term was officially over. (I DID WELL IN BOT 380 FINAL!!!)

It feels weird to see this place so empty…

Memorti

Love this summer.

Memorti.

The air is pretty bad, and the weather is dramatically pathetic. Oh well, my skin thermal cells need some times to adapte this strange enviornment. Humid and Gross!

Air Canada’s new Vancouver flight to Hong Kong is unqiuely set to 2am in the morning while the last flight from Edmonton to Vancouver is set as 9pm local time, which means us, who spent over a thousand bucks on a flight ticket are required to wait in the Vancouver airport for 5 hours straight assuming no delays. Glad that me and littlo P downloaded a few movies and we found a good spot with comfy chairs and wall power plugs.  

I do not appear to possess the symptoms of jetlagging. Sleeping on the plane was a pain though. I was not able to sleep for couple straights hours without getting awake, regardless of my tiring body condition. Yawn! I am sleepy now as I am trying to type this entry out; unfortunately I will have to wait till later @ night so my body and fully adapt to the different time zones.

Yawn Yawn Yawn, computers in my mum’s office is extremely slow, I cant really get any “real” work done. While I was browsing apple.com again, I started to step back from the 15inch macbookpros due to its insanely expensive price (for me at least). But argh! I want a mac, just don’t want to spend as much! I have like 10k cash in hand and I want to spend it WISELY(still not enough for macbook) But well, the balance of quality and price has to be fulfilled. I still got time to consider my options,

Yawn Yawn! Everyone are working at the office and I am bored, first day in HK, how exciting.

Memorti.

Woohoo! Finished writing my Botany Final!
And thereby, my third year university life had officially came to an end, formally and peacefully.

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There are a couple things I wish to bring out but overall, the third year university life is one of the most extraordinary experience I’ve ever had. Its simply fantastic, academically, socially, and in terms of general well-being.

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1st Semester
It was relatively disastrous. Selecting Japanese 101 as my art option was one of the move that I regret the most, still I do. I had absolutely no idea how difficult it is to learn another asian language; to be honest to myself, language acquisition is not  one of my talents, I probably even suck at it! I held a great grudge over my decision in taking Jap instead of something I am familiar with such as Chinese. But oh well, the brutal period has passed, I moved on.

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And next we have Biology 321, advanced evolution biology. From that I learned that I simply do not have to capability to take an 8am class. Everything starts off nice and easy as any typical student, freshly refreshed from an enjoyable summer break. First few class was fine, the goal of getting a high grade motivated me from the sweet warm bed; subsequently, I failed to get up and ended up missing most of the classes since the midterm 1. Well I still did ok in the final but I guess I took my lesson and there are absolutely no reason for me to take another 8am class, learning about natural history in the sleepy morning.

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Other Psychology classes I took were fine, pretty decent professors and the material are generally interesting. The time slots were perfect for me. One class I want to give my special credit to is Dr. Caplan’s brain and cognition class. It was probably the most interesting class ever. And I ended up doing very great in the class. (Which relates back to my second year where I took another class with him, thats where I learn hes a cool prof).

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2nd Semester
I had probably the best chance in getting a 4.0 in this particular semester, but I failed to. 3.9 is what I got, but Well I am glad that it did. This semester was both challenging and easy-going. Almost no exam based grade, but paper based. Great! I had to take some more art classes because I need the GPA boosting effect (except Japanese) and I need some more art credits.

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I am glad that I signed up for Dr Dickson’s lab although I must admit that he is rather intimating in most of the situations. I admire his ability to make his arguments and his capability to be creative. Intuitive thinking is probably the most essential elements in advanced science, the create something novel, you are required to be intuitive. Lots of work for me, although the grade he gave me was quite unexpected, I was glad that I worked in his lab. In the other hand, Jer Caplan gave me the third A, in this computational memory model class. There were 3 people in the class, probably one of the smallest class ever. But there cant be a better class than this! 3 people + professor investigating at a highly specific topic, there are a lot to learn from it. Presentations were great, I leaned to speak with a little more formal attitude and facilitating a little more professional and scientific terms, which are all critical aspects of my future.

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Chinese? Yes I paid $1600 and took a Mandarin Chinese course. It was one of the most ridiculous class ever. But in a way, getting a good grade is what I demand at that point. Classics? It was a good class, I learned about greek history and different gods. It provided me an deeper philosophical insight into systemic theology and allows me to discriminate between religious myths and the one true religion. Absolutely no regrets taking Chinese and Classics.

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It was probably the best semester I ever had.

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Spring Semester
The only one class I took was Botany, Drug plants. This class got me thinking deep. The combination of doing research in the previous semester and taking this course outputs an entire different perspective in me. Botany is quite different compared to pharmacology, at least in the philosophical aspect. It is safe to say that the Botany I learned is quite similar to the traditional chinese medicine that has 5000 years of history. Initially I had the chance to pick between between this course and another pharmacology class (Drug abuse) which are very related, I ended up with botany. 2 papers and 3 exams, the workload was slightly overwhelming, but it was ok; I was heavily trained to write papers. Good class, good learning.

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I don’t have a particular conclusion I want to make, but I merely want to say: I enjoyed.
SO here I am heading back to Hong Kong in 2 days, hurray!

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Memorti

Extremely Busy. 20 Things I need to accomplish at this point of stage.
1) Finish that Botany research paper
2) Organizing the greatest BBQ ever
3) Study and write my last Final
4) Finish Church Website designing
5) Get everything in order (physically-wise) before my flight to HK
6) Sell all my pentax gears in exchange of a Macbookpro 15″
7) Summer job please if possible
8 ) Finish-up my personal business flash site and photo album
9) Get some business card done
10) Travel around in HK (photographs of course!)
11) Macau Missionary Trip!
12) Trip with Fatty Four
13) Get a US Visa
14) All the time with Littlo P
15) Apply for all kinds of bursaries and scholarship
16) Get a time and reflect upon my future career
17) Get a Tokina 11-16mm f2.8………..
18) A moment of religious realization
19) Course picking and financial planning for next school term
20) FInish my read lising for the simple sake of knowledge acquiry

Memorti.

What a good weekend. It was quite a relief after finishing that botany midterm.
Saturday Church was great as usual.
Sunday afternoon was relaxing, I was able to squeeze some time to give myself a couple photoshop lessons.

Learning and learning, never stop. Humbly speaking, my ability to endure the difficult properties of learning allows me to achieve quite a lot so far in my life.
Being NOT LAZY is what distinguished me from the vast population.
Being NOT LAZY is what I always remind myself.
Being NOT LAZY is the only way to prevent the burial of ones unique talents.
Being NOT LAZY is definitely going to get you somewhere.

Memorti.

BLOW IT UP!!

蒲公英小黃花在亞洲好像很浪漫，在北美Ironically 地人見人憎
原因是因為蒲公英小黃花會搶丟花園綠草的養份
小黃花一定要連根拔起，不然頑強的它們不到幾天便重新再發芽
有點可笑吧…
BLOW THEM UP!

Blow me out into somewhere without frustrations!

Oh, I did some window shopping after today’s meeting with the pastors.
The new southgate apple store is VERY NICE.
MACBOOKPRO, few more weeks and you will BE MINE!

Memorti.