Blog 12: Blogging

Basically, I like writing either English or Korean.

When I feel little emotional, I used to write.

Once, I saw blogs from other people, I wish I would have my own one.
And, this class fulfilled my desire.

Above all, the best thing that I liked was I was able to share my idea, and I could visit other blogs. Therefore, I could learn of other knowledge that I haven’t known.

Normally, it was not difficult to use the BLOG (I haven’t used all gadgets). Besides, it was reasonable, convenient, and knowledgeable.

250 words is fine to show my idea at least, and is to meet the deadline except the comment part (Because I was no able to type the words for security, it is ugly..)

Another part that I really liked was I could see my classmates’ backgrounds. Even though we are in a same class, we never know names each other. However, the blog shows our identity, objects, ideas, perspectives, and so on. Thus, I can see who they are, and what they want to be. It’s memorable.

A friend of mine, she took this class and same professor. She doesn’t care about her blog after finishing this class. It’s understandable because she never think about the world and the environment.
However, I would keep my blog, and keep writing my opinions whenever I have.
I’d like to be thankful for everybody.

Blog 11: 'Ths the Season II

These stuff what you are seeing are ugly products too during the holyday season especially. ‘Candy Melty’ Is it supposed to be a gift? I think it cost more money to treat your tooth than buy it.

Look at the Christmas package cases for gifts. What do you think? Those are recyclable cases, but actually they are disposable stuff because people do not use them after Christmas.

Part of Green Life

My mom always uses the rest of toothpaste. She cut it half when we out of it, and I had to used it again. If you see inside of toothpaste leftover, you would wonder how much toothpaste remains inside. At least, you could brush your teeth 3 times. I think this is one of Greener’s life.

Besides, the bagasse note pad, whose name of the plant fiber waste remaining after sugarcane is processed and crushed to make sugar. The quality is just as good as traditional tree-based paper, and it’s great for the environment.

Blog 10: 'Ths the Season

Frankly, I don’t know what selfish piece o’crap is. However, what I know is people are spending their money unwisely. When I heard the accident in Wal-Mart in Long Island, I was so stunned. Even my 10-year-old younger brother got surprised. In my opinion, this accident was driven by selfishness and capitalism. Where is this world going to?
I have tried to understand why people are celebrating in Jesus Christ’s birthday. Is that for Jesus? Or for themselves? After Thanks Giving Day, people are turning to like bloody vampires to suck blood in. Many people goof off in their work places, daydreaming during the work shift in Christmas season especially. Who is really celebrating Jesus Christ, and who is really keeping Christ in Christmas? We have to think about it!

Few selfish and clueless items that I found:

1. Woman Leg Lamp: what a freak! Does it look like a woman’s

leg? In my sight, it is man’s leg…Disgusting. This company

manufactured for holiday gift. Stupid!!

2. Lightening for Christmas Trees: So many people purchase

bulbs for Christmas tree. It’s unbelievable. If you are able to

produce bulbs, you would be a millionaire soon! I guarantee.

3. Candles: Oh, boy.. The smell from candles is killing me. A

friend of mine, she grabs candles whenever she goes to shop. It

reminds me of ‘House of Wax’

Blog 9: The Awesome Website

When I was a child, I played with frogs, cicadas, grasshoppers, and other animals, or insects instead of computer, or video games. The reason was not because I was from a country place, but this was what we had at that time.

I swam in a reservoir near my home with friends in the summer season, and I made a skate myself for having fun with other friends in winter season. In other words, we played with the nature. In retrospect, that was the most beautiful memories in my life. Sadly, I really know I can’t go back to that time. I am living the reality that many animals are becoming extinctive now.

‘Kids Do Ecology’: (http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/index.html)
This is what I chose as an awesome website. Isn’t that title cool? Kids do ecology.
As we know, most kids in the developed countries may not know what ecology is. Only chance that they may know is when they go to museums, read books, or search in websites.

