A couple of months ago, I published a blog about a church, La Luz del Mundo (LLDM), and to my surprise, it has caused quite some stir! I have since learn much more about the church and the mentality of some of the members that attend. As you may know, I pointed out that the church’s foundation is based on lies- due to their belief in a modern-day apostle, Samuel Joaquin Flores, who is at the core of the congregation’s teaching. Emphasis is placed on this man… more-so than Christ. Being straight to the point, people have to believe in this “chosen one sent by God” for their salvation in heaven, and what is worse: the church naively proclaims that outside of LLDM, there is NO salvation. It appears that our Lord Jesus Christ, dying for our sins, was not enough and people must revere this new “apostle” to be saved. As honest individuals, what are we to think of such bold blasphemies and blatant lies? The church hierarchy, beginning with Samuel himself, to his sons, and his elite inner-circle possess mostly dubious behavior, to say the least. Personally, I would not feel safe if surrounded by this group. They are interested in money and holding their position at any cost. In my other blog, La Luz del Mundo: A Church Founded on Lies, I was fortunate to meet several people with a genuine love of God and who put forth their testimonies regarding their negative experiences with this church, if it can even be called that, since it appears to be more like a cult… unbeknownst to the poor, misinformed people who attend, of course. My aim, and of others here, is not to offend at all but to expose the church for what it is. We are conscientious that many, many people that attend do so out of their love and genuine faith in God, what they do not know is that Samuel preaches a different gospel altogether.

It is sad how humble people with a desire to know God are being taken advantage by this false “apostle”.

There are people who play poker, people who play dominoes, people who play Uno, people who play Counter Strike… and then there are people who play chess. I am one of the latter. Chess is my favorite board game of all time. Why? Because it is a mental war game! It requires deep thought, focus, and creativity. Opponents have to prepare both a defense and an attack and must endeavor to outwit each other… aiming for the precious capture of the enemy king… the checkmate! I learned to play chess when I was 13 years old and have been hooked ever since. I would be lying to you if I were to tell you that I have always played throughout the years. In fact, it is a hobby that I leave and come back to from time to time. This is because in my social circles, hardly anybody knows how to play chess… and if they do, they usually aren’t good at it. It is not that fun to play with someone who only knows how to move the pieces, the game requires the strategy of a knowledgeable opponent to make it interesting. I used to think I was a strong player in my teens and in my early 20s. That was until I started playing with a 40 year-old co-worker named Victor. Oh, my God… the guy annihilated me so bad that I still have nightmares! He would even give me odds of a knight and a bishop! It hurt my ego so I started reading chess books and opening theory. I learned tips and tricks and used them accordingly against him. It took weeks but then he would only give me a pawn… and soon we started our games on equal terms. I must have played over a hundred games with him! I did manage to beat him about 40% of the time eventually. Whatever I learned, he would learn from me during our matches, so I was only making him stronger! I started employing the Queen’s Indian Defence, the Caro-Kann, the Grünfeld Defence and the Queen Gambit’s Accepted! Sadly, I changed jobs and never saw him again. I still miss our grand chess games during our breaks and lunch hour.

Since Victor was a strong player by my standards I decided to read chess books… to become a better player. However, with school and other work (and the fact that nobody at home wanted to play chess), I walked out on my hobby. I just recently returned in full force! I bought a large, hand-carved wooden chess set made in Bethlehem worth $300 and I also bought Garry Kasparov’s book, On My Great Predecessors. It is part one of a 5-part series in which the 13th world champion, Kasparov, analyses the games of the early masters and tracks the evolution of chess to modern times. Kasparov is actually considered one of the greatest players to ever play the game, with a peak FIDE (the mafia that organizes chess tournaments) Elo rating of 2851 in addition to him being World Chess Champion from 1985-2000. The book is a compilation of masterpieces played by the best players both before and after the World Chess Championship was established and includes select games from the first four official world champions: Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, and Alekhine. It is interesting to note that there were several “unofficial” world champions… Philidor, Le Bourdannais, Staunton… and most notably Adolf Anderssen of Germany and the great Paul Morphy of America. These players were vastly ahead of their time. Anderssen dazzled everyone with his combination play in which he often sacrificed a rook, a bishop, even a queen to checkmate his opponents! He was the strongest player in Europe with no equal… that is, until “The Pride and Sorrow of Chess”, Paul Morphy, obliterated all opposition in both the New and Old Worlds.

