Random

~ We've been doing updates on the PIBC distance learning software. And at the same time we're moving the email system to GoogleApps. My head is spinning -- and probably will be for a few weeks. Every time I have to get in the middle of something like this it reminds me of why I could never be a full-time IT guy. Dave Ahlgren from wavemedia.com in Oklahoma has been a great help. If it weren't for him I wouldn't have a head to spin.

~ The Washington Post has an article on Guam and the military build-up that is happening all around us out here. -- Link (Thanks! Bruce & Katy)

Although the island is typhoon-plagued and earthquake-prone, cursed with bad traffic, unable to cope with its own garbage and overrun with invasive tree snakes that have eaten nearly all the birds, the Guamanians aren't just blowing smoke.

The Pentagon has chosen Guam, a quirkily American place that marries the beauty of Bali with the banality of Kmart, as the prime location in the western Pacific for projecting U.S. military muscle.

Indeed, "quirkily American" (with an emphasis on quirkily) is an apt description. But we're quirky people and we love living here.

~ Low snow has people in the Central Valley of California worried about flooding. -- Link

~ We're having a bit of a cooling off here on Guam, too. This morning it was down to 74°. It's amazing how our bodies adapt and that feels cold. Of course, it helps that the humidity is down to 64% and there are some pretty stiff tradewinds blowing over the island right now.

~ Is seawater a cure for the common cold? Perhaps this is why it helps the fight against a cold to go take a dip in the ocean. At least that's my experience. -- Link

~ Encouraging news -- Orientale Lumen has three conferences coming up this spring and summer. "Started in 1997 in Washington, DC, these ecumenical conferences are a 'grass roots' movement among lay persons and clergy to provide a forum for Christians to learn about the 'light from the east.' They allow Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholics and Roman Catholics to meet and pray together, learn from each other's traditions, and become friends together searching for a common goal: 'that they all may be one' in the One Church of Christ. -- Link

~ Engineering mosquitoes to wipe out Dengue Fever -- Link

~ Matthew (my niece's husband who is finishing up his MDiv from Multnomah this spring) has a concise review of S. Rainer and Eric Geiger Simple Church -- Link

~ My buddy Dave Larson got his stolen car back and he figures it's worth more now. -- Link

~ Internet user stats for Asia -- you can tell who is poor -- Link