4 weeks

Later this week will mark my first month in Australia. It's the middle of my 4th week already. Time is flying by and I need to push my foot harder on the peddle. 

I find it important for me to be reading the Scripture at least once a day here, either in the morning or just before going to bed. In especially, Paul's letters scream at me because they are so relevant. They really take me to my heart, they reminds me that I am a soldier for God's cause and there is a spiritual battle or war going on and that I must be prepared and well-equipped. 

I am almost finishing Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren and yes, I am on Day 40 and I think I will miss it. I will go back to it every once in a while and it helped me get through a lot of stuff for the past half year at least. 

I still remember telling Pam, my ex-worker, when I bought it, I joked that I was getting some self-help book. I read it before when I was a junior in college at Riverside, but I stopped reading it around 14 or 20 or something. Probably in the tens. The first and second moved me a lot back then, still do, it's empowering to know that God loves you, that you are unique and made for a purpose. 

PDL has really driven me in a sense, made me do things that I otherwise would not for God's cause. I surprise myself sometimes. One or two or even more were just illogical and so selfless that I don't get how I could otherwise. 

Life is, I think, like a lesson, and God is going to teach you things every step of the way especially if you are up and willing to take the lessons and learn. 

It's so important to be grounded because the world is very strong. That's why it's so important for me to read the Scripture everyday or a book to remind myself of my purpose in life. 

I watched the documentary, Enron: The Smartest guys in the room. It was really about how people consumed themselves with the world and turned everything upside down including the power crisis in California. How greed and money can take over. We just have to check ourselves every step of the way or we will just get lost (and not even know it until it's too late). We need to be humbled all the time. Of course, I can't imagine to be like them, I am not a business person, I am too nice, too pure (as some people say), too naive and my life has been teaching me that money is not a big deal. I just want to help people and improve the world. 

I do think about working for some aid organization like World Vision and AusAid every once in a while. Man. Should I? Is film for me? 

Scientists alarmed by ocean dead-zone growth

SAN FRANCISCO -- Dead zones where fish and most marine life can no longer survive are spreading across the continental shelves of the world's oceans at an alarming rate as oxygen vanishes from coastal waters, scientists reported Thursday.

The scientists place the problem on runoff of chemical fertilizers in rivers and fallout from burning fossil fuels, and they estimate there are now more than 400 dead zones along 95,000 square miles of the seas - an area more than half the size of California.

The number of those areas has nearly doubled every decade since the 1960s, said Robert J. Diaz, a biological oceanographer at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

"Dead zones were once rare, but now they're commonplace, and there are more of them in more places," he said.

Diaz and Rutger Rosenberg, a marine ecologist at Sweden's Göteborg University, have just completed a global survey of the imperiled areas, and their report appears today in the journal Science.

The phenomenon that drives life away from so many coastal habitats is called hypoxia - the lack of enough oxygen in bottom waters for fish and other valuable marine life to thrive, the report notes.

The causes of hypoxia

Hypoxia is caused by tons of nitrogen and phosphorus in fertilizers that run from farms and spill into the seas from rivers and streams as well as by fallout from power plants that burn fossil fuels.

The chemicals become prime nutrients that fertilize rich blooms of microscopic algae near the surface layers of coastal waters. The algae eventually die, sink to the bottom layers of the ocean and become food for masses of bacteria that decompose and consume the oxygen around them. The result is the dead zone, devoid of most marine life forms.

Read the rest of the article here.

Preventive steps can be taken, citing these examples:

• European nations along the Rhine agreed to halve discharged nitrogen levels, reducing the discharge into the North Sea.
• Planting new forests and grasslands will help soak up excess nitrogen, keeping it out of waterways.
• Requiring vehicles to reduce nitrogen emissions.
• Fostering alternative energy sources that are not based on burning fossil fuels.
• Better sewage treatment would reduce nutrient discharges to coastal waters.

NASA Dead-Zones from Space

Election 2008

Beginning in the morning, I was checking the election result every once in a while. From the popular vote, the result was close, but a little after noon Obama basically won. There was a little joy inside of me. Wasn't sure why but probably because I just witnessed history (sort of) and America just breakthrough a color barrier. We have our first ever colored president. Why was there a bit of joy and warmth inside me when I found out Obama won? Maybe it was like waiting for a present to open for so long that I just got a little gitty when the wrapper finally came off.