However, this website explains the ecology simply for children. When you click a topic you want to look at it, it leads you to know about that topic. Moreover, many links are attached so you may see the topic in detail. It presents pictures in order to understand easily, and the design of this website is appropriate for kids. Besides, we are able to approach a different theme with playing games. (You may see what they have in this link: http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/biomes/index.html)

What I really like is that this website is available in Spanish, and this is a good level for kids who want to know the ecology.

Lastly, the target of this website is for kids who may not see many animals in the earth. They just see, feel, touch, and knowledge the leftover caused by their parents. It is absolutely important to teach the ecology and the nature for kids. Therefore, this website is perfect for kids because it is educational, enlightened, knowledgeable, and watchful.

Blog 8: Collaborative Projects

I didn’t know what I had to say when I heard the collaborative work in the class. However, I thanked to God because my topic was about Judaism because I am a Christian. As a Christian, I was familiar with Bible which I read everyday, and I thought this was going to be a great chance to people who do not believe in God. I asked my pastors about Judaism, and a friend of mine was a Jewish. Therefore, I was able to get sources from them. This was how I started for our project.

Originally, I am from S. Korea in Asia. Inevitably, our society has been affected by Buddhism, Christianity, and Confucianism. Mostly, Confucianism is the main theory in our society. Thus, I could infer the relationship between Daoism and Confucianism.

When I was a child, I used to go to a temple with my mom. She was a Buddhist, and she believed in Samsara, which was a rotational theory, and Karma. We accepted Buddhism in A.D. 600 or so based on our history, and it has changed a lot.

What I interested in were Hinduism and Islam because I did not know about their theory even though I had heard many times..

Honestly, I was impressed by all presentations. Especially, a meaning of the moon in the Islam countries was fascinating. Besides, I was surprised when I saw the relationship between Daoism and politics.

Lastly, I might know what our professor wanted by these projects. We simply saw relationships between religions and ecology, and we do now how ecology is important in terms of our religions.

Blog 7 : The Journey of the American History of Natural Museum

I think I’ve been there once, but I don’t remember when I went. That means
I wasn’t interested at all because I don’t have any memories.
However, the day when I visited there this time is not forgotten.
I wish I had more time to see all exhibitions because everything that I looked at was amazing. This is why I like to live in NYC.

Actually, I visited to the Metropolitan Museum two weeks ago. I was considering whether to go to the Metropolitan or the Natural History Museum. Thanks to my friend, I went the Metropolitan Museum luckily. I realized there were so many interesting things, which I’ve ever never seen.

Similarly, there were many great things that we had to look at. For example, I was able to see how the earth eclipses, and what materials are in the earth in Earth Planet section. We could see many exhibitions related to earth science. Especially, it was fun when I went down to see the earth sphere to see how the earth’s atmosphere had changed.

Moreover, we visited to Hall of Biodiversity, New York State Environment, and Human Origins section. Everything that I saw was brilliant. Besides, I was stunned because the museum decorated all species, circumstances, and habitants in real. It was like the real.

After visiting those four sections, I went up to third floor with my classmate in order to watch a movie, Climate Change, which matched our class topic exactly. But, a staff didn’t let us in because we got such steep tickets ($1).

Anyhow, it was a great short journey, and I will visit again soon with my friends. Even though I lost ways in the museum frequently (in my opinion, it was a maze), this museum is the right place if you are going together with the earth.

Blog 6: Tentative Research Topic and Sources

Recently, there are many unusual environmental phenomena in the world as we know. From land to sky, everything is related to the environment, and humans are one of elements in Ecology System. However, we became the Predator. In terms of the research paper, I would like to report Water Crisis.

Basically, water is the most important elements for all organisms as well as humans. However, the amount of using water in the world is getting decreased by pollution and overusing. According to a report by the United Nations, more than 45% countries in the world are suffering from lack of water. Especially, African countries and mid-east countries are getting worse.