Paul Morphy is actually my favorite chess player of all time! I would like to tell you about him. As Kasparov states in his book, Morphy was a “super-genius”. He was the epitome of a child prodigy. Born in New Orleans in 1837, he always surprised his family with his intelligence and acute memory. He learned chess from his father and his uncle, who valued chess as a family past-time. He learned just by looking at his father and uncle play, and upon their finishing a certain game, Morphy pointed out that his uncle had missed a “checkmate”. They were in shock since they did not even think he knew how to move the pieces, much less know any tactics. Morphy even arranged the chess board and demonstrated how his uncle had missed the checkmate! Naturally, his family encouraged him to play at the local chess club and at home, and soon, he made everyone his bitch… General Winfield Scott, while camping in New Orleans, asked his aides to bring him the town’s strongest chess player for an evening’s game. The general thought of himself as an extraordinary player and felt insulted when his aides brought him a 9 year-old Morphy, he thought it was a prank but his aides told him that everyone said the young Morphy was the strongest player around. Needless to say, Morphy vanquished the General not once, but twice. The General refused further games with him and preferred to go to bed! Sometime later, Löwenthal, one of Europe’s distinguished masters, visited New Orleans and consented to play with a 12 year-old Morphy… a few moves into the very first game and he knew he was facing a chess monster… he swiftly lost 3 games during his visit. Morphy went to get a law degree by the age of 19, and legend has it that he memorized all of Louisiana’s penal codes! However, he had to wait until he was of 21 years of age to practice law, so he decided to return to chess in the meantime. The rest is history. He easily became national chess champion by beating Paulsen, a very strong chess player. He then set off in 1958 to England in search of a match with the great English master, Staunton. He easily beat all the top English masters and Staunton, out of fear, refused to play him. Also, he beat Löwenthal yet again (+9 -3 =2)! However, Morphy was nice enough to buy his defeated opponent furniture with the prize money. Not satisfied, he crossed the channel into France. There, he beat all the top French players! Still not content, he challenged the awesome Adolf Anderssen to a match. Anderssen was not a coward like Staunton and accepted if only Morphy would wait until Christmas vacations since he had teaching duties. Morphy agreed and even pledged to pay Anderssen’s travelling expenses! While he thus waited for the German master, he kept busy crushing all opposition in grand style, even playing blindfold games with multiple opponents as exhibitions! He crushed two strong amateurs, the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard, who consulted with each other as to what to move during an opera, the well known “opera game“. Morphy, perhaps irritated because he wanted to see the performance, quickly destroyed his opponents in a mere 17 moves. When December arrived, Anderssen finally made it to Paris. Anderssen was given the title of ‘chess romantic’ and no one could match his combinations on the board. However, combinations, in which emphasis was placed on attacking as the best type of defense was to prove useless with the advent of positional theory, in which small advantages by position could render combinations ineffective. Paul Morphy, though also a combination genius, was the forefather of modern chess because his positional play was here to stay. Later, Steinitz would publish the first positional theories and made them known to the world. Reckless combinations were to become a thing of the past for the most part. Upon Anderssen’s arrival, Paul Morphy was very ill from an intestinal infection and was being treated with leeches. Morphy, subsequently, lost the first game against Anderssen, then forced a draw on the second game, and then won five in a row! The final score was +7 -2 =2 (Seven wins, two losses, and two draws)! Needless to say, he was a celebrity and Paris hosted a banquet in his honor, he was crowned ‘World Chess Champion’ (It is a pity that the official event of World Chess Championship was not established yet, so Morphy will always be “unofficial” world chess champion in the books). Upon returning to America, Morphy was hailed as a hero and was given a grand reception. In a short two years, he did something never before seen. Unfortunately, Morphy gave up serious chess competition forever upon his return. With the start of the Civil War, he was unable to practice law adequately and people sought him more for chess matters than for legal affairs. As it is with certain geniuses, Morphy started to exhibit signs of mental disorder. The disease progressed and he began to lose his grasp on reality, walking the streets of New Orleans everyday, disoriented and without purpose. He died of a stroke at the relatively young age of 47, in 1884. However, he will always be a chess immortal and many world champions since still regard him the best of them all.

So, there you have it! I am a chess aficionado! In the near future I intend to study the games of Paul Keres and Efim Geller… among others!

