Week 12: Eating a Delicious Coconut Truffle and Writing Poetry About Accounting

Alrighty roosky. last blog post; let's get to it:
Last week Dr. Barry Morris came and visited us to tell us about wise investing and how that can possibly tie into civic engagement. Generally I'm skeptical about people other than my padre giving me economic advice, however, this guy has a Ph.D. and spent 35 years in the economics department here at UNA, so I was willing to listen.

I like money you see...I'm a penny pincher; I want to have a lot of money some day so I can worry about one less thing in life...So I listened :-)

Dr. Morris started off by telling us that when it comes to finances and civic service. Basically the government (federal and state) needs to be mutually and fiscally strong in order to help others. I can understand that from a financial point of view; but it also holds true to cases of morality. Generally a dedicated server should set an example as a morally strong person, who serves for the right reasons. With this idea in mind, he went on to talk to us about how to go about serving. The key, he explains, is to "begin with the end in mind." There are 23 boards in this city; if you were to step into any one of these board meetings, you would find that everyone has some sort of goal in mind set. Once the goals are set, then we can work to how we want to attain it, and if the government is mutually and fiscally strong, then that shouldn't be a problem, right?

Finals week is metaphorically smashing my head in with a rock. I hope this final post is substantial. It's more boring than my others probably...Don't worry I'll have a video (or two) at the end I want to show you!

I miss Stokehold.

On to this cool little handout Dr. Morris gave us. The contents of this handout revealed how to be a millionaire without winning the lottery. See that second paragraph up there? The one where it says "I like money you see?" I like the theory behind this handout by relation. It starts off with the advice to not put money in to a new car after college. Assuming a student were to pay 25,000 dollars (a little steep for a college grad if you ask me, but I'll go with it for this example), you could potentially invest that 25,000 and build it into 2 million...That sounds nice for someone with not 2 million to put to his name. Then make a budget. This ties into begin with the end in mind. What do you want? I want to invest responsibly so I can continue to live a comfortable lifestyle. That's definitely something worth working for. Taking advantage of 401K and IRA are responsible budget managing tasks. Then have a cash reserve for emergencies; again, begin with the end in mind.

The big thing to understand is that we don't have to get everything ready now; we can manage it throughout our lives. I'm not expecting to be living the same lifestyle I have been blessed with under my parents' care. But I'm confident that I can work to get that for myself

Alright now that I'm done watch my new commercials for the hot new men's cologne, Chartreuse Gi'deuche!
Bye bye.

Week 11: Yeah I'm Doing This on Thanksgiving

Well technically I'm blogging on Black Friday since it's 1 in the morning now, but yeah I'm doing work on Thanksgiving; someone should give me a dedication medal. I have way too much on my plate right now and little motivation to start anything, so I'm taking this one step at a time. The easiest thing I can do right now is tell you about this past Monday's speaker, Tom Osbourne--the emeritus civic engagement deacon guy.

I was on the fence about the content of this, well for lack of a better word "informal lecture." Basically he talked to us about the same ideals we've been discussing all semester from a different perspective. Dr. Osbourne first addressed the idea of reluctance to us when it comes to civic service. He told us that he had been pushed into doing volunteer work his whole life, which goes to show you that reluctance to do community service is human nature. He told us that we won't lose the reluctance, but if we volunteer enough we can learn to overcome it. I can believe that.

Here's where I started to diverge. Dr. Osbourne is/was a deacon of an Episcopal church; their job is to serve as a mediator between the church and the rest of the world. One way he fulfills this job is by doing prison ministry (the name of the program is called Kairos [which means special time]). In this prison ministry program the ministry spend three days with prisoners and nurture them. Dr. Osbourne labels he and his ministry buddies "Kairos Junkies" because of the rush and transformation they get from the experience.

Here's my problem; I heard way too much emphasis being put on how great the server feels when performing service. I don't really want to hear that. I'd much rather hear emphasis on how those being served feel. With the theme of Thanksgiving in mind I feel right now that I have so much to be thankful for already. I don't wish to flip the idea of community service to an angle which puts my own personal gain at the forefront. I like the idea of performing community service because it fulfills something in others, no matter how small that may be, because that seems much more significant than what I get out of it. It's kind of a humility-themed profession.