I hope this research paper enlightens countries, or people that use water inefficiently. Include me, many of us are using water without any consideration because we don’t feel any inconvenience with water. I wish I would be in Africa right now in order to feel the water crisis, and I want to see how African people are suffering.

http://library.cqpress.com.rpa.laguardia.edu:2048/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2000112401&type=hitlist

This is a report from CQ Research Online, which is a reputational online research web-site. It approaches the problem of water like how pure the American water is, and what the reasons are. Even though this doesn’t seem like a global report, it is useful to get the point how I approach this problem.

http://library.cqpress.com.rpa.laguardia.edu:2048/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2003080101&type=hitlist

This is another report from CQ Research, but this is worldwide report. Besides, it is more reliable because it’s published in 2003. (First report was published in 1999)
It shows solutions as well as pros and cons so that we can get synthesizes of ideas.

http://web.ebscohost.com.rpa.laguardia.edu:2048/ehost/pdf?vid=7&hid=114&sid=c24c354e-32d5-4828-ad6d-4928c4f52d7b%40sessionmgr107

Another useful resource from EBSCOhost, which is from Academic Search Premier, show that the limitation of helping third world countries by International community because of political reasons. This is 24 pages long report, and it approaches water crisis with politics. Therefore, it could be useful because it covers other references that the other resources didn’t cover.

http://rpa.laguardia.edu:2048/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=367170342&sid=2&Fmt=10&clientId=13053&RQT=309&VName=HNP

Lastly, this is an article from the New York Times. It catches up the water crisis as a war, which is interesting because experts predict that there will be a war for water supplies such as an oil war. This is totally understandable. In the future, sustainable water will be the great natural resource and pure air too. This is what I expect.

Blog 5: Waste

The metaphor that he used ‘Intolerable Beauty’ is ironic, and it might be the right expression that represents our lives. And I was appalled by the video that we watched in the class. Honestly, the U.S. spreads out their garbage to other countries, especially, the developing countries. To make matters worse, the U.S, doesn’t feel guilty because they give money for them. What would the U.S do, if American children played with garbage and lethal materials?

I don’t know where I start for this time, however, I engage two ideas that he wrote. ‘The question in my mind is whether we are all responsible in some degree’, well.. I think this is what we have to consider. We never know that we are The Contributor to make the earth worse. We never realize how much garbage we produce in a day. Now, we have to think about what we can give to the earth as The Earth Citizen.

The other statement that I agree is ‘Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences’. I have seen many people who just throw out their garbage such as cigarettes, plastic bottles, and so on. They don’t care what they are doing. You know what I have in my head? I think we have to institute the law like The Environmental Law so that everybody follows the law to protect the earth, or governments should control this problem seriously.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXQDpdUpQgA

This is a link that you can see what happen in the U.S. with cell phones. It says that “1 day worth of retired cell phone in the U.S.: 426,000 retired handsets”. Can you believe that?

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/chris_jordan_pictures_some_shocking_stats.html

This is another video link presented by Chris Jordan. You can see much more than you expected. This is what’s happening in the U.S. now.

Can you guess the orange-colored wall? They are uniforms for prisoners. Each uniform piles up, and it becomes the wall finally. According to Chris Jordan, one out of four the United States citizen is a prisoner. Isn't that surprise?

Blog 4: The Story of Stuff

I chose the third question for blog 4 because I think this question is fitting my reality and good for sharing.
The time that I spend for watching TV is less than one hour in a week. Basically, I do not like watching TV. When TV shows sports like baseball, soccer, or big event like 2008 Beijing Olympic and World Cup, then I spend more than one hour to watch these games. Other than that, I do not watch TV, thus I gave my TV to my friend.

Shopping? I think this for women, not for men. If you ask about shopping to men, I think most of men don’t like it. Therefore, I spend for shopping,,,,I guess less than one hour in a month. Frankly, I didn't go shopping last month at all.

How about using internet? I do a lot. Two or three hours in a day. Checking e-mails, searching information, build up my relationships with friends and watching movies by internet. However, I don’t think that surfing internet is anti-social because I do mostly get along with my friend by internet. Additionally, checking news, gathering information that I want to know, and contacting my parents in my countries is sociable. Meanwhile, it is true that I do not invest my time to read books pretty much.

