How To Reach Others Part 1

Lets all say it all together - our world is a much smaller place thanks to technology like Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Google Hangouts, Skype, and our cell/smart-phones. While the format might be small you can open a blogger from your phone, upload pictures of yourself, post to the internet, and let people you care about know about things that matter to you. Still, this proposal can seem like a veritable whale to eat all by yourself. How can you best reach others? How can you make the best use of your technological abilities?

5-Hour Experiment at UT Tyler

I’m sure by now most of you have sat through one of those 5-hour Energy commercials or at least seen an advertisement for it in a newspaper, a magazine, etc. And I’m sure by now most of you have tried one and learned of its hidden power. However, I have not. So today when I went into the call center I decided to try one and see the effects it had on my work.

Malala

   I’d like to take a moment here in this blog to discuss something very important about what this “project” (ie: student blogging) allows us as students to experience: freedom, specifically out freedom of expression within the confines of a public university.

I am going to discuss this because ( in case you have not heard about her on the news ) we have a remarkable fellow blogger-in-spirit by the name of Malala Yousufzai. She was recently shot in her home region of Swat in Pakistan.  She has become famous not for her assault, but rather for her actions that lead to the Taliban of the region to attack her in the first place. You see, Malala had a blog, a blog where she encouraged the young women of Pakistan to seek the education they deserve.

This did not sit well with the local Taliban and so they shot her on the way to school. She is currently being the subject of a great medical effort to provide her with the care she will need to survive, both in Pakistan and now in Britain.

A picture of Malala Yousufzai

   As Americans we enjoy a great many freedoms, one of the biggest being in that we have a great range of ways and mediums with which to speak our minds. As students, we at the University of Texas at Tyler Student Blogging Team are able to use this freedom to inform you of the educational benefits offered you by this state, the employees of the University of Texas system, and the wonderful people who work here at UT Tyler.

When you read our blogs and comment, you ( as students or even as foreigners to American soil ) are engaging in our dialogue. By accepting outside opinions, or controversy, or  issues and discussing them openly, we are all adding to one of the things that makes the internet a true marvel. We use to broaden our minds, to seek new avenues of thought we might have dismissed previously, and we certainly use it for humor.

   Still, this freedom we to blog and discuss that are using is not available in other countries. When I hear about the difficulties that Malala went through to even start her blog ( let alone to have the courage to write what she has in it ) I feel proud to do what I do here on the Student Blog Team, even if sometimes our posts as are silly as they are serious.

   To all who read out blog and comment – thank you

   To all who have blogs of your own and bravely post about injustices or your lives – thank you

   To all who allow us here to maintain our blog(s) with the freedom we do – thank you

   To Malala – thank you, too. Thank you for speaking out. Thank you for being brave.

Writing, or ... THAT STUFF I HATE! Pt. 1

Procrastination, Perfectionism, and Pretentiousness – As once said by C. Montgomery Burns, these are the Three Demons you must slay if you wish to be good at business. Okay, so he was talking fictitiously about BUSSINESS, not Writing, and his Demons are not the ones in the clip … but it was a good excuse to bring in Burns. Anyway, the idea however of slaying metaphorical demons to succeed is not “new” ( thanks, Evangrius! ) so I have qualified some slayable-monsters that I think might get in the way of what is a genuine success at the art of writing … writing ANYTHING, really.

2012 Bucket List

Today I went to lunch with some friends from one of my many jobs I have had while in college! It was amazing to spend time with people who I have not seen or talked to in a while. While we were at lunch one of my new friends (we met today) asked us all what was on our bucket list for this year. I was seriously stumped. I had no idea what I wanted to accomplish with my life this year. So after much more deliberation, I have limited it down to my top ten and I decided to share this list with all of you!

My Bucket list for 2012:

1    1.       Do something adventurous everyday

2    2.       Get another tattoo

3    3.       Make new friends

4    4.       Help someone do something really cool

5    5.       Take more pictures

6    6.       Learn Spanish

7    7.       Expand my musical horizons

8    8.       Get a ride on a motorcycle

9    9.       Go mountain biking and NOT fall

1    10.   Save up enough money to buy clothes!

All of this being said there is a chance that I won’t achieve any of these goals. But, that’s ok with me. It is college and college is like a free pass to take time to figure out who you are. It’s like for these four years society gives us a “get out of jail free” card. So I want to take this time to explore myself and figure out what I am passionate about and what I enjoy doing. I have joined this online site which is kind of like living social (I am sure you have all seen these commercials). It’s called Moolala. I personally think this is a really weird name but I get all sorts of deals on it like a trip to the Caribbean for like 200 dollars and a diamond bracelet for like 15 dollars! It’s pretty awesome! I am hoping that this site or maybe a site like it will help me achieve some of these goals, like the buying clothes goal. Who knows maybe it will give me a discount motorcycle ride! Any tips are always welcome and I am excited to share this with yall!