strange phd

Marvel movies are still coming, and we can see a progression on what type of superpowers and greater powers, and crazy stuff is going happen next...

• a high school student from public school Spiderman protects his friends in New York 
• students from a special private school, the X-men fights for the protection and integration of mutants in society
• a team with people from different educational levels, which we can average as undergrads called the Avengers show up when Earth is in danger of threats
• a masters in planning named Star lord, leads the Guardians of the Galaxy to keep the universe safe
• PHD, actually a doctor show saves lives, but due to an accident lost his abilities, and had to go onto a journey to be come part of a group of "sorcerers" to protect the"multi-universes" from evil forces, and his name is Dr Strange.

I watched Dr Strange on the weekend, and it was fun to watch. I am a bit of Marvel fan, so I will probably not get bored with superhero movies. Dr Strange is indeed a good origin-type movie that explains the background of a superhero before he became one, and the sequence of events that mold his character and solidify his resolve to fight for good.

The effects and the fighting was pretty interesting as it had some inception sauce and matrix spice. The character development was good, and I enjoy the comedic relief.

** spoilers alert **

One of the cool things about the movie is that there is a bunch of religious overtones. I mean, Dr Strange belongs to a group of "sorcerers" from Nepal, who draws power from other universes to create teleportation gates, shields, and weapons. The fact that it draws power from some sort of impersonal force, it has influence from the pantheistic worldview.

Another interesting concept shown is the art of "surrendering" when Dr Strange first was having issues with generating a teleportation gate, as he was trying to use that force to bend his way, but instead he had to surrender to it to use his power accordingly.

There are interesting characters who has very different motivations:

• You also have the "Ancient One" who always looked very wise, and she was a person with very good intentions who unfortunately had to break some rules and use the power of  evil to do good things while forbidding others from doing so. 
• This lead to a rebellion from a talented student who went ahead to practice the dark arts since he probably thinks the Ancient One is deceiving him. 
• Then you have Mordo who is self-righteous, and shows not much grace to those who "breaks the rule", and unfortunately due to his self-righteousness he now wants to annihilate other sorcerers. 
• There is also the guy who was paralyzed, and was able to recover by learning the "arts", but chose not to use if for a greater good, instead kept it for himself.
• Dr Strange started with been very self-conceited and proud, and shifted to be self-less and willing to sacrifice his own time and life to protect the earth

The villain's motivation was not portrayed as clear, but he did expressed the he abhorred the reality of "death", so he wanted to seek the dark arts to gain the eternity. That's not a bad start to start a spiritual conversation, because indeed the bible does speak about "eternity is written on our hearts" (Ecclesiastes), and there is a human longing for such concept, and we know that through Christ we are able to access to God our Father be able to spend an eternity with Him.

** end of spoilers ** 

making leadership great again

Yesterday night was a long night, as after more than a year of election campaign started on the US, the election took place. I am part of a whatsapp group with some old friends from CCF, and the activity is very sporadic, but on yesterday it skyrocketed as we followed the election results.

I didn't started to follow until like after 9pm when I came back from work. So the timeline was like this:

• 10pm - Trump is ahead, making me a bit nervous, but I knew a bunch of the stronger Democrat states were still not counted.
• 11pm - uh oh, Trump got Florida. Losing such a key state!
• 11:30pm - Clinton got California, so you think the tides would change. But it takes grade 2 math that Clinton needs to win in most of the remaining states to win. It's hard, but realistic.
• 12am - The odds look bad for Clinton, she needs almost a miracle to stand a chance.
• 01am - Mathematically, Clinton still has a chance, but it is not very likely so I went to bed.

It is almost shocking. As an outsider, I did want Clinton to win, even though she has many faults as a candidate, I feel she was the more capable candidate (if not the only) to lead the US. It would have been historic to see the first women president for the country.

