Did you know that Michael Jackson was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness? Aparently his mom is really devout. When I found that out I remembered something that I learned in Hebrew class..

The term “Jehovah” is actually one huge mistake.. or well, at least a misunderstanding. It comes from the mispronounciation of a word in the Hebrew Bible.

Just some quick background in formation… Hebrew does not have any vowels at all, and so all of its letters are consonants. This was fine for the most part, because the ancients who read the Tanakh (the proper term for hte Hebrew Bible.. the Christian Old Testament) just knew how to pronounce the words without the vowels. Kind of like how people who txt msg alot cn cmncte wo lke ths.

But as time went on and Hebrew was spoken less and less, there was a group of Hebrew Scholars called the Masoretes who decided to add vowels into the text to preserve the pronounciation. The way they did this is to add what we now call “Masoretic Vowel Points”. They’re basically dots and dashes added either above, below, or inside hebrew letters to indicate what vowel should occur after that consonant…

Ok so back to the “Jehovah” mistake… The word is derived from the English transliteration of the personal name of God, which without any vowels is transliterated as YHWH. Now the thing is, Jews revered the personal name of God so much that when they read the scriptures, instead of pronouncing it, they would use another word “Adonai” instead, which meant “Lord” or “Master”. What happened then was, when the Masoretes added the vowel markings, instead of adding the proper vowel markings on YHWH so that it’s pronounced properly, what they did was add on it the vowel markings for the word Adonay (‘DNY) … which produced YeHoWaH which is the word we derive Jehovah from (I know adonay begins with an a.. but the vowel marking underneath the first letter of Adonay – ‘ or aleph is what we call a shewa, and becomes either a very short “a” or a very short “e” depending on what letter it’s on).

No one really knows what the original pronounciation of the word YHWH is, but based on word comparisons and other arguments that I’m not in the mood to write out right now, the best guess of scholars today is that it is actually pronounced “YaHWeH”. (I think in some countries the word for God is “Jah” pronounced “Yah”).

Anyway, all that is to show that even in its name the Jehovah’s Witness “religion” has got it wrong… Bah, hope MJ didn’t buy in to all that. LOL.

Actually, well I’m not poor right now.. In fact I have a lot of money in the bank… Way more than I normally would. But… That money’s gotta last me for the summer.

For the first time since I was 16, I’m going jobless for a summer. And here are some of the ways I’ve observed that I’m being careful with money…

I haven’t eaten sushi in more than a week… more than 3 weeks now actually. I wonder if Christina misses me…
I’m just generally eating more at home. Of course that’s easier now that I’m not out so much… but yeah, just eating more at home
When I do eat outside… it’s all about MacDonalds. Well frig if they’re the cheapest dinners out there, what are you gonna do?
I only pay for gas every other week right now… but oddly I still paid for the oil change I just had done…
Less coffees… which also is not such a big deal cause it’s frigging summer… which means, I am naturally peppy in the morning cuase of the sunshine.. and I think only idiots drink hot beverages when it’s hot outside.
Anyway… just some of the ways. What is occupying my time since I have no work? Well… about 2-3 hours of my day is spent on the piano practicing for my exam. Yup, that much. And then I’m also learning a new language… Hebrew. FUN!

I finally have an exam today! Horay!

Wait… why am I so excited you may ask? Cause I’ve been done classes for TWO FRICKIN WEEKS now. Alas, my college (St. Michael’s) is pretty down low on exam priorities at UofT, and so while the Engineering and noob Science students are all done their exams and are out of school, I gotta wait till the last frigging days of the exam period to write mines. 1 today. 2 more… NEXT WEEK…

Bah.

I was sitting in my car this morning, enjoying a coffee. I was really early for a job interview so I thought I’d just chill and take in the sights of Mid-Town Toronto. I was beside a couple of apartment buildings, and a bunch of old Victorian Houses that have been apparently converted in to offices.

Anyway, as I was doing so though, something caught my attention… There was this cute little dog (looks like Kyan, probably the same type) who was working on a bowel movement. I found it funny cause it would squat down, and I guess it was constipated or something, cause then it would get up, move around a bit, and then squat down again for another try. LOL. It does this a few times, when finally, I knew it was happening. Good for you boy! But what happened afterward kind of amused me a little more…

The guy who was walking the dog kind of looked around for a bit. I was watching him cause I knew what he had to do next (City bylaws…). He kind of looked a little dejected doing it, but eventually he does it… He pulls out a black plastic back sticks his arm in it, and down he goes! Yup, he picked up the dog crap…

I don’t know why I found it so amusing… Maybe cause buddy looked kind of.. gruff, you know. A beer-bellied, hoorah, I work in a factory and watch football kind of guy. Not exactly the kind I would see walking a tiny little pooch and picking up its crap.