Anyways that's my spiel. I didn't know spiel was an actual word, but I'm not getting the red squiggly underline that misspelled words get on word documents. Cool.

Here's something I made....watch it

Bye Bye.

Week 10: Things Blur Together

I was told once that when you study something from multiple sources to the point where everything starts to sound exactly the same, only then have you fully educated yourself. So ten weeks of honors forum have passed and things are starting to blur together.

Of course it's not like I haven't been educated on things such as community service and its significance in the past; I'm just noting key concepts that each speaker is telling me week after week. Having said that let me tell you what Immediate Past President of Rotary Club John Rusevlyan talked about last Monday.

The first thing he pointed out was that he did not yell at us. I don't remember the context of that comment exactly, but it was the first thing I wrote down in my notes. I guess that means he's a nice guy. He talked a little bit about colleges transitioning into Division 1, and how it results in higher expectations all across the board (whether that be in academia, athletics, and community service). Yes community service is important (1st concept that's blurring together).

I went to Einstein Bros. to get a cup of soup and they were out. I was very upset. I think this was fate reminding me that I should finish my volunteer hours...perhaps I could work at a soup kitchen.

So Mr. Rusevlyan then went on to talk about Rotary Club; It was started in 1905 by Paul Harris. He created it so men could gather for fellowship, and thus the world's first service club was born. Today there are over 33,000 clubs in over 200 countries. The club's responsibilities include sustaining and increasing membership, participating in service projects, supporting the rotary foundation financially, and developing leaders capable of serving beyond club level. The object of Rotary is to encourage success, high ethical standards in professions, application of service ideals in personal business and community life, and the advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace (everybody get along and better themselves = 2nd concept that's blurring together)

The local Rotary club here in the Shoals area are investing in a project called Shoals Scholar Dollars, where every high school student in Colbert/Lauderdale County with a 2.5 GPA and a sunny disposition get 2 years of paid tuition at Northwest Shoals Community College. I think they should raise that GPA personally if they want to achieve something like that, maybe at least to 3.0 Oh well.

The last thing Mr. Rusevlyan told us was to answer 4 questions before we thing, say, or do anything.
1) Is it true?
2) Is it fair?
3) Will it build goodwill and friendships?
4) Is it beneficial to all concerned?

One thing I've learned is that you can't always answer those four questions they way they should ideally be answered. But that's life

TWELVE FOOT NINJA'S NEW ALBUM CAME OUT!! :-D

Bye Bye.

 

Week 9: My Left Arm is Falling Asleep

So basically the entire left side of my body is in a state of complete physical discomfort. I'm in desperate need of a nap. I think I'm just going to sleep all through Thanksgiving; I deserve it for being such a hard worker and whatnot.

But there is still much work to be done before the holidays next week, so no sleep for me.

The Honors program was visited by Dr. Vince Brewton last Monday to discuss the Red Cross. Now Dr. Vince Brewton is not in charge of this Red Cross organization; however he is in charge of the ever-so illustrious Honors program, so I trusted his word on the subject. Anyways, he told us that the Red Cross is pretty much the jack-of-all trades organization for disaster relief, charity, and health related causes. Currently they are busy with Hurricane Sandy clean up efforts. I just found out that you can change the font on this. The Red cross arrives on the scene of a disaster and writes checks for people who need to stay in hotels if their homes were destroyed. Isn't that cool? That's a very nice thing for an organization to do I would say.

I need to step back a minute and explain why it was Dr. Brewton who talked about the Red Cross instead of an assigned speaker. Basically she had to reschedule. My memory is a bit fuzzy on the details of the beginning of this conversation but I believe that her absence led Dr. Brewton into addressing the question, "why do selfish people quit their volunteer jobs?" Just from typing that I realize that there's a big gap in the connection between the Red Cross speaker not showing up and the addressing of aforementioned question.
But the answer to that question was simple enough: High work rate and low pay rate. The moral of that story is that you shouldn't be a selfish person in a selfless organization. Hang in there even if the work rate sucks, because selfless organizations strive to make a difference for the betterment of a local or global area; they don't exist for the sole purpose of giving you a good resume.