However, one can always be curious as to why people adopt a homosexual lifestyle. Perhaps, a gene sequence in people’s genome is faulty, implying a genetic disease. It is a possibility that we cannot rule out and it kind of makes sense, especially with cases when the child exhibits homosexual characteristics from early on. There is a lot of controversy regarding this theory as correlated twin studies (one twin being homo and the other hetero) discredit this approach. Still, I believe that even twin DNA can vary ever so slightly, expressing different genes. We still have so much to learn about our 3 billion base pairs in our DNA, full of genes and “junk”. Another approach to answer why people adopt a homosexual lifestyle involves choice. It is a much easier concept, people of the same sex find each other attractive and choose to be together. Maybe they were not ‘born’ gay but they, at some point in their lives, feel an inexorable attraction to the same sex. Sexual activity between said individuals only adds to their attraction and feeling of love. For instance, a male gay couple will get addicted to stimulation of their prostate and so on. We all can get addicted to some sort of physical stimulation but in my view, as a man, nothing can replace the pleasure a woman can give you. Most men (and women) out there will agree with me, but not gay couples, and that is understandable. Lesbians, I regard in a different light, this being so because no man can truly understand the female anatomy as well as another woman. Lately, the world has become more liberal and the gay community has risen to get things like gay marriage laws to be passed. I know I said that everyone is entitled to whatever life they want, but I am divided on this issue. If all the states allow gay marriage, it would fuel an upsurge and many will come out of the closet… gay numbers may increase. This is just one scenario, mind you, I am no expert on such things. Gay people on the same terms as heterosexual couples is not something I agree in, to tell you the truth. Moreover, in the decades to come, if more and more gay couples are seen in public holding hands and/or kissing, what are little children to think? Would they assume that homosexual behavior is normal? Would those children be inclined to follow such lifestyle if they see it all over? We function on a monkey-see/monkey-do basis much of the time, and I can almost be sure that precisely that will happen. In the end, it is a deviation from our intended design, giving over to physical lust. Allowing gay couples to adopt is also something I do not agree with, but that is just me. I know there are gay couples with great honesty and integrity that should be able to adopt, but as it is in this world, some ruin it for the rest. Mine is only but a mere view on such topic. What do you guys think on these topics?

One of my most memorable memories from my childhood is when I was nine years old. I overheard my father and older brothers talk about the atom bomb and nuclear weapons, how they could wipe our cities out and possibly destroy our world. All this information blew me away, it sparked my interest profoundly. I decided to make my own “atomic bomb”. What I did was, I kept an empty aluminum coke can in my room. When nobody was looking, I would sneak material into my room and put it inside the can. I would get matches, cut the match heads and dump them inside! I would also add lighter fluid, small pieces of coals of charcoal, and alcohol. The can started to get heavy as the days went by. The problem was that I kept it hidden under my bed. One day, when I got home from school, it was gone—my mom had thrown it away! I have always wondered if my “atomic bomb” would have detonated… or at least light up as a Molotov. Come on, give me a break! I knew nothing about plutonium and uranium enrichment or fission and fusion reactions. The weird thing is that I would still love to build such a bomb and just keep it under my bed.

Girls love to have fun, to go out and drink at a nice bar or a club and just unplug from work and/or school routine. Heck, not just girls, but guys as well. To tell you the truth, if we are single, we go to a bar and hope to find someone. We all yearn to find someone that we can love and be loved in return. For a guy, that is no problem, we drink and can hold our liquor (most of us anyway). If we find someone, fine, if we don’t… then there’s next week. Personally, I do not think like this, but for the sake of simplicity I will write how guys are in general. Guys are dogs, women! Never let your guard down or let yourself be deceived. I know what you are thinking, “heck, Oscar, you ARE a guy”. True, but I am not like those guys… neither am I a saint, of course.

Guys generally go to clubs to hook up for one night stands, contrary to what you believe, most are not looking for a serious relationship. How do I know? One, I’m a guy, and a lot of friends were like that, and two, I can observe guys at any club I show up and predict what they are going to do. I know, I know, still a nerdy thing to do, but bear with me. A girl drinking in a club is like a sheep entering a wolf’s lair, especially, if she is alone or only accompanied by girlfriends. I know the thinking patterns of guys; they will soon approach such a girl (especially if she is gorgeous) and will start getting their game on, smooth talking like Joel Osteen or Barack Obama, and sporting their tight douchebag clothes. If you start conversation with them and they aren’t cheap, they will gladly intoxicate you further. After all, that is what they want, to get you drunk and turn into an octopus before you know it (you girls know what I mean). That is why, if I were a girl, I wouldn’t trust any stranger at the club. All they want is sex, not the person within you. A true man waits.

