Archive | December 2020

Merry Christmas: Do Not Fear

Dec26

A Merry Christmas to everyone. How wonderful it is to get together with family and friends and celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. It is a shame that so many places and countries are forbidding gatherings, and I hope and pray that the longer this goes on, the more people wake up to it being not only a shame, but a sham as well. We have a God-given immune system and we do not need to fear giving it a work out. The message of the angels of God to both Mary and Joseph was firstly, Do Not Fear. We really don’t need to be afraid, especially if we have faith, and God does not want us to live in fear. Sure, there’s a lot of things to be afraid of and a lot of things that could kill us, but still, over and over in Scripture it tells us to not live in fear, that we can live boldly in Christ, confident in our salvation. I think this can apply to a cold virus as well as anything else. Certainly it applies to snow and ice. Here in Minnesota we just had a blizzard and even with icy, snowy roads where any number of us could lose our lives in an instant if the car would slip, thousands, perhaps more, were still out on the roads, because being with our loved ones at this time is more important than the fear of a car crash.

That’s the big contemplation for me with 2021 coming up: What’s more important? Fearing the threat of illness? Fearing the threat of violence from the authorities? Or living life to the fullest and placing community and people of higher importance than all that? As Christians, the one thing from this world that we can take with us to heaven is other people, and it’s hard to witness to them if we never see them or are around them. It saddens me greatly that the worst thing to come out of this is that the Church has allowed itself to be silenced to some degree. In a world so blessed by God, this should not be! We are to thank and praise, serve and obey God rather than men, daily! However, there is hope, and I do think in many places the tide is turning. The battle for freedom is something absolutely worth being fought, for if we are free, so can we freely proclaim God’s wonderful promises of salvation and the fulfillment of them in Jesus.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim?: Kdrama review

Dec19

This show was a second watch for me, and I was surprised to see I hadn’t actually written a review on it. Well, that’s getting remedied now.

Let me tell you about the life of a secretary: Often it is a very demanding, very thankless job in which one is given more and more tasks to be done often without additional pay and certainly no additional time in which to do them. It is also extremely rewarding to be that cog in the wheel that makes everything work. Secretaries are vital to most organizations, but it’s like one’s vital organs, they just work, one doesn’t think about them unless something is wrong.

What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim? is a Kdrama romantic comedy starring Park Seo Joon (She Was Pretty) as company VP Lee Young Joon and Park Min Young (City Hunter) as his long-suffering secretary, Kim Mi So. After working together day in and day out for nine years, Young Joon is shocked to find that Mi So wants to resign and leave him. And of course, he doesn’t want her to leave. The drama is based on the book of the same title by Jung Kyung Yoon. It’s kind of the plot of Two Weeks’ Notice starring Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock, and a little bit of The Devil Wears Prada.

This show is a wonderful blend of romance and comedy, and although I thought the ending episodes dragged a bit, I think I enjoyed it more the second time. All of the little details and jokes really shined. Park Seo Joon is hilarious in his role as a narcissistic, demanding boss who is actually a big softy. The character’s vanity is largely for show, as she finds he actually cares about those he loves to an almost dangerous degree. Park Min Young matches Seo Joon scene for scene, giving us plenty of comedic reactions of her own and somehow makes Mi So’s passive aggressiveness lovable.

What really me got hooked watching again, though, was the back story of a traumatic past for both of the characters and also the glimpses into their years of working together. We get to see Mi So actually shouting– shouting–at her ridiculously demanding boss. And with good reason, as he is way too demanding. However, as we later learn, Mi So is also very under qualified for this position. But we then get to see her come back the next day and strive to meet his expectations. Time and time again we get to see her do this, letting Young Joon shape her into what his perfect secretary needs to be. I can tell you this is part of being a secretary. You’re given impossible tasks that you just can’t do, you complain, and then you come back striving to meet every single one. Sometimes high expectations really aren’t a bad thing, and this drama showcases that. Also, although Young Joon is vain, he’s not incorrect to be so to some degree: He’s handsome, wealthy, smart, keeps his company a success, and does have some right to be demanding. And because Mi So has grown to match him, she has every right to be demanding of him as well.

