He split Time!

Chinese civilization develops under Shang Dynasty (1500-1000 BC)
Solomon succeeds King David, builds Jerusalem temple (1000–900 BC)
Confucius was known to be born sometime 551 BC

Goths invade Asia Minor sometime A.D. 220
Constantine the Great rules (A.D. 312–337)
Vikings and Danes attack Britain (A.D. 988–1000)

In the above historical events, what do you notice? Yes, these are just some of the recorded ancient history. But have you also noticed how historians and archaeologists dated the occurrences of these events? They used BC (meaning "Before Christ") and the abbreviated Latin phrase AD (which means Anno Domini or in plain english means "in the year of our Lord"). Although some would prefer to use the terms "Before Common Era" (BCE) and "Common Era" (CE), they actually have the same meaning.

What is the importance of this? It means Christ's existence on earth is not just as important as those ancient history, rather His existence have become the point reference of the history itself! His "story" was written in every major events in the history, imagine that. Let's take for example the events I listed above. Dating that these historic events occurred sometime between 1500 BC and AD 1000 gives us the idea concerning how old these significant stories really were. If I am to calculate the exact number of gregorian years or julian days from these given timings to this date, of course I would be needing a point of reference. It is like calculating the number of hours needed to travel going from point A to point B. We first identify what variables are involved. So in this case, BC and AD signifies our point of reference.

We can say that the space is divided when God created the heaven and earth in the beginning.
And when God created light, He separated light from the darkness.
In Exodus, we can find a very significant story when Moses, through God's power, divided the red sea.
And in Matthew, we can see two accounts where Jesus divided the loaves and fishes to feed thousands of people.
The bible too was divided in two, where the life story of Jesus began in the new testament.

These leads me into thinking about how our time was divided. A split second may be fast, but you'll discover that a lot might have taken place in that brief moment of time in different corners of this world. In history, the event that split time marked the period when our savior came, which makes us even more conscious regarding Jesus' impact to our world.

What is the impact of His presence in your life? I guess one can narrate his/her own story when he/she first came to know our Savior. We can actually use the same dating method, like how is your life "Before Christ?" and how has Jesus changed your life after you accepted Him into your heart (your own Anno Domini timing or simply your triumphant days/years with the Lord in your heart)?

Jesus' birth was very significant and powerful that we even date our time from it. He split the time!

Thanks for reading. God bless you all!


Some Suggested Reading:
*Why is a minute divided into 60 seconds, an hour into 60 minutes, yet there are only 24 hours in a day?
*Jesus - Our Salvation

Suggested Music:
*BC+AD Who Split Time?
(I own a copy of this CD. The songs are really inspiring, and this album inspired me to write this blog.)

Entertainment: The New Mac Tini!

I find this clip hilarious. What if they could really make the laptop this small? hahaha =)

Check out this vid. Enjoy!


(video clip courtesy of youtube member immenstrides)

Poetry and Music: Frail

I remember when I blogged about the kind of news that we hear or see each day. In as much as I don't want to read or get a glimpse of the tragic news, information will simply present itself to me. I must say, there are things in this world that though we can control yet still seem inevitable or they're probably just too exhausting. And there are also things beyond our control, like the recent quake that hit L'Aquila Italy. Sometimes such unfortunate event makes our heart become fragile. No matter what gender or status you have, when calamity strikes, anyone could be a victim. There's only one source of help everyone can immediately cling on to, as described in Isaiah 54:10.

I'll end this short article with this wonderful song from my favorite band.

...Exposed beyond the shadows
You take the cup from me
Your dirt removes my blindness
Your pain becomes my peace.


Check out this vid.
(video courtesy of TageKaliandrino from youtube)

TECH TIPS (Facebook): I clicked on "Add a Friend" request link by mistake, how do I cancel this?

Okay, to those with adrenalized fingers, I'm sure there were times in your net surfing experience that you furtuitously clicked on certain link in a page (or maybe because your mouse device was setup to autoclick on hotlinks). But that's no problem as you can just hit "back" to return to your previous page or simply close the window you don't intend to view.

Wait, I have another problem! I'm using Facebook and I accidentally clicked on the "Add as Friend" link, I dunno how, it happened so fast and there's no button nor any other links to Undo it! :(
..And I don't understand why Facebook didn't provide another confirmation if this link is unintentionally selected.