You wanna watch a video about caring? Let's see if I can find one. I need a little break from typing because my left arm is still in discomfort

This is what happens when you are selfish....people get angry, simple as that.
In this video the selfish fish (or rather the selFISH) saw in the pocket of the tea party coordinator something that could benefit the whole tea party. However, The tea party coordinator refused to just let the selfish partake in the juicy fruit. Everyone else in the tea party need Juicy Fruit too (even though the rest of the party have yet to show up in need of delicious chewing gum) The point I'm making is that there is no room for selfishness in volunteer work.

Last fun fact I'm going to post about Red Cross before I sign off. The Red Cross has different names based on where they are in the world to account for other religions. They are also known as the Red Crescent (Islam) and the Red Diamond (Judaism). Cool huh?

I need to get some volunteer hours too. I'm off to find out where I'm going to go do that.

Bye bye.

  

Week 8: Something Actually Piqued My Interest

So honors forum finally had a guest speaker that talked about a form of civil service I was interested in. I addressed Heritage and the Main Street volunteer groups in my first week of bloggery, and after listening to our last week's speaker, Bradley Dean, I realized those might not necessarily tie into the platform I had in mind. However, I thought of something I could do in relation to my platform that Mr. Dean mentioned. I'll get to that in a minute, but here's pretty much the content of the class.

My girlfriend is gorgeous. You should be jealous.

That wasn't part of the lecture, it's just a personal observation. Anyways Bradley Dean is the art and digital design director at Billy Reid. He received an education at UNA with a major in art and a minor in entrepreneurship (my recently declared minor). One piece of advice that he gave us was to take the extra steps needed to be exceptional in your career. An education is always a benefit, but taking the time to learn new things on your own that aren't taught in a classroom. That way you can be unique in your career path. Billy Reid has been a success as far as being unique goes; everything is controlled from Florence: The warehouse, the customer service, the shipping, design, etc. It's all done in Florence. Billy Reid is also taking that step into being unique by trying to make shirts from organic cotton (by that I mean none of the process of making the t-shirts involves anything artificial). By being unique we can make changes to where we live. So how do we go about doing that?

First we can make changes to where we live through work. That refers back to the organic cotton processing. Second, we can change where we live through social interactions outside of work. That means civic service. Keeping a watchful eye on the things that go on around the town you live in and guiding the direction of the town in a responsible way is what we can do to make an impact.

Back to my new idea for platform related community service

So I like music. Who doesn't right? Anyways Bradley Dean got to mentioning the music committee on First Fridays...I got to thinking that volunteering for that could be my contribution to the community that would be related to my platform. Also I got to thinking that a photography or video related internship at Billy Reid would be the cat's pajamas, as the saying goes. Just a thought anyways.

Time to sleep.

Week 7: Cliques

So I'm typing this sentence on a Monday at 7:36 p.m. I got out of Honors Forum 46 minutes ago...47 minutes ago now. Basically I just spent 50 minutes of my life listening to someone talk up a volunteer program that I can't even be a part of; I can't be a part of this program because I'm a guy, but even if I wasn't a guy, I could only get into the program if I was invited to join by a member. This program that I'm speaking of is The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. Our speaker tonight was a current sustaining member of AJLI, Leslie Tomlinson (I think that's how you spell it).

