Ron Artest Wins Citizenship Award?

http://www.nba.com/2011/news/features/scott_howard_cooper/04/28/lakers-ron-artest-change-game-6-setup/?ls=iref:nbahpt1

http://newsone.com/entertainment/sports-entertainment/casey-gane-mccalla/ron-artest-wins-nba-citizenship-award/

http://www.lakersnation.com/ron-artest-wins-nba-citizenship-award/2011/04/26/

Ron Artest wins NBA citizenship award.  I literally double took when this popped up on my home screen.  I truly do not like basketball and I honestly do not know much about the players or teams which makes this award for him even crazier.  Even with my lack of knowledge about the NBA I still know a few things about Ron Artest.  He is infamously known for the NBA player who went into the stands and started a brawl with a fan who threw a drink at him.  Yeah that would be frustrating for sure, but you get paid millions of dollars, the price you  have to pay is to sit back and take stuff like that.  Once you become a professional athlete you instantly become a role model and unfortunately every move you make is being watched.  On another “Ron Artest” moment in history he is known for is smashing a television monitor at Madison Square Garden.  One piece of information that was news to me is that he asked for time off so he could promote his album.  Now that we have a little background information about Ron Artest now we can see where I was very shocked to read that he had won this award. 

The citizenship award honors a player or coach for outstanding service and dedication to the community.  Granted Ron Artest in his recent years, post-brawls and outbursts, has seemed to exemplify these qualities.  The major word in the description is dedication, which to me means over time exemplified, not just in the past couple of years.  Also just giving money away does not mean you are an outstanding citizen. 

He has recently indulged his time, efforts, and money into the community.  More than likely mostly money.  Ron Artest raffled off his championship ring for $650,000 which will be given to mental-health charities along with his recent pledge to give out his entire 2011 salary of 6.79 million.   He has been advocating mental health issues and has donated millions of dollars to charities that associate with these issues.  Don’t get me wrong I think it’s great that the money went to these charities, because well not many things can function properly without money.  My main point to all this is that I’ll be honest I do not think they picked the right person for this award. 

On the other hand, this may be the way the National Basketball association wants to kind of give Artest a pat on the back and let him know that they recognize his efforts to change.  I am not saying that people cannot change, because I hundred percent think that they can, and to be honest I have no idea if Ron Artest has changed or not.  He may doing all of these things on his own will, and if so that is great.  I still do not feel that at this point in time he was the right pick for this award, but hey what do I know? Ha

The End is Near

I could not be more excited for summer to come.  Although I will be working, maintaining my internship hours, and taking two classes I am just ready to be home and under the sun.  I plan to spend most of my off time in a swim suit soaking up the sun!  I could go on for a while about my excitement but I still have a few things to finish up with before I leave Joplin for the summer…wow that sounds GREAT!

I just stayed up all night and studied for thirteen straight hours for my organic test which took me two hours.  I have really enjoyed that class and at one point in time almost switched my major to pharmacy, but it is definitely a tough course.  One of my favorite classes so far though. 

Here I go rambling again in order for me to figure out what all I have left.  In anatomy I have one more lab practical, a paper summary, and a final! Not too bad at all! In organic I have home work assignments, a quiz, and a final.  On my computer information systems class….well I do not really know what I have left for that.  I have not been a big fan of that class all semester! I have a paper for this class and a couple more wonderful blogs to be written.  International terrorism I have a couple more quizzes, a test, and an exam!  Does not seem so bad!

Finals week will be a blast I am sure! Once that is over I am homeward bound and could not be any more excited for my 21^st birthday, May 30^th!  That Friday I am renting a party bus and headed to downtown St. Louis to have my first sip of alcohol…EVER, or something like that!

I have been on a party bus before and let me tell you, well worth the money! It is a safe trip to where ever you want to go, and not only is it a ride it is a party on wheels! Then you get dropped off right in front of your destination and when ever you are ready to leave you just call up the bus driver who picks you up right in front and takes you to the next place you desire.  After it is all said and done the bus takes you safely home, mind you still with all your friends!  The bus drops you off where ever you want to and that is it.  The last party bus I was on was $25 a person.  I would have spent fifty or even a hundred it was that much fun. 

I hope my party bus goes just as smoothly! Let the count down begin.  Five weeks, eleven hours, and fifty six minutes….but who is counting!

Good luck to everyone with their finals.  Only a couple weeks left!!

Rambling blog

When I have nothing else to write about I just end up writing out my schedule for the upcoming days.  I am sure it is boring for every one else to read but it actually helps me get more organized.  I have just a few more things to get finished until I am headed home for the first time since January!  I could NOT be more excited!!!