As for the romance, it’s pretty typical and classical and would almost be boring except there’s just so few of these kinds of stories around anymore, even in Kdramas. Mi So isn’t off on a feminist jaunt of some kind, she realizing she’s missing what most women want: a husband and family. When Young Joon finds this out, he comes to the logical conclusion that he should be said husband. This all happens because Mi So is finally calling in her card–Young Joon needs her, and for more than just being a secretary. It’s not just recognition of her work she is looking for, but for Young Joon to acknowledge her as a woman who has her own needs. Like in Two Weeks’ Notice, both have really been in love with each other for nine years, they just didn’t really know it. Can and does that happen in real life? Maybe, maybe not, but either way it makes for a good romcom material. I think woman as secretaries are a great thing for that position so clearly highlights how women are built to be helpmeets for men, which is far more than just a helper. In this story, the two are equals, though maybe they didn’t start out that way at first. It’s evident by the end that should Young Joon be out of commission for awhile that Mi So would be able to run the company in his stead. Classic romance is the best romance, hands down, and empowering to both sexes.

In the show there are also some background romances, carried off hilariously by comedic actors Kang Ki Young (I Am Not a Robot) and Hwang Bo Ra (Love Rain). Kang plays Young Joon’s second in command who has his own awesomely inept secretary and is a master at sarcastic comments. Hwang’s character is part of the secretary office team and is funny as a women with zero tact and an inflated ego who falls for a puppy dog hero chauffeur. There’s also a sweet romance with secretary Mi So’s replacement and a workaholic, which really highlights that some people reject others not because they do not like them, but simply because they are not ready for romance. A good romance has a lot to do with timing, probably more than we acknowledge. For women in childbearing years, they don’t want to waste time. For men not in a position to provide all that they want for a family, they want to wait until they are in that position. Neither side is wrong, but they do clash on occasion.

What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim? By the end of the show, nothing. Everything has been resolved with wedding bells just like it was supposed to be. They are a team in work and in life, and are considerate and caring of each other, just like couples who love each other should be. More of this stuff, please. At the end of the day, it’s good, it’s wholesome.

Book Review: Cinders & Sparrows

Dec12

Really, this book is more for October or early November, but I was eager to read and review it as the author, Stefan Bachmann, is on my list of authors to watch, as I love his way with words.

Let’s get the negative out of the way first: Being a Christian, reading stories where witches are the heroes, even Harry Potter, a series I like, makes me uncomfortable. Communing with the dead as the witches do in this story, is definitely more how real witches operate–think the witch of Endor from the Bible. Thus, I am reluctant to recommend this story for any child I know. Nevertheless, I do recommend it for older people on certain merits, and you’ll see those below.

That all being said, there’s lots to like about the story. Zita Brydgeborn, a 12-year-old orphan who works as a house maid, receives a letter that she’s inherited a castle. She’s excited and surprised that her family has seemingly found her and leaves at once to go to Blackbird Castle. The castle is fantastic, not unlike the famous Hogwarts, and Bachmann has us on familiar footing as Zita begins to take witch lessons from Mrs. Cantanker, her new guardian. The main theme is also clearly good vs. evil, though the definitions of both things are pressed within the pages of the story, solidifying it more into a fantasy where people when they die go to an underworld to which live humans can still travel. The story sports a lot of fairy tale references, numerous similarities to the HP series, and in the end resoundingly celebrates life, something I can get onboard with. It’s an exciting story with the main character having to constantly reassess what’s being told her and who to trust.

The main thing I like about C&S is the writing. Again, Bachmann has a wonderful gift with words and I can’t wait to see what he writes next. Some of his sentences and phrases I just want to read over and over again. With this book, he shows himself as a clear possible successor to JK Rowling, should he decide to pursue a series in this vein. The plotting was also well done, and I enjoyed the ending, especially the dragon stairs.