Basically I learned that the League was started up by a New York debutante named Mary Harriman in 1901. By 1921, there were 30 groups of young women across the US whose goals were to provide support, guidance, and leadership development opportunities. However, there were limitations to who could be allowed into the Junior League. The same thing happened today. I heard someone joking right after class saying it seemed like an out-of-college sorority. Today there are 293 Leagues across the US, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom, with over 155,000 members. The Junior League strives to promote volunteerism, develop the potential  of women, and improve communities. In reality they address the critical needs of a community, meet women where they are as it relates to their volunteer opportunities, and they network. Hmm.. I think it's time to post a video

However, I did find something of use in this class. I discovered that networking is a recurring theme when it comes to community service. Local networking is a great start because it can stretch out to larger networking between states, and can eventually become global. The Junior League is in a major transformation today, with over 7,000 volunteer hours in the last year and over $60,000 distributed to 30 plus Shoals area agencies. I've been practicing networking a little bit by introducing myself to some speakers and people that I have an interest in as far as community service goes.

That's pretty much all that I have to say for this blog. Time for some WoW (World of Wings, not Warcraft).

Week 6: How to Preserve History

As the title for this week's blog implies, I have recently discovered the way I shall use volunteerism to fulfill my platform of preserving culture/history. A couple of days ago I filled out a volunteer application to work at the library in downtown Florence. I see two ways I can preserve history at the library: first, all books are documents of history; second, I recently talked to someone about starting a video production program at the library maybe next semester. I think that teaching kids about video production would be a good way to volunteer my time at the library that could teach future filmmakers how to preserve history (through video of course).

Moving on to last week's speaker, the Honors Forum was visited by Mr. Jackie Hendrix, the chairman of the Shoals Chamber of Commerce. I'll admit I was going through one of those "who am I?" crises that young adults go through so I was a bit spaced out during his address to the class, but I took some good notes regardless. The idea that he brought to our attention most throughout his speech though was to get out in the community and NETWORK. See how I put that in bold? That's because it's an important thing to do. Networking involves getting out into the community and making connections with people. Depending on which kinds of people you network with, this can help you get jobs or improve a resume. Mr. Hendrix also made us aware of something called the 80/20 rule. It states that 20% of people involved in something do 80% of the work. Getting involved in community service and being a major contributor to that service is very important as well. So the next question that was brought up was, "How do we make time to get involved?"

Mr. Hendrix's answer to that was to not have children; Okay I'm on that boat with him, but I also have many school affiliated things that I'm involved with on top of 18 hours of class this semester. Fortunately the library that I signed up to volunteer for works around my schedule. This speaker reiterated what all the other speakers told us about civil service--that it's the socially responsible thing to do.

Networking can also help find commonalities and raise a level of comfort among persons in the community. However, becoming too comfortable with someone may lead to a bias known as Peter's Principle; Peter's principle entails the promotion of a likable person to the level of incompetence. We need to watch out for that when networking.

The last piece of advice Mr. Hendrix gave to us was to "keep showing up to the party." Basically don't give up or quit your civic service.

Time to go do more work...we'll see how that library service thing turns out; I'm still waiting for a call back from them. Bye bye.

Week 5: Gosh Darn Mannequins

I am disappointed in the human race. Why? Because people don't vote. Seriously over half of the country did not vote in the 1996 election; the highest voter turnout of this century was 63% in 1960. Even that is still over a third of Americans being mannequins. This upsets me because it seems like so many more people have opinions on politics. You don't have a right to complain if you don't participate. Anyways I learned that little statistic from Dr. John Lane--Periodontist (I also learned that there's a difference between dentists and periodontists). He was our speaker for this week.

  
Professor Toothy helps the average non-voting citizen keep teeth nice and clean; just like Dr. Lane helps keep the base that holds teeth (like Professor Toothy) clean. But he didn't really stop by to talk about his dental career, he stopped by to talk about Civic Responsibility: A very important aspect of our society; also a very important aspect of our society that people are not doing. Dr. Lane first asked us why we were in college. I didn't voice my answer in class, but the reason I am in college is because I have a passion that I want to see fulfilled; that passion would be film making. Our speaker then proceeded to discuss the history of civic responsibility, and it turns out that the idea dates back to ancient Rome. Citizens actually wanted to contribute to the betterment of their society back then. Nowadays it's all about "what can my country do for me?" JFK told us not to ask that.