There are many reasons that could explained why Trump won, like the recent FBI inquiry on Clinton's emails, or lack of participation of young voters (who would have voted for Clinton) on key states, the old electoral vote system that might not represent what the voters want, or Gary Johnson "stealing" 200,000 votes on Florida... well I gonna move on.

But it is very interesting to see how many Americans find neither of the candidates compelling, as they do lack many key characteristics of what a leader look like. From what I see on the news, I just have to say that the elected leader is one who lacks most of the traits of a leader, and only time will tell if America actually made the right choice.

Here are some key traits I think the elected leader lack:

- Proficient at the area/subject you are leading
- Model for others to follow: lead by example, walk the talk, possess a character that influences others positively.
- Understand that it is not about you, but about the people you lead.
- Respect to everyone no matter their background, ethnicity, etc.
- Track of record: proven from past experiences that he has been successful on areas of leadership.

many nations

So the Olympics has ended, and part of me is kind of relieve as now I have less distractions in my day to day.

There is a good article about the "stats" of this Olympics: http://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/37148372, and it talks about how US is still a powerhouse in the medals count, and how Great Britain did very well reaching second place. It also shows how certain countries have most of their medals on one type of event (e.g. Jamaica won a bunch in track and field). Canada also did pretty well.

It goes on with talking how Michael Phelps did very well, and as well Katie Ledecky (she is beast), and one of the best gymnasts Simone Biles winning many medals. Of course Usain Bolt is on a league of his own, winning the 3 golds (100m, 200m, 4x100m) in the last 3 Olympics. Probably it is not the number of medals that made him so good, but it's how he dominates the race and how he draw the crowds to roar for him.

These are all achievements that most people have heard about as they are the main starts of the past few weeks. There are other great achievements that might not appear in the main headlines that I would like to note:

• Anthony Erwin from the US, the oldest swimmer at age of 35 to win a gold medal (50m freestyle). He had won a gold in Sydney 2000 (16 years ago!), and then had a tough life of depression and even had suicide attempts, but he was able to recover, and even get a gold medal.
• Oksana Chusovitina, is the oldest female gymnast to compete at the age of 41. She is already a well accomplished athlete, but she never gives up. She participated on the vault apparatus, and even though she did not win any medal, she attempted the "Prudonova" which is the hardest level of difficulty of vault (and is very dangerous). Though she did not landed cleanly, the fact that she tried to such a high level routine with the ambition to clinch a medal is worth admiring.
• Monica Puig, won the very first gold medal for Puerto Rico in its history, by taking first in women's tennis. It is an achievement that brings much joy and unity to a "nation" that is going through a really bad economical turmoil.
• Juan Martin del Potro, Argentine tennis player who used to be in higher ranks a few years back, but due to injuries have not competed well in the recent years, had a wonderful journey of battles by defeating #1 tennis player Djokovic in the first round, and defeating former #1 Rafael Nadal, to get into finals and lose to Andy Murray. The silver medal is a fantastic prize for him on his comeback. He is even surprised to get that far, especially when he knew his first match was against Djokovic.
• In indoor volleyball, the relatively new nation of Serbia, went to its first Olympic final in women's by defeating the favorites, the US in 5 sets. Eventually, they did lose against the talented and very tall team of China in the finals, but their accomplishment is admirable.

There is probably a lot more of good things to talk about regarding the Olympics, and of course there will also be many negative things to speak about.


Rio Olympics started with great skepticism, because of many issues that Brazil as a nation is facing. From the economical issues, to political instability (its elected president had to stepped down, and she is getting prosecuted), to civil unrest (many people are really unhappy about the $ spent in the World Cup and Olympics), to the Zika virus (many health organization recommended to postpone it). Plus there are other concerns about how the clean the water is in Rio, about the unfinished residences (for the athletes), and the security (apparently a few athletes has reported robbery, some are true stories, some are not). Due to all this, there is a huge concern whether tickets will get sold as people might be deterred to visit. Despite all this, Rio Olympics went on, and seemingly it went relatively ok. Of course, that is from an outside's perspective, we'll still have to see how this will affect Rio in the next couple of years.