Other works I have read by Bachmann are A Drop of Night, a very creepy, quasi-dystopian adventure tale with all things French that would make a cool movie or TV show, and The Peculiar, which delves into pagan lore, and introduced me to his awesome, crackling writing style.

For lovers of the Harry Potter series, I would highly recommend this book as it’s a glimpse as how a different writer may have handled that story. It may be grating for me to mention HP so much along with this story, but the similarities are everywhere, from Zita being an orphan who gets a letter delivered to her by magical means, to the castle with its creatures and changing rooms, to even the plot, where are horrible curse never to be used is used. It was like when I read Eragon and at every turn, there was The Lord of the Rings. A lot of stories are similar and each can be good and treasured in their own right. C&S has enough of its own uniqueness to break with HP by the end.

The Courage of Ordinary People

Dec3

The Courage of Ordinary People, that is what America or the USA is really all about. When was it that we forgot that we are the government of this country? The petty tyrants on display only have power over us because we allow it. We allow their unjust mandates and decrees to dictate our lives, and, yes, I’m no better standing up to them than you probably are. I have gone into a couple of stores without a mask on, however, and how liberating, how cathartic is it to breathe and smile freely! And smiles are definitely contagious. I highly recommend it and hope I have the courage to do it more and more often as winter settles in.

This post is going to be a bit of a stream of consciousness about current events going on today. How appalling that the media is barely covering all of the important hearings and things going on in the country! Most “normies” as people who don’t follow alternative news are often called, have no idea how much our republic is at stake. And it’s hard to tell them, because they either are apathetic about it or put it into a “conspiracy theory” category because the news is not covering it.

I encourage you, however, to seek out this information. Go to sites like theconservativetreehouse.com and Right Side Broadcasting and watch the hearings that Giuliani is holding in Michigan and other states. Watch the awesome rally that Sidney Powell and Lin Wood had in Georgia yesterday. Watch the many witnesses to voter fraud this November give their testimony. These people are awesome and many clearly smarter than our supposed representatives listening to them. This is the courage of ordinary people standing up for their country, and it’s puts me to shame that some of them are immigrants, immigrants testifying to our fellow countrymen’s blatant disregard for the law. How awful to leave a corrupt country only to find yourself in one that is inarguably worse, for we want to pretend it isn’t so. Follow codemonkeyZ on Twitter, who is reading through the Dominion handbooks and really driving home what these machines are for: one thing and one thing only: to cheat. Hey, follow your President, President Trump on Twitter! Watch his speech from yesterday, or if you don’t have time, find where the text is available. Voxday.blogspot.com has it, as does the The Conservative Treehouse.

Have a look at The Great Awakening Group on Gab. Have a look at Gab in general. They won’t censor your political views as Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube will. Many of these people are Christians. Many of these people are also Q followers, and if you don’t know about the information dump of Q from the past four years and want to know what Q called on people to research, read the posts yourself at qanon.pub. Read how people theorize this is all connected to General Flynn and give him a follow. In the Michigan hearing, watch Jenna Ellis’s closing statement about the Constitution. It is a sobering speech for all of us.

Again, these ordinary people have extraordinary courage and are doing something to save our republic. Watch the feeds of those who went down to film in Georgia where they are trying to get rid of the election fraud evidence. These people don’t have to do this, but they care. They are not crazy, they care about our country and not living under Communist Chinese rule. Yes, that’s who’s ultimately behind this, but the patriots’ anger is mostly for the traitors in our midst, for the enemy is the enemy and they are going to do what they’re going to do, but Americans are supposed to be loyal to this country. Sadly, many are not.

Watch Amazing Polly on Bitchute, she’s got a lot of opinions on mask wearing, and a great, great video of strangeness going on with selling things online, specifically Wayfair. She also has a lot of research on the WHO, Fauci, the CDC, and the lot of corrupt bureaucrats who are basically grifters and not health professionals at all. Really let the news sink in, and it’s a lot of news that you maybe never heard before because the regular news doesn’t cover it. They don’t do their jobs and basically they are the ultimate enemy, gaslighting us into believing things we otherwise would not.

