Doy Gracias a Dios Por...

Hoy es el dia de gracias en los estados unidos. Todos los años, yo escribo una lista de todas las cosas y personas que Dios me ha dando. Siempre quiero dar gracias, pero muchas veces se me olvidó. Yo tengo mas bendiciones que puedo contar. Dios es muy bueno.  En verdad, no es que mi vida es perfecta o que no tengo problemas. Hay muchas cosas que quisiera cambiar en mi vida. Pero, no importa. Hoy, estoy dando gracias.

Primero, doy gracias por mi Salvador y Señor, Jesucristo; por salvación, la Biblia, las planes de Dios por mi vida, Su fidelidad, Su bondad, Sus mandamientos, la reina de Dios, el juicio, los cielos, mi esperanza de gloria futura, la verdad, sabiduría de Dios, mi iglesia - Big Apple Chapel, la Iglesia Biblia Bautista de David. Yo vivo llena de gozo, amor, gracias, integridad, misericordias, paciencia, dominio propio, paz, bondad y humildad, porque Dios me ha dando esos, cuando estoy siguiendo a El. 

También, doy gracias por mi familia - mis hermanos, mis padres, mi abuela. Yo no había sido yo sin ellos. No puedo imaginar la vida sin ellos. Doy gracias por todos mis amigos. Todos mis amigos me han cambiando un poquito. Yo podria escribir bastante nombres de amigos aqui.  Algunos son ejemplos de Cristo y sus vidas. Otros buscan sus propios ambiciones. Otros sirven a otros en compasión y amor. Yo doy gracias por todos ellos. He recibido muchísimo de mis amigos - edificación, regalos, amistad, oportunidades hablar y debatir de todas las enigmas del mundo.

Dios me dio la gracia para graduar de Grove City College y para entrar en Universidad Fordham, gratis. Dios me dio un trabajo que me encanta, y compañeros de trabajo muy divertido. Doy gracias por la economía, las políticas, la filosofía, el lógico, el desarrollo, los libros, los autores brillantes cuyos han pensando de esas problemas y han escribiendo libros que puedo leer y entender. Por capitalismo y libertad. Por los institutos y fundaciones cuyos promuevan libertad. Por los estados unidos, aun que tienen sus problemas. Doy gracias por mi mente y la nivel de inteligencia que Dios me dio.

No podría olvidar mi gratitudes por el internet, ésta sigla, computadoras, celulares, música, películas, Broadway, ciudades grandes, oportunidades para viajar a muchas países, la idioma español, toda la belleza en el mundo, el arte, la creatividad, comidas muy sabrosas, flores, y todos los gozos del mundo. Yo puedo escribir por toda la noche contando mas bendiciones. Es la verdad que tengo mas que merezco. Claro, no merezco nada. Siempre doy gracias a mi Dios y a personas por su ayuda y su consejo. La vida buena y la vida mala es un grande parte una diferencia de perspectiva. Los personas sin gratitud, enojado con Dios, faltan gozo y amor. Nosotros - con gratitud y obediencia a Dios - tenemos la mejor vida posible.

"¡Gracias a Dios por su don inefable!" 2 Corintios 9:15

Lessons I Learned Last Weekend

Only schedule in pencil. Things will change. Constantly.
Readily apologize. Munch some humble pie and take responsibility for any hurt caused.
Relationships can and must be reconciled. The sooner the better.
Tears aren't the end of the world, even for someone who doesn't cry much.
Pride doesn't get anyone anywhere.
People's opinions are important to note and address, but they're not of utmost importance. There's only one Person's opinion which ultimately matters.
Always get enough sleep so that all responses and reactions are Christ-like.
Grandparents and people at the end of life are useful for a significant change in perspective toward what really mattes in life.
When fighting back tears, it's okay to smile and laugh. It releases endorphins and will improve the situation.
Parents are great for advice.
Friends are an excellent source of joy and love and laughter.
Quality time with the Lord and in prayer, reflection and the scriptures is always eternally worthwhile and drastically improves all situations.
Sometimes it's better to decline an opportunity. It's not possible to do everything. Who is impressed by that? Just say no.
Be real.