But for sure, there is also controversy when talking whether it is worth hosting an Olympics.

I found some youtube videos that shows top 5 interesting facts about the Olympics in general:

• reasons why it sucks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUaLWYUe12c
• reasons why it can be good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp2OKrtxgeo

I was trying to think why I like the Olympics. What attracts me to spend a few hours a day watching many kind of sports event? In general I really like to watch sports, especially football (called soccer in North America), but I actually do not watch football in the Olympics (it's considered a minor event). 

There are certain sports that I grown to appreciate a lot like artistic gymnastics, pole vault jump, synchronized diving, and some of the sprinting events, some of the swimming events. There is actually World competitions that go on every year or two years for these sports, but I only follow them during the Olympics. So I think the Olympics does provide a "venue" to showcase all these great sports and athletes in set time, so that people can appreciate and admire (and learn the rules and points system about the sports).

One thing one of the major attractions about the Olympics that I like is to see people from many nations participating. My top favorite sports event is the Football World Cup, but there are only 32 nations, and most of them are European. Whereas in the Olympics, there are officially 207 nations (some of them not recognized by the United Nations, but who cares), and that is big number. Nations from certain geographic location tend to do better at some sports (e.g. East Asian countries are good for Table Tennis). Sometimes it is very nice to hear an athlete from a less known country winning something big (e.g. Fiji winning gold on rugby), It's very neat to witness many athletes from different nations, ethnicity, and culture competing together in the span of two weeks.

It is very pale, but really pale picture of what it could look like when all nations will gather together to worship God. Of course it is a stretched comparison. If I am elated by seeing people from all nations competing in a sports event, how much more joyful it will be to see all nations coming together worshiping God? 

A few other things from the Olympics that was nice to see/hear:

- David Boudia (silver in 10m synchronized diving, and bronze in 10m individual)  praying with his coach after his final dive.

- Almaz Ayana (broke the 10km record, and won gold) was accused of doping, and she defended herself with these reasons: "No. 1, I’ve been training specifically (for this event). No. 2, I pray to the Lord. The :ord has given me everything, everything. And No. 3, my doping is Jesus. Those are the reasons."

We should really be doped with Jesus.

good superhero

In the last couple of years there have been a lot of superhero movies from Marvel or DC comics. I still remembered when I was a kid, there were really only a few movies, Batman, and Spiderman, which happen to be on my favorite list.

But nowadays, there are like 2-5 movies a year on superheroes, and I am pretty sure some people are getting tired from them, whereas others are overjoyed to see the "less famous" superheroes come into the big screen. I personally enjoy good action movies, with a decent plot, and some comedic relief once in a while.

This year there were 4 big films that many were looking forward to:
- Captain America: Civil War
- X-men: Age of Apocalypse
- Batman vs Superman
- Suicide Squad

I think Marvel is doing way better job at storytelling. But in general many of these movies share similar issues of plot holes, saturating too many characters, lack of pace and transition, unlikable characters, etc. Still, I went to the theaters to watch them.

One common theme from these films is the conflict of "controlling" the superheroes. Most of these characters have amazing powers that can easily allow them to do whatever they want. Fortunately, most of them have "good" moral values, and humanity is safe. But what happens when they are not longer "good"? Would humanity be at risk? Remember, these superheroes are still imperfect humans, and there is no guarantee that they will not go rogue.

(spoiler alert)

In Civil War, the United Nations trying to pass a bill to impose certain restrictions on the Avenger's movement (a weak attempt to control them). Batman vs Superman has the dark night trying to kill the man of steel because he thinks Superman does not care about people's lives. Suicide Squad is about a team of powerful villains working for the government in case a "bad" Superman was to arise. Age of Apocalypse shows how it would look like if a crazy god-wannabe was to rule.

(spoiler ends)


The idea of a demigod been so powerful definitely scares people, because you never know if it will turn against you.