Chill out. There's a solution to this actually. But it's not like the other social networking websites where you can revoke such request by a click of a button. And Facebook have provided confirmation form after hitting that friend request link.. EXCEPT if you have more than three (i think) common friends, in which no confirmation form is displayed anymore. Quite silly huh?!? Anyway, here's how:

1. Go to your privacy settings and you'll see a boxed item there where you can block someone.
2. Enter the person's name (his/her facebook name I mean), then click on "Block" button. Another page will open, just proceed by clicking the "Block Person" button.
3. A confirmation message appears on top of that same privacy settings page. Then on the same boxed section, click "remove". That's it! It will automatically purge the friend request you might've "unintentionally" performed earlier.

Cheers! Technology has ways to reverse things, except your life! Haha. So make the most of it! Enjoy life! God bless!

c",)

Why hast thou forsaken me?

"My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?"

I guess there might a lot people asking the question "why did Jesus cried out these words?" When I was a young boy, I did asked the same question not just once. And the usual follow up question to this is "Did God really abandoned Jesus [His One and only beloved son - Luke 3:22] when He was suffering on the cross?" Also during that time, people who mocked him baffled and said, "He saved others; he cannot save himself!" Matthew 27:42

As I eagerly tried to discover and learn the real message behind these words, it all summed up to one compelling reason.. God's love for us.

What is the significance of this cry and why did Jesus uttered those words if He knew what would happen to him in the first place? (please see Matthew 16:21 and Mark 10:33-34, where he predicted his own death). Actually, the exegesis of these words of Christ from Matthew 27:46 is two-fold. We can observe that (1) Jesus was in real agony and that (2) He was quoting from the scripture, i.e. the first verse of Psalm 22. I'd like to think that the former is about Jesus' real emotion from sufferings, and the latter is about His wisdom. Okay let's try to dissect this a bit and see how we can relate to it.


Jesus in agony
If a friend of yours have a hammer and he suddenly bashed your big toe with it, how would you react? You might cry in pain and ask the big WHY?!? Hehe, okay let's try not to be brutal here. Suppose someone is terminally ill or maybe experiencing great adversity; as humans, people under these circumstances might cry out and speak one of these phrases, "Why is this happening to me?" "When will this come to an end?" "Why did God forsaken me?"

Jesus was just like me and you when He lived here on earth. A being. A word that became flesh and made his dwelling among us. He faced humiliation. He felt the pain. There were blood coming out of His wounds. He even got thirsty Jn 19:28. And the difficult part was, he carried the entire burden of mankind. Following these, we can deduce that it was not just physical pain brought about by the lacerations on his weakening body on the cross and crown of thorns on his head, he was also in emotional pain. He was so concerned about his people that he even humbly asked God to forgive them for being caught unaware of their wickedness Luke 23:34. So it's not but normal that any beings undergoing such sorrow is likely to utter the same throbbing words. Jesus was in agony when he said those words.

And as written, this had to occur in order to fulfill God's redeeming grace for us, his people. God did not totally abandoned Jesus, it was all in accordance to his divine plan. Isaiah 53:10


Jesus quoting from old testament scripture
Read through the entire passages in Psalms 22:1-31 and you will discover that the words of King David transpired during Christ's crucifixion. Was it a prophecy? According to bible scholars it was a prophecy.

6 ..scorned by mankind and despised by the people
7 All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
16 ..they have pierced my hands and feet
18 ..they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots

Did King David really experienced this? Or it was just a cry of his grieving heart, sort of like an anguished prayer from suffering unjustly? But the real turn of events of what was written here ensued during Christ's sufferings. Jesus hands and feet were literally pierced. "And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots." Matthew 27:35. We all know that being crucified means being NAILED to the cross Acts 2:23. So we can also conjure that King David's prayer to God narrated in Psalm 22 was merely prophesying about the Messiah's fate.

So when Jesus shouted in pain "My God, My god, why hast thou forsaken me?" He was somewhat declaring to the people, by quoting from the first verse in Psalm 22, that the sufferings of Christ that was written has come true on that day at the calvary.

Jesus' last words were.. "it is finished" Jn. 19:30
Notice that the last phrase in Psalm 22 is.. he has done it!