For World Travelers and Wannabes :)

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to these photos. They were sent to me by email, and I wanted to share through social media.  Enjoy! Airport in the Maldives is located on an artificial island in the middle of the Indian Ocean..  Balloons in Cappadocia. The border between Belgium and the Netherlands in a café. Favelas of Brazil. The boundary between wealth and poverty. In the Chinese province of Shandong is a bridge across the Gulf of Jiaozhou. The bridge length over 36 km is calculated for eight car lanes, and is the longest sea bridge in the world. The world’s highest chained carousel, located in Vienna, at a height of 117 meters.  Balcony of floor 103 in Chicago.  From the outside it looks like this.  In northwestern Montana, USA. The water is so transparent that it seems that this is a quite shallow lake. In fact, it’s very deep. Morning Glory – kind of clouds observed in the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia.   Desert with Phacelia (Scorpion Weed). Flowering once in several years.  Dubai. The view from the skyscraper BurjKhalifa. The height of buildings is 828 m (163 floors). And this is the view down. Emerald Lake in the crater of an extinct volcano. Tongariro National Park – New Zealand. Family photo. Paris computer games store. In fact, the floor is absolutely flat.  Haus Rizzi – Germany. Lost paradise in the Indian Ocean. Isle of Lamu. Banpo Bridge in Seoul, South Korea. This is a unique geological phenomenon known as Danxia landform. These phenomena can be observed in several places in China. This example is located in Zhangye, Province of Gansu. The color is the result of an accumulation for millions of years of red sandstone and other rocks.  Lighthouse guard in Mare, France must be one of the most courageous people on the planet!  Not everyone will have a smoke in such weather, and in such a place!  Skyscraper-Crescent Crescent Moon Tower (Dubai). Office of Selgas Cano in Madrid. Gibraltar Airport is one of the most extraordinary airports around the world. These trees grow in the forest near Gryfino, Poland. The cause of the curvature is unknown. The river above the river: Magdeburg Water Bridge, Germany. Lena Pillars. Russia, the Lena River. In the resort town of Skagen you can watch an amazing natural phenomenon. This city is the northernmost point of Denmark, where the Baltic and North Seas meet. The two opposing tides in this place can not merge because they have different densities. Day and night. The monument in Kaunas, Lithuania. Twice a year in the Gulf of Mexico rays migrate. About 10 thousand stingrays swim from the Yucatan Peninsula to Florida in the spring and back in the fall. Photo of storm in Montana, USA, 2010.

Celebrities in Higher Education

In May, economist Walter Williams gave the commencement address to six hundred some Grove City graduates. Their families and friends came with great expectations to hear a compelling charge and inspiring message. In 2011, Laura Bush, former first lady, came to speak. She has far more name recognition than Walter Williams. So the 2012 graduates were somewhat biased against Williams, on the grounds that he is not important enough.

On graduation day, many graduates were quite disappointed. The title of the talk is "Morality and Capitalism". They accused the speech of being a dense economics lecture. They wanted something relevant to their lives and applicable to the end of their time at Grove City. Students berated Williams merely because the speech had content. It seems they only wanted fluff and feel-good material.          Having read a transcript of the speech, I agree that it is packed with substance. It is an economics lesson, full of relevant examples and descriptive explanations. The address was not designed to be empowering or inspirational. Rather it was delivered as a lecture, to educate the students.

I am ashamed of the quality of the graduates, in their responses to the speech. They admitted to nodding off through the middle and being bored and uninterested. If they cannot give their attention for a single lecture, then I have little hope they earned an education at Grove City. If they are so unaccustomed to listening to lectures, then what have they learned in class? The skills of perusing Facebook without the professor noticing?