I think one of the attributes of our Christian God that sometimes we don't ponder enough is God's goodness. Sometimes I take it for granted, because I am so "used to" experiencing God's mercy and love, and He always take care of me. But as I think about deeper, God's goodness is huge and is a key point that makes our faith true and consistent. For example, because God is good:

• I know that "in all things God works for the good of those who live him" (Romans 8:28)
• His love for me is real and I can truly say "Because you love is better than life, my lips will glorify you" (Psalms 63:3)
• Even if I fail, God is faithful and keeps His promise (2 Timothy 2:13)
• Our hope makes sense despite the suffering, because we are assured that this will mold us and we renewed inwardly day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Romans 5)

There is so much more that can be written.

Now, I am going to make a side discussion. In my church, we had the opportunity to listen to a 2 session seminar from a Christian pastor who used to be Muslim. The seminar was about the persecution on Christians that are happening on Iraq and Syria (places were the Islamic State has a stronghold).  There was a lot of information, and I felt it was very beneficial for the church to know more about Islam, to be informed, to learn so that we can develop a good answer for the big issues on Islam and violence.

One particular point I want to bring out, is that the pastor said that true Islam is violent. This could mean that what the Islamic State is doing now might represent well what the Quran teaches. I myself am not expert on Islam theology to take a stance, and I don't think I am well informed to enter into a debate. So my intentions is to present facts and contrast them with our Christian faith, and glean lessons out of them.

These are external articles and interviews I read to gained more information:

• An interview with a former Muslim who is now a Christian: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/does-isis-represent-true-islam
• 9 basic things about Islam: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-you-should-know-about-islam
• Does Islam lead to violence: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/does-islam-inevitably-lead-to-violence
• John Piper's thoughts on why westerners are attracted to Islamic State: http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/why-is-radical-islam-alluring-to-westerners

These are a few points:

• Both religions have laws, and Islam focuses more on behavior on keeping them, whereas Christianity teaches about inward obedience in respond to God's goodness and love.
• Missionaries: Christians emphasizes on loving others and sharing the gospel, but never forcing our faiths to others, but trusting that Holy Spirit works in transforming unbelievers. In the history of Islam, there are examples of Muslims forcing others to believe (especially when they have conquered your land).
• Historical context, some of the chapters from Quran that speaks about inflicting violence to others were written when Mohammed (first prophet) had gathered a great number of followers, and was no longer just a prophet but also a political leader. So some of these ideology were used as a reason to conquer lands or retaliate to people who have taken land away from them.
• Violence on Islam is nothing new. It happened through history many times, but now we just have more media exposure.
• A strong focus on Islam in exerting power and dominion, in contrast of Christ's teachings on loving your enemies.
• Many of the people attracted to Islamic State share similar beliefs as Christians (dying for your faith, hope in the glory of God), but the root ideology is erroneous and twisted. 

Concluding thoughts

• Not trying to pinpoint Islam as the sole source of violence, it is a human issue due to sin. Christians themselves are as guilty in partaking in violence throughout history. No one is good, except for God Himself. Hence we can redemption in Him, that He will transform us from our sinful state into people who can do good.
• It is very disheartening to read the news and see the atrocities that are happening in other parts of the world, especially fellow brothers and sisters who are persecuted. Some ponder whether the world superpowers (a few countries) should help intervene and eradicate these terrorist groups. But not sure if that will spawn new groups in the future... (cycle of hatred, revenge, etc). It is a battle of ideology, and many believe that this is an opportunity for the Christian faith to shine the light in the places that is most needed, because we believe our is God is good.

"A certain ruler asked him, 'Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'
  
 'Why do you call me good?' Jesus answered. 
 'No one is good - except God alone.' " - Luke 18:18-19

athlete

Though there are many criticism on the issues that Brazil is facing as a country, the Olympics at Rio de Janeiro has started, and many great things have occurred. I remembered that it was the Olympics at Atlanta in 1996 that I first watched and grew very attached in watching many of these sports today.