To conclude my seemingly long blog, hehe, about these significant words of Jesus, well I strongly believe God did not forsake his son.. He did all these to fulfill his plan to redeem the world of our sin. God loves us! "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Jn. 3:16

God knows our feelings and our concerns. So when you feel like asking the same question to Him, please remember that He's not turning his back on you. And I believe it's okay to tell God how we feel even in the form of WHY questioning. BUT we must also try to seek wisdom from Him so that we'll not disintegrate, instead remain strong, knowing victory is just one step away.

Thanks for reading and may you all have a blissful and meaningful week.

ciao! c",)

PhotoBlog: iPhoto's Saturation Treatment and What is Color Space?

On this post I will talk about two things. iPhoto's unusual saturation treatment and basic info on Color Space.

iPhoto Saturation Treatment (?)
When I started using iPhoto, I was already contented with the simple image editing capability it can offer. Until the need to put a text on a certain image I'm editing sprung up, I began searching for a more advanced yet FREE photo-editing software. Because getting a licensed photoshop will cost me an arm and a leg.

Anyway, I spotted a certain degree of saturation embedded on every image I open in Apple's iPhoto [and Preview]. It only became pretty evident when I was tryin' to do serious manipulation of one particular image through Gimp. I initially thought it was a flaw on GIMP since it's just a free software. But after comparing the initial display of images on both iPhoto and GIMP, and searching the net to see if other users have noticed the same snag, it was actually iPhoto's unusual behavior. (You will also observe this if you open an iPhoto-edited picture on Gimp/Photoshop as it will prompt you that the image you are opening have color profile attached to it -- an ICC or Camera RGB profile in a technical term). I initially did not consider this as an issue though, because iPhoto's way of bumping up colors before you do any form of adjustments is quite remarkable (to some extent, hehe). Of course, more often than not, images with a fair amount of saturation is more striking than a normal picture (non-PP'd images I mean). This is why, I believe, there's a "vivid" option in most digicams.

"Should I get bothered with this?" some people unaware of this might ask. Probably you will, once you get a li'l pedantic about the images you want to share to your friends. Or once you engage yourself into digital photography, where you will begin to appreciate colors and recognize between a dull and vibrant colors. You will also find the need to pay attention to this color details as you start publishing your images to the web. I'm sure you don't want surprises like being convinced that your images look just perfect, believing that you (or iPhoto for instance) have properly adjusted and balanced the color tones, only to find out that they look dull on somebody else's browsers. This is where gaining some knowledge about "color space" comes into play.

Color Space
The picture you see on your screen MAY not display the same vibrant colors on other monitors (even if the monitor is calibrated). What I'm trying to say is, if your photos are posted on the web, some people viewing them may NOT likely see the same lively colors you expect them to experience. Like some photos I initially published on Flickr (which I immediately replaced after discovering this), they appear with vivid colors on my laptop. But I got a bit flustered after seeing them on another computer that uses IE browser. Which revealed that mac-based browsers would actually display slightly different colored images from that of a windows-based browser. Just to clarify, I'm not implying any superiority or flaws between the capabilities of these browsers, applications, and systems I'm mentioning here. It's basically about the browser's color management. Internet browsers they treat or handle color attributes quite differently. You will be inclined to think that some sites accepts your photos as they are (whether or not there's an embedded ICC profile in your images), while other sites (Flickr, for example) simply removes them. To be safe, just use the Adobe RGB or sRGB as your working space when editing images so as to retain a balanced or as much color as possible.

This is critical if you're designing a webpage or showcasing your precious digital snaps. To some, this may just be a fraction of what they're doing, but to professional photo-enthusiasts & web designers, I believe this will play a significant part as they do their usual image post-processing. So I think a good understanding of color space is as important as not losing details from your original [raw] images. Well, I'm not gonna talk much about color space here because I found a site which provide a good discussion of what color space really is, and why it is important (especially to digital photographers and web designers).

check out this link to know more about this.
(I just want to give credits to TECHtata, and Ryan Brenizer who authored and shared this good article [see link] that offers a straightforward explanation of color space basics)

Hope you find these useful. c",)

Entertainment: SPELL

Okay, I said I won't be putting any video links. Maybe.

Well, I don't wanna restrict my blog especially if I like the clip. So, perhaps I'll just be linking to the sites I think will be around the net for a longer period. Like this one from a lovely artist who gained popularity through youtube. She's got the look and the talent, so I would definitely agree she deserve to get noticed.

Here's one of her original composition that I like.

Spell
by Marié Digby
(video clip embedded from and courtesy of Marie Digby's youtube page)