Responsible citizens participate socially in a democratic society; not to say that a person's entire existence should be for others. There should be a healthy balance between the acquisition of individual wealth and the creation of public things.

Jury duty is another thing people don't do. Only 25-40% of people actually show up when they're called for jury duty. Infuriating (it was at this point in my blog that I envisioned myself 5 years from the future calling myself a hypocrite after having recently dodged jury duty to go to a Tool concert or work or something like that).

Volunteering is another form of civic responsibility. I liked the way Dr. Lane worded this, he said something along the lines of "it's a way to say yes when you want to say no." A lot of people are hesitant to volunteering, but in the long run it proves to be more fulfilling than any material possession one can have, according to Dr. Lane. I transposed this idea to my passion for film making; I figure that providing a mass audience with a means of escape from the real world for an hour and a half to two hours could be a form of giving back to society creatively; and overall I want that in my life over a paycheck (not to say I'm not going to work hard to make a good living for myself, that would be stupid of me not to do so).

Dr. Lane then poured his heart out to our class, discussing his contributions to The Healing Place and Camp McDowell here in Florence; he didn't start contributing until his son passed away of cerebral palsy; I won't go into anymore details since that's his personal matter; but he contributed money towards the construction of a new handicap-accessible building at Camp McoDowell. This lead him to conclude that giving is more than money, but it's never less than money. He also encouraged us to use our time and talent to realize our own civic responsibility. Sounds good to me

Am I doing enough? Right now, in terms of civic responsibility, kind of. I haven't volunteered anywhere, but I work at the Writing Center here on campus; It's my first semester on the job, and I feel like I'm doing a good service to my academic community by helping to make better writers out of the students here. I plan on getting my community service hours started soon.

Seriously, why don't people vote? Is it too much of an inconvenience or something? Because I refuse to believe that half of the country just doesn't care. Maybe I'm an optimist though.

Alright I'm done. Ron Paul 2016 \m/(x_x)\m/

Week Four: Absent

Okie doke.

I was absent for last week's class. I had a prior commitment in Nashville to go see a show; however, I figured since last week's class ended 20 minutes early for people to go to a show on campus, it would only make sense for me to be able to miss a class for the same reason; the only difference is the show I went to was two and a half hours away. But I still need to get my blog updated for this week; so let's talk about Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

Seeing that I don't know exactly what the speaker talked about regarding Big Brothers Big Sisters, I'm just going to do a bit of research online and discuss the basics of the program and why it's important. So give me a minute.

[researching.....]
[researching.....]
[checking facebook.....]
[fixing a snack......]
[researching.....]

Okay after perusing www.bbbsna.org I have learned the following:

Basically the premise of Big Brothers Big Sisters is to pair a child with a role model-esque adult to help build a relationship between the two based on trust and friendship. This in turn would lead to greater future potential for the children involved; by future potential I mean that the kids involved in the program become more likely to be good students thanks to the program. A national study of the program shows that kids involved in BBBS were less likely to abuse drugs/alcohol, skip school, or exhibit violent behaviors. The big thing that matters is that the kids involved in the program actually have a caring adult in their lives, which makes a huge impact on them. BBBS has been making this impact since 1904; pretty cool right? If you think it's so cool then why don't you get involved?

Being a big brother or a big sister is--according to their website--one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling things an adult can do. You can plan any activities with your assigned little, including playing sports, hiking, reading, or just hanging out and talking. It's a pretty simple concept that does wonders for the children involved, who, without a positive adult role model in their lives, could potentially head down a bad life path. In fact, 81% of little brothers and sisters said their Bigs gave them hope and changed their perspective of what they thought was possible for them (bbbsna.org).

You can sign up to be a Big Brother or Sister on their website

That's really all that I have to say; I'm sure anyone reading this can understand the importance of this program. But I have more work that needs to be done now

Bye bye.

Week Three: Cuckoo Clocks and Playing With Babies

Alright, this blog post is about the well-being of our babies: the next generation. You may immediately ask yourself, "But Kennedy, Why have you included cuckoo clocks into your title for this week's blog post?" Don't worry, I'll get to that later.