The election is actually a lot closer than the electoral votes suggest. 52% vs 47% as of now, but earlier it was much closer, like something about 51% and 49% with only about a million and a half separating the two and then Obama's lead increased as the counting went on. Take a look North Carolina, Florida and Indiana, and you would see how close the election was. By no mean, McCain is also a popular guy. He got about as much vote as Clinton back in 1996 against Bob Dole percentage-wise.

I didn't vote mostly because I did not seek on how to get my absentee ballot and on the side, I knew my vote wouldn't matter much in the overwhelming Democratic California. I like McCain and wished he went for president last election, and I don't hate Obama. I find Obama to be a bit short on experience and accomplishment, but I think he's an intelligent guy. I don't agree with getting out of Iraq rightaway yet I know that we much change our foreign policy of the Bush's days. Actually, to tell the truth, I don't know much about Obama except of his upbringing. I don't know where he stands on a lot of issues. I know McCain's stand and that he is the most reformist of the Republicans. McCain is the closest thing to the GOP's answer to Obama's "Change" slogan. McCain could actually increase his chance of winning by being a bit less dignified but he chose to control himself. Even though McCain is not the ideal candidate for conservatives, McCain is their only choice. McCain could go a bit more liberal and radical on reforms on his platform. But heck, I am no political strategist, I am just an ordinary guy speculating.

I feel sorry for McCain, he's a good American, a dignified and well-respected senior senator who had been trying again and again to get on the GOP's ticket. He wasn't a sure ticket early in the GOP primaries. There were some other big names ahead of him, like ex-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. He had been looking to run for president for a decade and he got bad timing this time (his last time at 71). He came on to run after 2 terms of George W Bush. Someone he fought against twice for GOP candidates. They couldn't be bigger archrivals, yet because of being in the same party, McCain supported a lot of Bush's policy in the past 8 years. But most of us knew the McCain is the most un-Republican of all big name Republicans. There was concern about whether he could even get support from usual GOP voters in this election.

For me, the most memorable McCain moment in this election race was when McCain asked people "Don't do that" when people at his rally booed at the name of Obama. At a town meeting rally, McCain corrected an elderly lady who said she heard that Obama is a Muslim, not an American, a terrorist...

McCain gently corrected her, "No, no, he's an American..." He upheld the truth and defended his rival. I think that's class. He showed dignity and the true spirit of America.

"After an intensely negative campaign, McCain went to lengths to take the high road in his concession speech and acknowledged the historic nature of Obama's barrier-breaking accomplishment."

"Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans," McCain said. "No association has ever meant more to me than that."

"His success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance," McCain said, adding that he "deeply admired" Obama for inspiring the hopes of people "who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence" in electing a president.

"This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight," McCain said, adding that the U.S. had moved "a world away" from its racist past by electing the nation's first black president.

He allowed that disappointment was natural but said that starting Wednesday "we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again."

Afterthought

At the beginning of the GOP and Democratic Primaries, I must say that I didn't believe that we would have a Black president so soon. I remember when there was talk about General Colin Powell possibly running for president and that he might the first Black president (African-American to be politically correct) but it's happening now. We will have Barack Hussein Obama II as our next president. A president who was born in Hawaii, mix raced, grew up in Indonesia, reared by his white grandparents, has a Muslim name, isn't white, a University of Chicago law lecturer and he will be our president. Woah. This history in the making. I believe his world view will be different from all other presidents. Does his background symbolizes America? It totally does if you refer to American media and if you live in places like Hawaii, California, New York and other places where faces of every race is represented.

I hope he does well. I wish him well. I hope that he will make the best decision for American and according to the Word of God. May God give him wisdom and all he needs to lead this nation, the United States of America, in time of financial crisis and in this turbulent world we live in.

After looking at the overall election, including the Senate and House election, I am concern about Democrats dominant in both houses of Congress. I don't think it's ever a good sight to see one party controlling both the Executive and Legislative branches of the government. I like a balance, that's actually more important to me than who is president. Clinton had a Republican Congress, that turned up pretty good.