Trust the guys at the library or Barnes and Noble. The mathematical probability of them being more honest and having integrity is much more elevated than some random stranger at a bar. Game theory attempts to mathematically capture behavior in strategic situations, in which an individual’s success in making choices depends on the choices of others. Therefore, the choices you make as a girl directly equate to the success the guy obtains. At the bar, women can make choices that will make the douchebag win. As for the nerd at the library, don’t take him for granted. Despite his uncombed hair, his badly need for a haircut, and crappy t-shirt, he could very well be a party animal if you give him the chance. The douche, sporting the appealing bad boy image and silver tongue will always be beaten by the nerd in the long run. Nerds go places. The other guys get stuck with child support and/or working like mules the rest of their lives, consequently, girls cease having fun.

There were several books I read as a child that eventually were forgotten but, somehow, life inexplicably spurred me to remember them. Files lost in my hard drive were not lost at all, my mind just needed some shaking to remember things from my childhood. I remembered The Giving Tree, Amelia Bedelia, Where the Wild Things Are, The Stinky Cheese Man, and of course, Nate the Great. All these children books helped make the Mickey-Oscar I am today. The Giving Tree was one of the first books that introduced me to the human condition of growing up and how we eventually cease liking things which used to thrill us. Amelia Bedelia was a riot to read because of her goof nature, she was the maid that did all the chores wrong but could never be fired because she was a tremendous pastry cook! Max from Where the Wild Things Are fed my imagination as to how I would rule the world but eventually needed to compromise and obey my parents. And Nate the Great, wow, the kid detective who would always solve any tough crime or (case) after eating some pancakes! Nate thrilled me to no end. If I ever have kids, I would want them to be smarter than me, I will sit with them and read all the books I loved as a child with classical music in the background. The Nate the Great series invented by Marjorie Sharmat and Marc Simont is truly a work that has touched the lives of many kids everywhere. I remember how Nate would follow the clues alongside his dog, Sludge to solve crimes, the actions of Nate were very memorable, and the pancakes he ate always made me hungry!

As an adult, I had all those books in the back of my mind. I love rock, both in Spanish and in English, classic and alternative. I ran into a character that thrilled me for being dark, moody, and strange (she is also a rocker). The character’s name is Emily the Strange. The character is owned by Cosmic Debris, a company founded by Rob Eger, a skate boarder, and Matt Reed, a race car driver. I am not going to lie, I am a big fan of counterculture characters such as Chococat, Pochacco, Snoopy, and Emily. As a guy, I don’t wear such girly things, of course, but I do like the cool designs that, like Hello Kitty, look cute on girls . Emily is a strange girl accompanied by 4 black cats, she has long black hair, always wears black, and wears white Mary Jane shoes. She has a strong fascination of dark themes and her attitude is very interesting and appealing. However, surfing through the internet, I found that Cosmic  Debris and  Sharmat and Simont had tangled in court! In 1991, Emily the Strange made her appearance, but in 1978, in Nate the Great and the Lost List, Sharmat and Simont introduced a girl named Rosamond that loved dark themes, was always attended by 4 black cats, and even wore the white Mary Jane shoes! In short, Emily is based on Rosamond! Perhaps… that is another reason I like Emily the Strange! My mind subconsciously connected Emily to a character I HAD read about in a book series all those years ago.

Cosmic Debris sued first, Sharmat and Simont counter-sued, but  both reached a civilized agreement and agreed that both were original creations. Personally, I think Cosmic Debris should pay a small percentage to the creators of Nate the Great, their profits allow for it. As for me, I am a winner, I am a fan of both Emily and Nate the Great (including Rosamond).

Share this Blog]]> http://www.oscarnuno.com/2009/09/25/current-events/emily-the-strange-and-rosamond/feed/ 2 http://www.oscarnuno.com/2009/09/23/deep-pondering/the-qualities-of-a-gentleman/ http://www.oscarnuno.com/2009/09/23/deep-pondering/the-qualities-of-a-gentleman/#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:30:22 +0000 Oscar http://www.oscarnuno.com/?p=441

I’m here at the University of Houston’s Satellite Center, eating a Chick-fil-a, and I started thinking about the qualities of a gentleman. The other day, I stumbled upon a quote by Winston Churchill, “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities… because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”

I really have to agree with Churchill. It takes courage to execute all other virtues. I made a list of nine traits a real man (or woman) should have:

Courage

Honesty

Integrity

Compassion

Kindness

Fortitude

Imagination

Loyalty

Assertiveness

A man must have the courage to defend his loved ones and to make sacrifices. A man must have honesty to earn people’s trust. A man must have integrity, consistency of actions and morals. A man must have compassion and feel the sorrows of others. A man must show kindness and help others in need. A man must have fortitude to withstand the harsh trials of life. A man must have imagination to achieve dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before. A man must have loyalty to his wife, family, and country. Finally, a man must be assertive- not let anyone walk all over him and to stand up for the ones who do not have the courage to defend themselves.