We were supposed to have a game last night against Missouri State but it was supposed to storm in Springfield, not sure if it ever did or not, so our game got canceled.  Leaving me with lots of free time last night, which was a very weird feeling.  Our game last night was supposed to be the last one for the spring season, but they rescheduled it for next Tuesday.  Due to NCAA rules you are only allotted a certain amount of practices for the spring season.  Well since we thought that yesterday was our last game we had used up all but one of our mandatory practices leaving us with no opportunity to practice the rest of this week.  This has allowed me to go home earlier than I thought, so I am not too upset about it.  After my last class today at one I will be writing a lab report until four. At four we have weights, which is not considered practice.  After weights we have an optional practice, since it can not actually be enforced.  After practice I will go straight to work until 9.  After work I am headed home to pack and get a few other home work assignments finished.  Tomorrow I have class at 9 and 1 and then I am St. Louis bound.  It is about a four hour drive and I can NOT wait to get home.  Luckily I have been able to see my parents twice because they have come to Joplin for games, but there is nothing better than sleeping in your own bed and being at home. 

On Friday I have to go up to where I work during the summer and fill out a few papers because this summer I am going to be the manager at our local pool, yeah I am big time now. Ha After that I am going to get my hair cut and just RELAX all weekend. 

This Easter will be a little different than most because this will be the first Easter that I spend with out my sister.  She graduated from Missouri State in December and headed straight to Chicago.  She was very lucky to receive a job as an accountant right out of college.  Since she is a big girl now she is unable to get off work and make it home.  Even though I am twenty I am sure that my mom will still hide my easter basket and enjoy watching me hunt it down.  Unfortunately I will not have my 24 year old sister to help me and complain about it.  Hope everyone has a great Easter break!

Origin of 4/20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/420_(cannabis_culture)

www.huffingtonpost.com/.../04/20/what-420-means-the-true-s_n_188320.html

parentingteens.about.com/cs/marijuana/a/420meaning.htm

The atmosphere of today may seem a little off today.  The air may have a different or stronger scent than normal.  The clouds may be hanging a bit lower and the air in front of you may be a little hazy.  Well the reason for these changes would be because today is 4/20.  Over time this day has become the national smoke weed day.  I do not smoke, but it was not until today when I was thinking about what to write about that I became interested in learning about where the term 4/20 originated. 

It is common knowledge amongst most people my age that the term 420 is associated with marijuana whether you partake in this activity or not.  Today when I was sitting in class and someone made a reference to 420 I started to think where did this come from? Who decided that on 4/20 that would be the national smoke weed day and how did they come up with this day? 

Well I did some research and I hope my Mom does not check my browsing history because it would appear to her that I am a “pot head” which is far from the truth.  I just am taking interest in history, she should be proud, right?

Well the information I gathered was pretty broad.  Some say that 420 originated because that is the day that Bob Marley died when in fact Bob Marley died in May.  Others say 420 comes from the code that cops have come up with when communicating amongst themselves that marijuana is present.  This is also false because a code 420 has not been coined for all police officers, although some may use it. 

What seems to be the origination of the term 420 is that in 1971 a group of highschoolers in California were on a mission to find an abandon cannabis, marijuana, crop.  They would meet every day outside their school by a Louis Pasteur statue on campus.  They would meet here every day at 4:30 to discuss their plans.  It originally started off as “4:20 Louis”, but after their failed attempts to find this abandon crop field it soon turned into just 420.  The coined this term and soon realized this was a way to talk about marijuana right in front of their teachers, parents, and anyone else of importance. 

Apparently 4:20pm has become a social accepted hour of the day for people to smoke marijuana. 

On this day, across the country many gather to celebrate this “holiday”.  In San Francisco many gather at the Golden Gate Park.  Tallahasse Florida is the number two pot smoking city in the United States. 

Every year in Boulder, Colorado a large group at the University of Colorado gathers to consume cannabis.  In 2008, 10,000 people attended and in 2009 they well surpassed this mark.   This seems like a crazy amount of people.  Campus and local police have tried to stop this, but the crowd keeps getting bigger every year. 

Although I do not partake in this activity it was interesting to learn the history behind it and the crazy amounts of people that gather to celebrate. 

Misconceptions

http://www.digital-doc.com/misconceptions.htm

http://www.life123.com/health/alternative-medicine/chiropractic/common-misconceptions-about-chiropractic-care.shtml

www.fortcollinschiropractor.org/3-Common-Misconceptions-on-Chiropractic-Care.html -

As soon as I read our topic  for our next paper I instantly knew what my paper was going to be about.  In the past couple of months I have been going back and forth on if Chiropractic is really what I want to do for the rest of my life.  I know for sure two things: I want to do something involved in science and I want to do something related to sports and or athletes. 

What is making my decision tough lately is that my parents are Chiropractors as well.  In NO WAY have they ever made me feel like I have to follow in their footsteps in any way shape or form.  I was drawn to their profession throughout growing up around it. I love the holistic approach and the alternative methods from surgery and serious drugs.  I am not against surgery, but only when it is necessary and all other less drastic approaches have been examined beforehand.  Back to my reasons for second guessing my choice…I worry that because I have only grown up around Chiropractors and their methods of healing that maybe in a sense I have been sheltered from other approaches and I am unfortunately biased. 