Here are some of the great sport achievements of this week:

• Penny Oleksiak a 16 year old Canadian swimmer conquering the heart of many fans with an Olympic record on 100m freestyle swim, and the first Canadian to win 4 medals in one games. What a great future!
• Americans dominating the swimming medal count, especially with Katie Ledecky winning very convincingly the 200m, 400, 800m freestyle (beating her own World Record) and Michael Phelps adding more medals to his illustrious career.
• Synchronized Diving, a sport where China is considered the best, Wu Minxia achieved a historic 5th goal medal since her participation in 2014 Olympics in 3m springboard. An achievement that was later repeated by her compatriot Chen Ruolin in the 10m springboard.  
• Almaz Ayana from Ethiopia broke the 10,000m race World Record by 14 seconds, which is insane.
• Kohei Uchimura in an intense competition in the all-round men gymnastics competition, grabbed the gold medal by performing a spectacular on his last apparatus (high bar) and beat the second place by 0.1 point. He is also a gold medalist in London 2012 and silver medalisy in Beijing 2008.

There still more events coming up, and I am very excited to see them.

One special athlete I want to focus on is the Italian Tania Cagnotto from 3m springboard diving. She got a silver medal on synchronized diving, and though her achievement might seem small compared to the ones listed above, I really admire her because of her perseverance. I remembered her in the 2012 Olympics, where she was 0.1 point from getting a bronze medal and was ranked 4th. I actually remembered blogging about it 4 years ago. She cried in her coach's shoulder because she has been so close to a medal (she got 4th on both synchronized and individual on 2012, and ranked 5th on individual on 2008). No one was sure if she would come back for another Olympics as she might retire due to her age, and it is difficult to overcome such disappointment. But she kept training and competing, and her perseverance paid off, and now she can boast of a silver Olympic medal, and she might have another chance at the individual competition next week.

I admire athletes because of their discipline and motivation to train and improve. It is not a surprise that the bible has verses that talks about the imagery of someone of races, one who race with perseverance (Hebrew 12:1), one who exercise self-control (1 Cor. 9:24-27), and one who finishes the race (2 Tim. 4:7).

Perseverance is very important because there are many obstacles and disappointments in life but we have to keep striving forward for what Christ has called us. The lesson of  discipline is a hard one. Sometimes it is so difficult to just find time to read the bible on our busy lives. I know in my head that reading the Word is important, I have tasted that the bible is very refreshing, but despite of that I sometimes choose to fill my time with other activities. Discipline means that we need to stick to do what we have to do, even when we do not feel like it. These are two very important lessons that I need to work on more, and through God's grace I hope to improve, all for His glory.

no te vayas Lio

In the recent weeks there have been much football, and the season of international tournaments is coming to an end soon. Throughout these couple of weeks, there have been 3 major "calamities" in the world of football:

1) England getting beaten by Iceland

After surprising vote for "Brexit", the nation of England got a second calamity by losing in the round of 16 against the underdog team of Iceland. Many of the English players are considered superstars and they played on the prestigious Premier League, but Iceland has only 330,000 people on the whole country (for reference, I went to a football stadium that fits 85,000 people, so it's like 4 times that on a whole nation), and most of them do not play at a professional league, and they managed to put a team to win. Funny thing is that the Icelandic football coach is a full time dentist, who is on a sabbatical coaching the team.

English commentators state that this is "their biggest shame in football history".

2) Spain's dominion coming to an end

Spain has gifted us with a great generation of players who delights us with their skills and talent. They have been impressive in winning major tournaments back to back: Euro 2008, World Cup 2010, and Euro 2012. Keeping many of the key players, they could not pass the first round in World Cup 2014, but people still have hope that they would do well in Euro 2016. They started well by defeating Czech Rep, and then dominating Turkey, but looked tired when facing Croatia, and lost against them. That lost was critical as it set them to face Italy, which ultimately eliminated Spain from the competition. Pretty much this lost marks an end to this glorious Spanish generation.