A man with these characteristics is the embodiment of a true gentleman. So, where do I stand? It would be very arrogant and egotistic of me to say I have all those virtues. All I can say is that I try to be the best I can, but I will always have flaws like anyone else. The only way you can tell is by knowing me I guess. There are other virtues one can think of, which virtues do you like in a person?

HBU vs. UH Main

This semester has been much more enlightening than the last here at UH. I wasn’t entirely thrilled to leave HBU, but after some disappointments with certain people, the costs, and the implementation of the semester system from the quarter system, I found very few reasons to stay. HBU was a great stop for me, however. Academically, it was and is an awesome place. It is small, the classes are like high-school size, and the professors know your name! This intimate configuration of student to faculty is a blessing to most students anywhere. I once had a class of only 7 students! I couldn’t cheat! Lol. A public university will never beat that! Also, it is easier to make friends at HBU since you see the same people over and over.  Heck, you even see the girl you fell in love with walking around with her new boyfriend. Oh, wait! That is a con! At UH, you meet someone and never see them ever again! I still have not run into that cute girl I met on the second day! There were several things I did not like at HBU. Many times, I felt like it was like a prison. There were a thousand rules you had to follow, like going to convo, OMG, how I hated that. Not only did I hate going, but when I went, most everyone was playing Nintendo DS, surfing the web on their laptops, or just doing homework! I was like, “what’s the point?”

I am glad I moved to UH. It is a totally different and more filled student experience, at least for me. Academically, HBU is still superior, but not as much as people think. Heck, this semester I am taking classes that are very challenging. For example, out of 130 students in my Cell Bio class, 30 failed the first test and 18 got a D! There were only 11 As! We are talking about seniors who are pursuing a bio degree! To make matters worse, the GPA-killing professor boasted that it was going to be the easiest test of the semester!  Moving on, UH is huge… over 36,000 enrolled students, making it the third biggest university in Texas (only UT and A&M are bigger). You get to walk a lot, so you get your exercise! When you compare Moody Library with MD Anderson Library… well, there is no comparison, the library here is like 5-6 stories. UH is a research university, with much more money, so comparing both institutions is not fair. At UH, our Wellness Center is better than the best Bally’s Total Fitness I know! We have Chillis, 2 Chick-fil-A restaurants, Einstein Bros., Starbucks, Kim Son, Subway, Taco Bell, 2 Pizza Huts, Pita Express, and a bunch of other places to eat with friends without leaving campus! There is even a bar on campus to go have a beer after a test! I know HBU is a small Christian university, but as stated earlier, the biggest pros are that the classes are small and the friends you make are high quality (not all, but most). I think both universities are great, but I feel UH is more of a fit for me. Here, you can smoke in the parking lot or with your professor (not that I smoke much), and we have pretty good football team! I don’t have that much more before I finish here, though. My academic career has been so different compared to most students I know. I started at HCC Town & Country, transferred to HBU, and then transferred to UH Main! All for an undergraduate degree! Of course, there will always be an aura of prestige when one graduates from a private university, but I am a fond believer that it is in the student, not the institution. I feel more well-rounded by being at different schools, I can compare. You want to know the worst thing about UH? The parking. I kid you  not, I spend more money in gas looking for a parking spot than driving to school! I spend up to 40 minutes looking for someone to leave so I can take their space. Finding a parking spot in UH is almost the equivalent of an orgasm.

On another note, all universities in America are run like any business, they all want money. They all want you to stay as long as you can to milk you for money. I find it ridiculous that we live in the most powerful country in the world and students have to pay tuition. Look at Germany, Norway, Sweden… they all provide free university education to their people. Why can’t we have that over here? Epic PHAIL

Annihilation, damnation and obliteration

are things which cause me consternation,

Hence, I feel sorry for the youth of the nation.

Humanity’s nature for self destruction

is clearly evident with each generation.

I dare say God made a pitiful creation.

What is the worth of one man’s determination?

Blood and stress and perspiration

and things such as mutilation

are things the Son of God endured with mild hesitation.

Obedient to the end, he assured our salvation.

A toast to the Son of Man, our Lord and admiration.

When will Jesus come is a good question,

everyone says soon- to be ready for our destination.

Repent and pray is all we can do as a preparation.

This world was great but sin killed its incantation.

Alas, poor Jesus, he didn’t deserve his elimination.

May Christ live on in each nation and unite all denominations.