Secondly, these students have bought the party line, that education is entertainment. Neil Postman wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death, in which he demonstrates that the televization of education has robbed students of learning. They are accustomed to being entertained, even in the History Channel. History Channel editors know that they can quickly lose their viewers to more entertaining shows, so they make their "lessons" as dramatic and engaging as possible. Students now expect education to entertain. The idea of a dense or substantive lecture bores them. The thought of a speaker without fame and honor is abhorring.

I venture to guess that they would have preferred a celebrity to Walter Williams. A light, inspiring talk by a pop culture icon would be "more fun" than economics. And this, dear friends, is the sad state of education and society in the United States today.

To see the speech for yourself: http://www.gcc.edu/2012_Commencement_Address.php

Wanted: Creativity in the Workplace

Students are wiser than high paying corporations. The office hours of 9am to 5pm fail to account for what is best for human productivity. Sitting at a desk for eight or more hours in a day saps energy and hinders effective task completion.

Students complete their work at all hours of the night and day. They maximize their most productive hours and capitalize on high motivation levels. Without pressures of deadlines or other constraints, motivation wanes and students procrastinate. Why should employees be any different?

Requiring a certain set of hours is less effective than assigning tasks and deadlines. Imagine if professors required a log of X hours spent in the library researching a topic. This incentivizes low productivity and no output. Athletes in study hall have the incentive to waste the time.

A task-oriented business world recognizes the basic human desires and incentives. High-performing employees are rewarded with an early end to the day. Low-performers are penalized by having to work more hours to complete same tasks. Yet their inefficiency only would hurt themselves, not their employers.

The human body is not made to work long periods of work, such as eight or more hours in the same location behind the same desk at the same computer. Efficiency is increased with regular and punctuated breaks. They provide a chance for the worker to rest his brain and stretch his body. The 9am to 5pm tradition must be made passe.

Think of an office at Friday, mid-afternoon, when people start counting down until they can leave. Those last few hours rapidly diminish in productivity. Everyone knows that the office is closing soon, but most are required to stay until the end of the day. Their incentives to stay focused have already left for the weekend. The business loses out on their time.

Offices tend to stifle creativity. The same professional (read: boring) setting, the same computer screens and the same environment hinders innovation. Artists of all types seek imaginative environments that stimulate creative ideas. Businesses desire innovation and creativity, but most workplaces are designed in a one-size-fits-all manner.

The Google offices have implemented these ideas by providing Legos, Buckyballs, Rubik's cubes, recreation areas, and colorful walls, chairs and bean bags. They recognize the correlation between imaginative environments and increased creativity. Plus it makes for a happier and friendlier office space.

Students naturally seek work locations that best fit their needs. Some have a favorite desk at the library; others go to a different part of the library every time. Some work at a desk; others in a large, comfy chair. Some prefer to work in a cafe or the student union; others seek a solitary location. They are productive in different settings.

Creativity makes the world go round. It's time for the business world to allow people the freedom to work at their own pace and let their creative ideas flourish.  

What if the government started regulating social networks and the media?

In an effort to promote education, they could mandate that every tenth twitter account that people follow must be educational or news related.  They could require that YouTube play clips from relevant international news stories - where advertisements currently air - before playing the video you want to watch.  And they could mandate educational components to be evident in every season of TV shows.  Together, these three changes would surely spark a growth in political awareness and interest in education, right?

The rationale for such regulations is that young people spend too much time in social networks and media, and far too little time on civic engagement and education.  Such regulation would counteract the culture of apathy and arouse curiosity in the Millennials who place no importance on knowing what's going on in the world or their country.  A perfect solution, right?