You know what's awesome though? Educated children; What's even more awesome is that there are organizations out there in the good old U S of A that work to promote better education in children. This is where our guest speaker comes in.

Emily Baker is the Director of the Florence branch of Success by 6. Florence's SB6 was founded last October, and is a United Way program; In case you don't know United Way is a non-profit organization that works to advance the common good through better education, income, and health. Your first impression of Mrs. Baker should be that she's a pretty great lady for doing what she does. Yeah I thought that too. I'm not good with children so that kind of community service doesn't appeal to me on a high level, but I still hold respect for those who want to better our youth. More on SB6:

I was upset that Mrs. Baker's last name wasn't Barker. I was going to call her EmBark in this blog. Anyways she showed us this clip. Tonight I learned that early childhood education is a very crucial thing. If more children become well educated that would in turn lead to a break in the cycle of poverty in families as well as a solid establishment of physical and cognitive development; A physically and cognitively developed child would also promote good health. Do you see how many birds we're killing with this stone? The sad thing is that we are a long way from achieving those three goals on a wide scale. Nearly half of our Kindergarten students are behind in their education. We were also told that by the time a student is in 4th grade, their education level can determine if they will graduate high school. About 70% of 4th grade students cannot read at a basic level. Sad right? So why Success by 6? Why not 7? Apparently, 90% of a child's critical brain development occurs before 5 years old (and I say apparently because I haven't checked these statistics myself. I'm not one to just throw statistics out there that I haven't verified are true, but this was in her presentation, so don't go spouting that tidbit of information around everywhere). Success by 6 looks to solve all of these problems. But how?

Are you thinking about cuckoo clocks? Stop it I'm still talking about serious stuff here.

The answer to how seems simple enough. For one thing they encourage playtime with children. Being in friendly environments growing up benefit education! SB6 in Northwest Alabama focuses primarily on early literacy, prevention, and community education. SB6 was involved with the National Education of Young Children, (NAEYC) and the Give a Kid a Chance organizations, where they gave away books to children to promote reading.

Good stuff right? I know, I'm looking forward to a future where small children can participate in logical conversation with me. Bill Cosby and I differ in opinions when it comes to what children say. He gets a kick out of them saying the darndest things, I'd get a kick out of a 4 year old speaking profundity and philosophy. If I were to have a child I would basically want him to be the child equivalent of an Oracle; I might be setting my expectations a bit high on that one.

I'm almost done. I'll tell you about the cuckoo clocks once I've wrapped all of this up.

Mrs. Baker appealed to me about this subject through resume talk. Experience in non-profit organizations matters. I need to keep in mind that I will want to show future employers my passion through my community service experiences. Being involved in non-profits is also away to make connections in the community. She also told me to invest in a suit; that is definitely sound advice. I like suits; I feel empowered whenever I wear one.

The speakers this year seem a lot less boring than the speakers last year. I think just the general topic of service makes the guest speakers more interesting.

Alright, now I shall explain why I included the cuckoo clocks in my title. I doodle during class to help me get creative ideas. Tonight I doodled a man with elongated hands coming out of his eyes. I also drew a hole in the top of his head; in the hole, a little bird attached to a spring is popped out of the head. That got me thinking about a short film involving a man who has a cuckoo clock within his head (to symbolize insanity). The short film wouldn't be about the man though; the film would be about the bird that lives within the cuckoo clock within the insane man's head. Maybe the bird would act as a representation of the man's conscience, and the whole film would be narrated by inner monologues and he would have conversations with himself about who knows what. The working title for this story is called "Cuckoo" © This idea is original content from Thomas Kennedy Pope, created on September 17th, 2012. Posted online on September 18th, 2012 at 2:21 a.m.

I do that so I can sue Tim Burton if he stumbles upon my blog and steals my creative ideas

Bedtime. Goodnight.

Week Two: Learning about Healing and Whatnot

"You cannot not think about what you are thinking about." -- Kay Parker

Sure, I buy that.