Then I started thinking.. Man, what could possibly possess a person to own a pet? Now of course I’m severely allergic to dogs and cats, so I guess it’s an easier thing for me to criticize. But honestly, when you just sit and objectively think about it for a second… What’s so fulfilling about picking up dog crap?

Actually, not quite yet.. but I noticed last week that it wasn’t pitch black anymore when I wake up. Which is great! No more half-asleep driving to the station.

One problem, Daylight Savings time next week… Which kinda sucks (I think it means I’ll have to wake up to darkness again). But at least that means the days really are getting longer.

Anyway… horay, Spring is almost here!

Just some random thoughts I had when I woke up, as I was getting ready for school, and during the subway ride over…

1. Steven Page is leaving the Bare Naked Ladies. That makes me sad.
2. I really really really want to go to a Sophie Milman concert.
3. I finally made a new video lesson for the Psalm 150 Project, except I realized theres a really big mistake in it, so I have to fix that…
4. I decided I want lots of kids… maybe like 4 or 5. My mom’d like it… ahahaha.
5. I really miss watching Chuck.
6. I’m sick of school, and I’m getting lazy as a result..
7. I’m so glad I found my cool mouse. I thought I lost it after I came home from the Philippines. Then I found it a week ago in a bag that I hadn’t opened since May last year! hahaha.
8. I gotta start applying for jobs for the summer. I was hoping I would get the summer internship at my church (I’m gonna be the intern starting in August though), but the guy from last year wants to do it. Theres a chance they might get funding to hire me as an assistant. But honestly, I’m really sick of working camps anyway.
9. I have a paper to finish. Ahhh.
10. But after that paper I only have like 6 more things to do for school…

The Ontario arm of CUPE aparently voted to “boycott Israel” today. Instead of ranting, I’m gonna make a nice ordered list of why I think this is idiotic.

1. CUPE is a Canadian national organization that has no place in international affairs.
2. The fact that it even has time to consider international issues means that it is trying to find ways to maintain relevancy in a day when unions in general are no longer needed.
3. A crisis remains in York University after its CUPE local of Contract faculty and TAs striked for 11 weeks. CUPE should have had that issue at the forefront of its concerns then, and it should remain so now.
4. Sid Ryan is an idiot and an anti-semite.
5. Their issue with Israel is its supposed apartheid agains Palestine. Yet, much less controversial (read, widely accepted) issues remain unnoticed, such as oh.. well how about Chinese human rights violations as an example.

But most of all… Sid Ryan is an idiot. Wait I said that already. Eh. Can’t say it enough. Sid Ryan is an idiot…

I just recently watched a documentary called “Right America”. It basically involved Christine Pelosi (daughter of Nancy Pelosi) following John McCain’s campaign and talking to some of his supporters.

Obviously I don’t accept everything in the movie point blank. Her mother is after all the democrat Speaker of the House of Prepresenatives. Yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that biased or not, what she presented really was still a representation in some way of the people who supported John McCain in the last American election. And if so. Then I feel really sorry for him.

The night before the election, I called it for McCain, and obviously as people know, I was wrong. Now I know why: I was wrong because I was completely out of touch with Americans – I am Canadian afterall – and now I know I can see this completely.

I really enjoyed the documentary. I laughed out loud more than once. But as I said, the overall feeling I got really is just that McCain got the crappy end of the stick if these were what his supporters were like. Narrowminded, fundamentalist people. It’s funny some of the times. It’s sickening, sometimes. But mostly it was just sad.

Take one very well meaning, pleasant looking young man. He is entering in to a McCain rally wearing a while T-Shirt with a bunch of slogans written on it. But none of them as prominent as the words “No Socilism” on his back. No I didn’t mis-spell it. He did. And when Christine told him, he replies “Oh really? Do you have a marker?” Oh man I almost fell of my seat laughing. But when the exchange continued I actually did… Christine then asked him, do you even know what socialism is? To which he responded “somewher between facism and…” I think he was thinking of the word communism. Anyway. Communism and Facism are two opposite ends of the political spectrum. Communism is what you get when you hold extremely liberal political views, and Facism when you hold extremely conservative political views.