The most joy in my present life is praise God. This is my main duty that God gave to me. Having meditation with bible is also my pleasure. Recently, I started to learn playing a guitar. This is too my delightful new habit. Besides, do jumping rope on the roof of my apartment is pretty fun.

Certainly, these leisure times are my priorities. By God’s point of view, I always try to let him satisfy by my behavior. This is why I was born, this is what I have to do. At the same time, I try to study hard to achieve my ultimate goal.

Lastly, what I really want to do is that I want to finish studying as soon as possible to glorify God, to spread Gospel for other people.

The way I'm walking...

It is hard to find the reason why I came to the U.S. exactly; I believe that I came here by someone’s leading. As a religious person, I think God leads me because it was not easy to come to the U.S. by myself.

I have been here for three years, and I learned and experienced many things that I could not have in my country. My point to see my life and the world has changed, and it keeps changing which I’ve never had before. Obviously, my life goal has changed.

I wanted to be an engineer who develops tourism areas, builds resorts, and facilities. However, coming to the U.S. was my turning point. Now I am pursuing to be a dentist. Why do I want to be a dentist? Main reason is to go other countries for helping poor people and let them know God. Just like a religious missionary, I want to go see people who never meet God. I really want my medical skill to help to lighten them because it could be a great merit to get people’s attention, and many of them are incapable of seeing doctors. Proverbs in the bible says that “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps”.

Another reason is that there is a limit for me, who am an international student. The U.S. government does not give lots of opportunities to aliens. Aliens are hard to get higher level of American society.

I am in the last semester in LaGuardia, and going to Hunter next semester to major in Biology. Honestly, I have not put my entire endeavor in LaGuardia. However, I know that I have to study hard more than ever before when I transfer to Hunter. I do not want to miss this which might be the last chance. Later, I would like to go Stony Brook to complete general dentistry after two years in Hunter College.

I do believe that God leads my way. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I won’t fear because God is with me, and he comforts me. He will make a way for me.

Blog3: Mini-research Assignment

We confront the problems because of global warming. As we realized, these are to solve by ours, and all countries. We discussed about the problems in our class, and I think the scarcity of food is the worst problem now.

By media, I can hear the news that many countries are suffering from food crisis almost everyday. More than 80% of people in Africa are suffering from lack of food, among them; about 65% of people are dying because of starvation. North Korea could not be worse. When I heard that North Koran ate human fresh, I was stunned.

http://www.crs.org/emergency/global-food-crisis.cfm?utm_source=google-grant&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=food-crisis
This link is from Catholic Relief Service, and you can see a video which tells you how serious the food crisis in the world is.

Obviously, the food crisis comes from global warming. Therefore, we are able to infer to some solution to avoid a panic by food crisis. The United Nations and other countries are aiding food for poor countries, this is not ultimate solution. I would like to suggest some solutions to get over the food crisis. First, we have to stop wasting food. We are not feeling that we do not have food enough because we can get food easily abundantly. We spend lots of money to get rid of food remains. Save food! Save money, and send them to other countries. Second, if we fertilize deserts, or other barren lands, we are able to plant, and cultivate them to grow plants, and other crops. In addition, government’s policy would help to solve this problem. Many farmers are leaving to urban areas to get better lives. Therefore, government should support farmers financially, legally, and politically so that famers can put their all efforts to increase food productivity.

However, my pin point is that we have to realize this. More than half countries in the world will confront the food crisis soon. I am sure that if a small changing puts together, it would lead a big changing. It is just like a line which needs many small pots to complete a line. It is time to start to change by us.
http://www.projectconcern.org/site/PageServer?pagename=World_Food_Crisis&JServSessionIdr009=yaokkm9281.app14a

Blog 2: Where are you for the EARTH?