Yes, the ever-so wise Kay Parker of the Healing Place here in Florence came and paid the Honors Forum class a visit last Monday. From 6:00 to 6:50 she talked to us about (1) Herself, (2) The Healing Place, and (3) Me! I didn't know how on earth she was going to talk about me. She didn't even know me. But then she said that quote I posted on the first line of this blog; I guess she knows at least a little bit about me. However, her exercise instructing us not to think about blank-blank (I forgot what she told us not to think about) failed on me; when she told me not to think about blank-blank, I thought about pink elephants.

 Awww How cute :-)

Remember that dream scene in Dumbo? Trippy...Anyways!

(1) About Kay Parker.

Okay, Kay Parker was voted the 2007 Shoals Woman of the Year. She studied at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. She earned a degree in education and became qualified to teach in High School. She didn't do that though (smart move, teenagers are mean people). She was a secretary for different positions, and then worked at the school of Nursing here at UNA. From there she worked on getting her masters degree. She currently runs the Healing Place here in town. She's a very nice lady. In retrospect I probably should have sat a bit closer (because she's a soft spoken woman and I couldn't hear parts of what she said), but oh well.

(2) About The Healing Place

The Hospice of the Shoals is a nonprofit hospice that was slow to start when it first opened up. After quite some time of searching for donations, United Way, along with other donations and grants, gave the hospice some start up money. The goal of the hospice is to comfort people who have experienced something tragic, and are in the grieving process. The Healing place teaches people how to cope and let out grief or pain. How does one cope, you may ask? Mrs. Parker tells us to follow these steps:

     FIRST- Be honest with yourself. Admit to yourself that you are grieving

     SECOND - Be expressive. Shout, scream, cry, all three. It'll help.

     THIRD- Be physical. Beat up your pillow, buy one of those Bobo dolls and smash it with a hammer, just        

                   don't hurt yourself (or others) in the process.

     LAST- Be aware of what is bothering you. pretty self-explanatory. How can you cope with grief if you

                 don't know what's causing it?

(3) About Me

I like talking about me. I especially like it when others people want me to talk about myself. Mrs. Parker asked us to fill in the following sentence: "Birds fly, fish swim, I ______." After two seconds of contemplation I found my answer.

"I Create."

I have this awesome project I'm going to work on over the course of this year that involves a whole bunch of chopsticks. I digress. Mrs. Parker advised us to get involved with meaningful work that improves society. The way I see myself improving society is by creative means. I'd like to make something for people. I don't know what that something is just yet, but I think I'll figure it out in time. 

It is 5:02 right now and I feel accomplished for completing two blogs now. I believe I have earned myself a food break. Bye Bye.

Week One: Picking a Platform

Alright, sophomore year is underway at the University of North Alabama, and with it marks another fall semester of Honors forum. The subject of our first week: Picking a platform.

I'll explain; this year in our honors forum class we have to do 10 to 15 hours of community service per semester. Once I have donated my 10 to 15 hours to the inclusive organization of my choice, I have to then make a final video/presentation about my experiences. In order to decide which community service organization I want to work for, I have to pick a platform--a cause that I can personally connect with. In all honesty, I never really liked the community service projects I have donated my time to in the past. I don't mind sounding like a jerk, so long as I'm an honest jerk. Having said that, I had to think about what I really cared about. The answer came to me easily enough: I really care about culture.

http://www.flickriver.com/groups/downtownflorence/pool/interesting/

Check out how awesome this town is! I came to UNA with optimism because I would be living in a town characterized by its musical history. Downtown Florence has such an old school feel to it; I want to make sure that people don't forget that.

So that's my platform as of today. I want to give my time to the town I will potentially be spending the next three years in. I'd like to make sure that no one takes the atmosphere of this town for granted, because it's quite a lovely town. I'll be getting in contact with Florence Main St. in the future to find out more information on how I can carry out my platform.

Okie doke. that's all I have to say about week one. Time to work. Bye bye.