Again, check out the hearings and the evidence presented. Did you know that witness testimony is evidence? It is, though the media would keep telling us it is not. These people signed affidavits to what they saw, and there are hundreds of them. They are putting their lives and well-being on the line for this. They could go to prison if they are found to be lying. Again, these are regular people who are your neighbors, people who cared enough about our election integrity to be out in the figurative field of battle on election day. What they saw and witnessed should horrify every one of us. As President Trump says, this corruption has to be fixed or we simply will not have a country. General Flynn and others are murmuring about martial law. With the staggering amount of corruption, Trump would have a good case for implementing martial law and restoring the rule of law and order in this country. He would absolutely be right to do it, in my opinion.

But there is also another way: We the People! We are the government of this country, the government of the people, by the people, for the people! We have the power to stand up against this ourselves! Really think about it. I am almost every day at this point. God is calling for us to stand up to the truth, to testify to it. What good is it if we Christians proudly proclaim the truth of our Savior Jesus Christ, but then deny the other truths around us. What message does that send? God cares about all truth, he is for the truth, he is the truth. If I sound too passionate for you–good! I live in Minnesota where most of us are wimps, not all, but most of us. We believe in being “nice,” and all that often means is not telling the truth when we should. I have no doubt our state was also stolen in the election, but it is the other, more passionate states, the Pennsylvanias and Georgias that are leading the way on this. Still, even in Minnesota there are signs that people are getting to the end of their figurative ropes. More and more people are not wearing masks here and there and also at least talking about how oppressive the mandates from our governor are. Minnesotans for years have known that our state is not “blue.” It is only the Twin Cities that are, and I have to wonder for just how many years the Democrats in MN have been cheating. Maybe the Cities aren’t really “blue,” either.

That’s the huge deal with all of this, and it is a huge deal! Right now we can have no trust in our voting and electoral process! There is NO indication that your vote actually counts as it should. And it really makes me angry that the news, the MSM, is not covering all of these topics like they should. One good thing to me, is that maybe they are covering some of the bad sides to vaccines, because they have TDS or Trump Derangement Syndrome, so everything he promotes, they try to discredit. That part is good when it comes to vaccines. I do think vaccines are poison and that it’s ridiculous to even have a vaccine for something that has a 99+% recovery rate for most age groups. If you’re interested more in the vaccine stuff go to thehighwire.com and give Del Bigtree and his team a watch. Do you know and understand that any company that makes a vaccine has zero liability? They don’t. If something goes wrong, you have to go to the government, to the USA’s vaccine court. That’s how great vaccines are, that’s how confident these manufacturers are in their product: They blackmailed the government in the 1980s, saying if they had to deal with all the lawsuits and money they would have to fork over in recompense, they would go out of business. They refused to make more vaccines unless Reagan said they could be exempt from liability. Yes, that Reagan. He, like, me at the time–okay, I was just a kid having to take the vaccines–believed them to be good, almost a cure for a disease. They are not, they absolutely are not. A vaccine is not a cure, not at all, and if they are the least bit good or helpful, they pale mightily in comparison with one’s own God-given immune system.

Ok, I’m all worded out now. Whatever happens in the next few weeks is going to be epic, either for bad or for good. We will lose our country or keep it, I don’t know which. Either way, it’s certainly not boring times and God is again blessing us by giving we ordinary people opportunities to stand up and be counted for truth and justice. It’s a great time to be alive, and the more things happen, the more I consider how I am willing to fight. What am I willing to lose for the sake of the truth and our country? What have these witnesses already lost in the fight? What has our President lost? Much. Much and so much and for our sake. Again, these people are Christians, they follow a God who gave up everything, who gave his own life, his own Son, to save us. It is not only the simple truth of the Gospel that will split families. No, other truths do and can as will. Truth is a sword, as Jesus once said. It is the sword that shapes the world.