3) Argentina losing another final

Argentina was the great favorite team to win the Copa America 2016, with Lionel Messi as the commanding star. They were second in the World Cup 2014, and second in the Copa America 2015, and they are experiencing a 23 year "drought" of not winning a major football tournament. So all hopes from the Argentine nation were placed in this team to win the Copa America, and they reached final to play against Chile (the current champion).

I am a big Argentina fan, so I actually drove with New Jersey to watch the final game. I wore the Argentina jersey, and was very hopeful that they would win this time. It was a neat experience to enter the stadium to see the Argentine players that I admire, especially Messi. The game started, and the ambient was festive, and whenever Messi touched the ball, the audience's mood would warm up. When he was about to take a free kick, everyone was ready with their smartphones to record a video in the case that he was to score. Unfortunately, the game was rough, and the referee expelled a player from each side, so it became very defensive and tight, so very little opportunities for good plays. Consequently, it went to penalty kicks, where Messi would missed, and Argentina would lose a 3rd consecutive final at a major football tournament in the last 3 years.

This event shattered me emotionally, but a few hours after, Messi announced that he would retire from Argentina national team, and this is a tragic news for the nation and for myself. He is still 29, which means he can play the next World Cup at a high level. With him, Argentina can be a title contender, without him, Argentina looks fragile. This news has led to a social movement in Argentina where many fans and even the president of the nation are asking Messi to reconsider his position.

Anyways, I don't want to over-dramatize my emotions on football.


Just how Argentina have been fruitless on winning major tournaments, sometimes living as a Christian, we might experience seasons of dryness where perhaps we feel it is harder to find joy in God, or that the labor of our work seems fruitless. For some reason this happens, and the fact that we are sinful by nature is major factor, as well God might be teaching us an important lesson. It is hard to find an answer of the why these seasons of dryness can occur. Though they can be very discouraging and painful, there are major truths that we need to be reminded by:

• God is never going to abandon you
• Even though I am not faithful, God is faithful, and His promise to deliver me will stand
• God is never changing, no matter what season, and He is our reason to live and worship

There are times when this song the "Desert Song" by Hillsong speaks volumes:

"This is my prayer in the desert
When all that's within me feels dry
This is my prayer in my hunger and need
My God is the God who provides

And this is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved
Of more worth than gold

So refine me, Lord, through the flame

...

And this is my prayer in the battle
When triumph is still on its way
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ

So firm on His promise I'll stand

All of my life
In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship"

pasion por el futbol

Definitely enjoy the abundance of football (soccer as it is called here) happening this year.

Honestly, this is something I really much miss. I grew up in Guatemala, where most people are into football, and it is easy to find people who I can share the love for this sport. Many people in Guatemala complains about the corruption in the government, about the economical situation, about the robbery, and this list goes on, but whenever the national team is playing football, all is forgotten. I remembered there was a time when Guatemala played a friendly match with Brazil, a powerhouse int his sport, and of course Brazil was leading 1-0 for most of the game. Last minute of the game, and a corner kick from Guatemala, the player kicks it, and someone connects a header, and scores the tie! It was very exciting, and even one of my neighbors set up some firecrackers to celebrate.

The Euro 2016 is going to a round of 16, and there are many great surprises, teams that are supposed to be strong, are not doing that well, and "smaller" teams doing well.

One special mention I want to make is for Iceland, which has a population smaller than Newfoundland and Labrador; their population is that small, that 8% of its people are actually in France to support their team. Even with such a small country, they are able to assemble a team that qualified for the second round, and today they won their first game ever in Euro history thanks to a goal at the very last minute of the game. The excitement is beyond charts, especially from these Icelandic commentator: https://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2016/jun/22/icelandic-commentator-goes-wild-after-icelands-winner-against-austria-audio

When I see this, I smile as I found someone with similar "pasion por el futbol"