The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea (where Sodom and Gomorrah used to be) has a saline concentration of around 35%-mind you that Ocean water is around 3.5%-and plenty of minerals.

It is in about 1200 feet below sea level, and the deepest part goes 1400 deep into the sea. For scale, the Empire State Building in New York is 1250 feet tall. If you would dump the building into the deepest part of the sea, it would disappear and you'd have to swim down 150 feet to see the top.

Anyhow, today I floated on it. It's not swimming because you seriously float. You might have seen pictures of people floating on it but experiencing it is quite unique. I can stand in the water with my hands up without moving my legs (totally vertical) and the water only reaches the middle of my chest.

The salt and mineral content make it possible. The heavier a liquid is the higher its buoyancy factor. I remember seeing a video footage of a small pool of mercury (the heaviest liquid substance at room temperature) and they throw hammers, nails, wrenches and they all floated, it was surreal, maybe there is a youtube video on it.

It was so salty that my bug bites and some scrapes started to feel as... well.. as if it was being rubbed by salt! Ouch! I also tasted a little and I can tell you it tastes like salty salt (duh)

Now I want to swim (float) across the width of the Dead Sea, haha.

And I realize that Israeli girls are really pretty, maybe I should marry one... oh well, in His time cause he still hasn't given me the go ahead haha.

What I got from God at the end of last year is that this year is going to be "a year of change" and there have already been a lot of changes, and already foresee a couple of more changes ahead. Hmm this should be a separate post, enough stream of thought.

Dead Sea was cool.

Jewish Holocaust Museum

Visiting the Jewish Holocaust Museum I realize how little I knew of the atrocities during the holocaust. I thought I knew plenty, but now I know it is not enough.

I wasn't expecting much but the moment I stepped into the area, I felt a spiritual sorrowfulness that just grabbed my attention and brought tears to my eyes suddenly.

In 1939 there was a Jewish Refugee Boat with almost 1000 Jews that headed to Cuba, but were refused entry. They turned to the USA, but they were not allowed to enter by Immigration, and were sent back to Germany Thankfully, France, England and other European nations welcomed them.

The big political stories and war pale in comparison to the small individual images of children dying in the Ghetto. Images of a soldier executing a woman from behind while she is holding her child in her arms in a strong embrace. (No photos allowed to be taken of course)

In the Ukraine, according to a German Soldier's letter, they executed 500 women in groups of 10 by firing squad. There are images of women being shot in the back in front of mass graves naked. They were told to strip naked before being shot. In Latvia, german soldiers encouraged the rape and murder of Jewish woman by Latvians.

These photos are amazing, yet cold and brutal. Jews being hanged, shot, digging their own graves. Video footage of children dying on the streets (1.5 million children died during the Holocaust)

There are many sketches and ink washes and some colored waterworks that Jewish artists recorded during their last days. One of the diaries read that knowing their fate (as in death) they wanted to keep a record of prominent people, so many had their portraits sketched. Some of these artists survived with their sketches.

Excerpts from the diaries are heavy and personal and put a personal touch to the 6 million murdered in the Holocaust.

News of mass exterminations spread slowly, some young girls who looked Aryan volunteered to smuggle news, documents, etc. with false documents pretending not to be Jews, a diary reads that they never rejected a mission.

There actually was a strong resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto who fought back German soldiers a couple of times.

There was even a crematorium that was destroyed by Jews who were able to smuggle some bombs and exploding them. 450 prisoners died at the camp, but the crematorium was rendered useless.

There are too many things to learn in this world. Let us use our time wisely.

The Third Temple

The First Temple is the one designed and prepared by King David and built by King Solomon. Destroyed by Babylon completely in 586BC

The Second Temple was by Zerubabbel and later improved by Herod the Great. Destroyed by Hadrian Caesar in 70AD under the command of Titus.

The Third Temple is awaiting its turn to be built. All the tools, vases, cups, wash basin, priest clothing, incense, veil, harp, horns, trumpets, designs and layout are all built. This was shown in the Temple Institute.

The Jewish presenter that was showing us the items in detail said something very interesting that grabbed my attention.

She said that the actual temple will be built when all nations realize the need for the temple for there to be peace in the world. Only then it would be built and by then everything will be ready to go.

It grabbed my attention because the world will allow the temple to be built. Whether it is acknowledgement or just a facade but it will happen.

What's really interesting is that I realized this is the current Jewish belief (at least the orthodox view) that the world needs the Temple for peace to happen. She also said very NOT subtly, that people are created equal but they all have their own place. There's a place for the high priest, a place for the priests, a place where Jews can come into the temple, the place where Jewish woman belong, and outside the court where the Gentiles are.