Such regulations are absurd, but not necessarily too far from reality.  When nation-wide problems are identified in society, especially in areas where the government is highly involved, such as education, the government seeks to implement solutions.  These proposed reforms would certainly be ineffective and far outside the bounds of appropriate government action, in addition to severely limiting human liberty and choice.  The problem is that the Millennial generation in the United States does not place an importance on engaging intellectually.  The absurd mandates above ignore the issue and focus on a bandaid solution,

The real issue is that many Millennials are a-literal, which means that they know how to read but choose not to read (Bauerlein, 59). They have more information available to them than anyone else in history has ever had, and the selectively prefer celebrity news, social networks, video games, TV, music and videos over reading, following politics or news, maintaining a work ethic or learning in school.  They are ignorant regarding basic facts, such as the father of the American Constitution, the Vice President of America, the pope's residency, the three branches of government, the rights guaranteed by the first amendment, and the name of the Prime Minister of England (Bauerlein, 12).

The ignorance of the rising generation - known as the Millennials, those born approximately between 1980 and 1995 - is terrifying.  The old saying goes, "Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it."  The future of America is grim, unless the trend toward a-literacy is reversed.  American democracy rests on a shaky foundation, as people are media-consumers rather than -critiquers.  They have no fundamental understanding of economics or politics or history which would provide a criteria to evaluate policy reforms or judge political candidates.  Maybe the government should start regulating social networks and the media to incentivize political engagement. 

Bauerlein, Mark. 2008. The Dumbest Generation, Penguin Group: New York.

It's about time...

So it's about time I started writing a blog... I'll let it evolve rather than explain my vision for it.  Tonight I just had many scattered thoughts that I needed to collect:

• Went to see my Nana in the assisted living home.  The last time I saw her, she was at the hospital.  So she's looked better than the last time, but in general she is quite sickly and hurting :(  The best quote from the day, which she said to the physical therapist when she saw the 1 pound dumbbells from afar: "they're heavy! I told you they were heavy yesterday!" lol
• Then my mom and I went to her house to give food to the adorable dog, Penny, and the perpetually scared cat, Pharaoh.  We also gathered a number of her valuable items and collections and packed it into the car to bring to our home.  It was a strange thing to do, because we don't expect her to ever enter her house again.  So we're taking them partially to keep them safe from the potentially sticky fingers of the many people who have keys to the house and also partially to put it our own apartments and rooms to enjoy and remember her.
• After dinner with Mom and Dad, I put some effort into writing a 10 page paper due at the end of break for my favorite political science professor, Dr. John Entelis, at Fordham.  Well, he was my favorite until he assigned a paper to write over break :(  I've been challenged lately to be sure to focus on learning rather than the degree or grades.  I've also been inspired to study hard, to know so much that I can demonstrate why the common misconceptions are false and to "not be afraid to be better than anyone else" -- not that I feared that, but it was inspiring to remember that it's worth the investment of time and energy.  
• Although I sometimes question why I'm devoting so much time to reading stacks of books and writing countless double-spaced pages on international political economy and development issues.  I keep reminding myself that it's a blessing to be able to learn, especially as I read about illiterate populations and the incredibly large development problems their countries suffer.  And also especially as I look at a blank Word document and realize that I have to fill it with words and ideas and a thesis and try to make sense too, and I wonder why I'm in graduate school. And then I think of my Nana and of the rapid pace in which life happens.  And then I think again of that paper (first of five, that I was hoping to write during this week of Spring Break).
• The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is a confusing place.  Everyone writes from their own perspective, many of which are mutually exclusive.  Many of them are writing from fundamentally different worldviews, leading to many "wrong" perspectives.  Seriously though, if they contradict each other, they can't all be right.  And things happen there at such a high rate that it's nearly impossible to keep up...especially because the various media only publish one perspective, and I'm trying to find multiple perspectives and distinguish between them.
• If you haven't yet read DailyTruthbase.blogspot.com, do so.  It's definitely worth your time, if you want to know the book you say you believe (or choose not to believe).  Do you feel comfortable standing for (or against) something that you haven't taken the time to read and study for yourself?  Given the last bullet point, it should be obvious that you can't believe everything you hear about the Bible (especially from people who teach/preach it for a living - 90% of them haven't read it cover to cover).  So don't count on them.  Look into it for yourself.

So, about that paper: I have an outline, but no actual text yet, and I was hoping to draft it tonight.  Adios amigos. Buenas noches