Archive for 2024

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Made in His Image

Apr

24

2024

Many years ago, thanks to a book by Watchman Nee, I came to the understanding of what the phrase “made in His image” in Genesis means.

I will give the disclaimer that could be applied to a lot of theological topics: that my understanding or interpretation of it is by no means the right or only one. But I do think it is the best one, or at least the one that makes the most sense to me.

When the Bible says that God made man in His own image, there are a lot of different explanations out there. Just for fun, I looked up what the internet had to say, and to me they were either too deep or too shallow. The shallow answers just glossed over the concept and said something like “it means we represent God”. And the deep answers talked about a lot of things but didn’t give a definitive answer.

That’s why I’ve gravitated toward the Watchman Nee school of thought on this topic – because it’s a concrete answer and it makes sense.

God is a Trinity, and what He said is “make man in Our image”. Not images, but image. And likeness. So it has to be representative of the multiple persons of God.

What are those? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And what attributes do we give to those parts of the Trinity?

I’ll answer that by referring to another verse, where we are instructed to love God with “all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

Based on that, and some other verses, we see that the Trinity can be thought of as the mind, the body, and the soul. More or less correlating with the jobs of the three parts of the Trinity.

So humans reflect God’s image by having a triune nature.

And I would also argue that’s what makes people different from other animals – they have mind and body, but they are not made in God’s image so they do not have the soul.

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Genesis 1:27

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Not Wish

Apr

17

2024

It seems that using the name of Wish on anything will from now indicate low quality.

At first there was wish.com, and it has become synonymous with cheap things. For example, when people wanted to mock the new gateway sign to Detroit along I-94, they wondered if the city bought it on Wish.

But then last week my son wanted to watch a movie and we saw that the Wish movie was on Disney+ so we decided to watch “the new Disney movie”.

It was the wish.com version of a Disney movie.

The plot and characters were boring, there was no princess, the songs were extremely forgettable, etc.

Spoiler Alert
And the main premise of the movie is a re-hashing of the theologically-incorrect assertions of Carl Sagan that we’re all connected to each other through the stars.

Although I suppose I wouldn’t recommend Disney movies in general for theology.
End Spoiler Alert

Long story short: don’t bother watching the Wish movie. So many other better options.

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living person.

Genesis 2:7

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Movie Plot Quiz

Apr

10

2024

I’m sure there are many varieties of movie plots you could do this with, but I recently watched one of these movies for the first time so I just personally made the connection.

Here is the movie plot:

An idealist, assisted by a ragtag group of misfits, takes on a German officer who is leading his troops to harness the power of a super weapon in order to turn the world war in his favor.

Please choose which movie the plot describes:
A. Wonder Woman (2017)
B. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
C. [Indiana Jones and the] Raiders of the Lost Ark (1984)

And if you’re ever tasked with making a movie and need a plot, consider this one as a generally successful plot.

There were more than forty who formed this plot.

Acts 23:13

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Mind the Bananas

Apr

3

2024

I had some spare sheet metal, so I thought I’d make some driveway decorations.

craft banana made out of sheet metal

In theory, you could make these out of cardboard or plastic sheeting or whatever.

I made a set of 3, because that’s how many Mario Kart gives you at a time. Here is what they look like in progress – one finished, one mostly painted, and one not painted.

set of 3 craft bananas made out of sheet metal

Please ignore the ugly welds.

The goal was to make them “life-size” if you were to have Mario Kart items in real life. They could be a little larger, but I went with this size because the 10-inch width of each strip was what a bunch of my sections of sheet metal were.

Here is the end result:

set of craft bananas next to a car

I have not tried it, but I doubt they would make you spin out like they do in the game. At best they would scratch the paint or scuff the tire.

In case you do want to try this at home, here is how I made them.

instructions for making a cart-sized banana

So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the ground.

Genesis 4:3

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Check In Absentia

Mar

27

2024

What is the point of checking in online before you get to the airport? The point of checking in, in general, is to confirm you are there. It shouldn’t be possible to check in, in absentia.

Maybe if they’d have picked a different term for it, it would make more sense to me. Use RSVP or something.

The companies that are getting it right are the grocery stores, when you order for pickup. When they send us the notice that the order is ready, we can click a button to let them know we are on our way. Then, once we are there, we can click a button to check in and let them know we are physically there.

We tried once to check-in as we were getting close to the store. But it actually declined us, because they noticed the pickup spots were empty. They must have had some cameras.

And most of the stores nowadays make you indicate which parking spot you are in. You can’t check in without being there, because you don’t know which spots are going to be open.

Anyway, I dislike the airlines use the term “check-in” for “let us know you’re still planning on flying with us soon”. Maybe RSVP isn’t a good term either, because it really is just “print your boarding pass now” or if you’re going with Southwest it’s “is your trigger finger faster than the rest of the people on this flight”.

For even though I am absent in body, I am nevertheless with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your orderly manner and the stability of your faith in Christ.

Colossians 2:5

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Waterfall Loop

Mar

20

2024

I took some photos of a small waterfall up at Dead River Falls last summer. Not even a waterfall, just a slight elevation change. But here it is, for your viewing pleasure.

It was a set of 10 photos taken in burst mode, I just strung them together into a GIF.

animation loop of water going through a small waterfall

Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your waves have passed over me.

Psalm 42:7

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Cam Gear Lock Tool

Mar

14

2024

When I had to do some engine work on the minivan, I was able to get a tool to lock the camshaft gears/sprockets/phasers in place so that everything would stay at top-dead center while I unbolted things.

Like this:

image of an cam gear sprocket holding tool

That’s for the Dodge 3.6L engine, which was in a bunch of vehicles for a long time, so it has good support from a variety of sources.

But now I’m doing a bunch of work on my car with a Chrysler 2.4L engine, from the early 2000s, used in Neons and PT Cruisers and some other things. It also uses the same cam sprockets (simple gears, no phasers) as the 2.0L, so this would work for that too.

Anyway, I was looking for a similar tool to hold the camshafts in place so I could do things like unbolt the crankshaft pulley and unbolt the camshafts themselves without rotating the engine.

But unlike the many options for the 3.6L tool, I found nothing for the 2.4/2.0 engine. There were some references to a prybar-type tool which is supposed to be the official way of holding the car gear in place, but I didn’t find a source to buy one. And even if I did, my guess is it would have been more than I wanted to pay.

I wanted a simple insert with teeth, like the 3.6 thingy. And it just so happens that my son got a 3D printer last month. So I decided to make my own.

It took a couple of iterations on paper, plus one really thin 3D-printed sample, but I did make my own and it works. Here it is in action:

image of a cam gear sprocket holding tool for the Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth 2.0 and 2.4 liter engine

image of a cam gear sprocket holding tool for the Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth 2.0 and 2.4 liter engine

And, in case you want to print your own, here is the STL file.

STL file for 3D printing a cam gear holding tool for Chrysler or Dodge 2.0 and 2.4 L engines

Note that it is a very tight fit, so don’t expect it to slide right into the gears. The goal is no gear movement at all, so it needs to be as flush as possible. Be prepared to coerce it into place.

Also note it is about 2 inches deep. The pictures show it only halfway in. Afterwards, I pushed it until it contacted the backstop, and it stuck out just a little bit, enough to still be able to grab the sides.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Posted in Technical | 2 Comments »

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