Anyway, that was a funny part. But a very sad part that immediately came after, which was the section when she interviewed a bunch of people who promptly compared Obama to Hitler (again, opposite politcs here… Obama is Liberal, Hitler is Conservative)…

There was another section on racism. Which was obviously mostly disturbing except for one funny guy who really redeemed the section for me, albeit his extremely backwards view. Well first of all, he admitted that his view was backwards – he says when his daughter calls him on it, he replies that his views aren’t backward, but everyone elses’ is just too far forward. Anyway, to him, not only should a black man be president, but neither should women vote. To which Christine responded, “Well you’re really in trouble then, either a black man’s going to be president or a woman’s going to be vice president”. He replied, “I know! We’re screwed” then laughed it off. That was a pretty great moment for me. Gotta hate the man for his views, but at least he’s honest and open about them… And can laugh at himself (which actually makes me think that he’s alot more progressive than he’s making himself out to be).

One finally funny moment in the film was the section where people were comparing Obama with Osama bin Laden. After interviewing a bunch of people who made this comparison, she then proceeds to interview this guy who is selling a bunch of buttons, one of which said “The difference between Osama and Obama is just a little BS”. She asked him if he really believed that, and he said that he actually does not. She asked him, then, why he was selling these buttons, to which he responded “Cause I’m a capitalist entrepreneur and I’m giving people what they want!” Ahahahaha, classic.

Anyway. What made me the most sad about the film was the way some of these people used their religion to argue against Obama. Some said that he was the anti-christ. In fact one of the people she interviewed that said this was a very plain, normal looking guy in a suit who went on to explain that the first thing he thought of when he heard Obama had a chance of becoming president was “666″. I couldn’t believe the ignorance of these people!

First of all, they misinterpret what the 666 business is all about anyway. The Bible prophesies that the anti-christ’s name will be equal to 666. What this means is that their Hebrew or Greek name (can’t be sure) will add up to 666 (because each Hebrew and Greek character has a number associated to it). Well I transliterated Obama’s name into Greek, and I got something like 807. I can’t do it in Hebrew cause I don’t know Hebrew yet… but, yeah it’s just dumb.

Ok enough of that. I liked the movie, but mostly because I could quite clearly see through the bias. I found al ot of things funny (even though some things I found funny, my mom said was “rude”). But over all.. I just felt sad, and sorry of these were the kinds of people that were supporting John McCain. No wonder why he lost… Hey, I consider my self conservative to the core. Fiscally. Socially. Yeah, even Theologically, I believe (though some might say that I’m actually very liberal theologically). But there is something very different between conservatism, and this kind of crazy.

Another “church” has fallen under the scrutiny of the media. Recall that I had various posts about the Prayer Palace a few years ago. Now it’s a church called “Dominion Christian Centre of Canada”. I was very saddened to read what the Star had to say about them, and then of course to verify the information for myself (the CRA website lists their charity status as “revoked”)

The regulator found that money contributed by donors and destined for good works was instead paid to fund “numerous personal trips, payments for privately used vehicles, gym memberships, food, lodging and other unsubstantiated payments.”

Among the expenses that raised eyebrows, auditors say, were numerous purchases at “expensive fashion outlets such as Gucci and Dolce Gabbana.”

Since I like writing emails so much, here’s what I sent to their church email, and to the “info” mail of the pastors, Peggy and Paul Rigo:

Once again, the work of the Lord has been hampered by those who proclaim to be His servants but indeed are only serving themselves. Shame on you. It’s difficult enough as it is to engage with this lost world about Jesus Christ, and here you are on the newspaper with shifty financial problems.

Nonetheless I rejoice in Paul’s words “Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice.”

It’s found in Philippians 1:15-18, if you’ve forgotten where it is.

Yes that’s right. 6 hours from now, and I shall be free for Reading Week… Kind of. Because unlike most other students, I plan to actually do some reading. But nonetheless… The stresses of school shall be eased for a little while. I’m gonna catch up on some gaming in addition to that school work. Horah!

Spring is in the air, even though it’s not gonna last too long. It’s supposed to snow again tonight.. But ahh well, there’s light at the end of the tunnel, and that’s enough hope for us Torontonians to get us through the last.. 4 weeks or so of winter. Pretty soon I’ll be back in my shorts.. Yehyah.

Random thought: I need to buy new shoes… Hmph, that’ll be nice.