After watching the video about Mr. Gore’s presentation, I was so glad because I had a chance to see what was going on the earth. Many of them were very concerning issues in the world, and most important thing was that many people did not recognize what had happened.


I have concerned about the earth, environment and our nature since I entered a college. In addition, newspaper articles were getting me awake things that happened around us. For example, honey bees are gone, stronger storms, food crisis, and weather changing is enough to attract my consciousness.


What I do, therefore, is that just knowing the earth is dying. What I do not is that I do something for the earth. I bring my own plastic water bottle, ride my bike in order to save energy, try to unplug when I leave my place, these are what I just do. I don’t think these are enough. To tell the truth, there is nothing that I can change by myself for the earth. If companies and factories keep doing the same wrong things, this situation won’t be changed even if I follow my passion based on the class that I take, and I keep up the right things for our environment.


If we really want to change our nature and environment, we are supposed to unify and cooperate together. This is not a problem between you and I, but this is the problem that we have to get over together. How will I use my education to make the world better? I would act for the earth. I think most people know what is going on the earth now. Besides, they have already known what they have to do, however, the problem is they do not conduct.



Recently, I am always thinking what I can do for the earth. Though I don’t have a good solution, I keep thinking and finding a solution.


Honey bees are gone. Albert Einstein said that, "No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man"

I saw three honey bees yesterday in Long Island. You know what I felt. I felt like I was seeing a fairy. I did not remember that I saw a honey bee last time. While I was seeing the honey bees, I said that, “I am so sorry, we made let you disappeared.”

Blog 1: The Environment and Me

What do you think that who you live with? People? Animals? Organism?

Who controls the human beings? God? The high tech?

Have you thought about environment?

Certainly, you have heard by commercials on TV, the environmental activists, or from schools.

What do you think about environment?

Based on a dictionary, it says that environment is the aggregate of surrounding things, conditions, or influences; surroundings.

In the ecology, it defines that environment is the air, water, minerals, organisms, and all other external factors surrounding and affecting a given organism at any time.

Organisms cannot exist without environment based on the definition. Is that true?

If not, can you demonstrate? Surely, nobody could.

In the class, we discussed about environment. What is the definition, what related to environment, and what are your opinions.

Environment is everything around the organism. If you talk about the air, water, earth, blab blab blab.. How stupid you are. Even a computer, which you are using now, is the one of environments. Electricity, energy, oils, and gas..Where do we get from?

We cannot live without environment, or the thing that we cannot conquer.

We have had many disasters by environment already, we have lost uncountable lives.

They could be your family, your neighbors, your cousins, or your friends.

Recently, I have heard many disasters in the world. You might remember the earthquake in China, the typhoon and tsunami in Asia, hurricanes in the southern areas, and tornadoes. Now, look at Texas. How many people did evacuate from their homes. Even more, many Africa countries are suffering from lack of foods in terms of food crisis and 5,000 children is dying in a day by lack of clear water in Africa.

The tsunami struck in Thailand on December 26, 2004

In our class, we made our own blogs in order to show our opinions about concepts that we went over. What I’d like to say is this is the good start that we recognize how environment is getting worse and worse. Simply, we just made our own page, however, I do not think this is just simple. This is a spark that we start to change the world. This is the history that we start to change people. This is what our generation has to do for next generation.

Tropical Hurricane Ike in Texas on September 13, 2008

What I do for environment is that I do use plastic bottled waters, try not to make much garbage, ride a bike instead of transportations, and recycle the papers, like using scrap papers.

Lastly, I am really concerning about the food crisis in the world. When I read an article two years ago, it said honey bees were gone. Therefore, there would not be fertilizations between insects and plants, so no more plants!

P.S.: I chose a definition of environment, the 6 questions, and the blog from my brainstorming.

The First Comment since the world c r e a t e d...

Let's get some celebration by myself....for my blog...!!!

Woo~

I am not a blogger, or computer geek either,

but,

I will try to show my opinions about everything that I consider,

and,

I ask you guys to leave some comments about my thoughts...

Ready?