Hmm... well, she put us in the right place. She is better than us because she gets to be closer to the Holy of Hollies.

Let's just say that we got to understand what the Jews believe about the Temple and salvation. One of us asked about the need of blood for atonement (very christian, and I wouldn't recommend anyone to do it cause you should know the answer) and she answered that the process of prayer and becoming better persons is good enough because the blood "offering" is just the last part of the act.

Anyhow, we are getting off the bus and into some antiquity shopping, which I can't afford.

Israel

Ok landed in Israel, the only words I can pick up are "I" "you", words like under, over, on, and numbers haha.

Still trying to figure out the best way to blog while here. Either through my offstandard or through my Flickr.

I'll figure out how much access I have from the hotel

Laters
--
Chris Hwang
http://offstandard.com/
"Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be." - Thomas a Kempis

Look Ma! I'm on TV!

DSC_5546, originally uploaded by chosumgum.

Graduation has come and gone. I think this is the biggest crowd that heard me speak (albeit for 1 minute). And it looked weird looking at myself in a TV monitor. And I realized that my eyes are WAY too small, playing it back to back with big eyed folks...

At least I know one thing... God has a very good sense of humor and all I have to do is pass that along and people will laugh heheh.

Odaiba Gundam... the beginning of the end...

Odaiba Gundam 3, originally uploaded by kenleewrites.

Ah... those crazy japanese people. They actually finished building the LIFE-SIZE Gundam RX-78. For those who are familiar with modern day Gundam (wing, g, double zero, etc) and not the original (released back in 1979) this is the original Gundam that started it all, and they built this for the 30th anniversary celebration in August.

I bet this is actually a working robot, and they will be launching an attack with this Gundam unit and some green mass-produced Gundam's unto the unsuspecting world.



Soldiers from around the world who are familiar with anime and grew up watching Gundam will be so awestruck that they would not fire at the destructive robot but would walk up to touch and admire it. And those unsuspecting fools would only be crushed and cut up by the robot's light saber sword.

This is how WWIII will start, and this time Japan is ready to stop nuclear attacks because these Gundam units will be capable of space travel. Not only that, Asimo's all over the world will "wake up" and have an ominous red light that a supercomputer in Japan would control (I, Robot reference in case you haven't seen it) to tear down the infrastructure from within each country as unsuspecting citizens watch in amazement and even bemusement (is that a word? if not then I just christened it! I'm on a roll!) as we wonder if they are filming a movie or a publicity stunt.

Watch out lady!! Behind you!!!

Thankfully for us, Sony's Aibo Personal Dog failed their infiltration into modern society, or they would have also sent an EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) to short circuit all home electronics and cellular communication towers, disrupting the communications in modern countries.

Man's best robotic friend? That red glow says otherwise!

Maybe they might even have the Gundam GP Unit 2 armed with Nuclear Weapons... OH SNAP!!! Beware world!!!

Scale Model of the Gundam GP02 Unit armed with Nuclear Weapons

In the end, we will have to equip our old non-tech SUV's with .50 caliber machine guns to be able to defend ourselves from the hordes of attacking Asimo's and Gundam's...



.... yes... quite an imagination I have... but if it happens, please don't come knocking in my underground military strength bomb shelter.

Sleeping Pills (forgot the title while posting from my phone)

Sleeping pills are scary. Now and then my mom takes sleeping pills because she can't sleep. She wakes up in the middle of the night wondering where she is, sometimes she tries to wake me up so I go to achool-as in grade school or high school-and she also talks in her sleep, from the dreans that I get to hear she is constantly arguing and fighting with people. Lastly, after the pills run their course, when she wakes up she doesn't recall anything that happened... Scary stuff these sleeping pills are.

Go Therefore...

Go Therefore..., originally uploaded by offstandard.

Will be graduating this Friday from the School of Ministry at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. And I got 234 out of 200 points in my Hebrew final, thank goodness for extra credit haha. One more final and it is over... for now... as I'll keep studying and getting into debt more and more.

Tiring, but fun.

Flight

__//-/__, originally uploaded by stereomind.

Found this image in Flickr, creative and simple to do... and friends who are willing to land on the grass without shirts. Nice.

"Voando por aí." is portuguese, translates literally to "Flying over there" but has a meaning to "Flying Around". Sometimes literal translations are not the best if you know the cultural meaning of both cultures and languages you just translate for understanding from context.