Lately I have heard more negative things about Chiropractors and their methods than ever before.  I wonder if I will be able to continue with something that is so misconceived and downgraded by many.  So I am on a mission to find out the misconceptions and learn a little bit more about Chiropractors and their methods and philosophy.  Hopefully by the end of all this I will be solid in my decision either way!

Common misconceptions that I have gathered in my quick research have not all been new information for me but some of which have. 

1.)    Chiropractors can ONLY treat spine or back problems: Well I know firsthand that this is not true without even having to do any research.  My parents have helped me with sinus issues, headaches, and ear infections.  Many of the ways that Chiropractors address these issues is through manipulation of the spine.  Patients also visit Chiropractors for joint pain and arthritis. 

2.)    Chiropractors thing they can cure cancer:  I have never heard my parents or any of their friends claim that they can cure cancer or any type of disease for that matter.  With every profession there are black sheep.  People that give a bad reputation for others because of their bogus claims.  I have heard many issues of mal-practice from Doctors of medicine so they are no angels either. 

3.)    Once you go in for one appointment, the chiropractor will tell you that you have to keep coming back for the rest of your life: Like I stated before within every profession there are people that give a bad reputation for everyone else involved.   One of the many reasons I was drawn to Chiropractic was because of my Mom’s ethical way of practicing.  Her main focus is to get her patients better as soon and as well as possible.  I am sure that there are Chiropractors out there that abuse their knowledge and make patients feel they must continue to come back to still receive these results.  I can only learn from their mistakes and run my practice differently.

Just in this short time of researching I have already learned a lot and I will continue to do so and hopefully get a little plan for my future!

LIMITED TIME OFFER!!

FEEL FREE TO SKIP THIS FIRST SECTION AND HEAD TO THE GOOD PART!!

As I have written about before in previous blogs, I play soccer here for Missouri Southern and I love it!  Every year we fundraise to make money for our program.  It always sounds like such a good idea, but when it actually comes down to selling the stuff it becomes quite difficult to actually fundraise.  Ha ha.  I have always thought of myself as someone who speaks very well.  Writing, not so much my thing, but make a speech to someone about anything I have a ton of confidence in myself in that area.  With that said, when our soccer team was told to sell ornaments last winter I thought with my people skills and silly sales techniques I could sell what I was asked of and more!! Ha.  Boy was I wrong.  It was a lot harder than I thought. I always feel bad about catching people one on one and putting them on the spot about buying something that in no way benefits them and I am sure deep down they do not want any part of it.  I never want to make any one feel obligated to buy from us, so in return I just hit up my parents and close relatives.  Well that has not gotten me any way especially this year when our team has been asked to sell ONE OF A KIND Missouri Southern glass mugs!! Boy have these things become a pain in the neck.  When we first started selling in December we did not have an individual quota to meet, but now that it is April and we still have a lot of mugs left to sell each person on our team has been told they must sell 16 mugs.  We must return $160 to our coach by next Friday no matter if we sell them all or not.  Basically if we do not sell all 16 mugs, the rest comes out of our pockets….ouch!!

Sooooooooo….that leads me into this: 

Missouri Southern Women’s soccer team is selling GENUINE, ONE OF A KIND, EXCLUSIVE glass mugs around campus.  Get your hands on one of these mugs, because boy are they going quick!!  If you buy a mug in the next week you will be able to fill it up with water at any one of our participating water fountains on campus…..FOR FREE!!!!!  I know I know crazy offer!  But if you want to get really crazy and buy more than one mug, I bet I could cut you a deal and sell you 4…count em 4 mugs for only $35! Sounds like a steal to me.  Let me know you if you are interested in supporting MSSU Women’s soccer and I will be more than happy to sell you one. 

Also another little offer I have which may be more beneficial for you is we are also selling Missouri Southern shirts and sweatshirts.  If you are interested in any one of these limited time offers let me know!!

Ask for $300,000,000, then play like $300,000,000!

http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/stats/sortable_player_stats.jsp?statType=1&teamPosCode=sln&subScope=teamCode&c_id=stl&section1=1&noHighlight=true&timeFrame=1&statSet1=1&timeSubFrame=2011&&sortByStat=H

http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/schedule/index.jsp?c_id=stl

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/albert_pujols/

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how Albert Pujols was asking for three hundred million dollars for ten years.  I gave reasons why he should be given this amount and why parts of this contract should be changed. 

Opening day was just last Thursday against the San Diego Padres.  The Cardinals lost 3-5, where Pujols had five at bats and zero hits.  Saturday the Cardinals lost 3-11 once again against the San Diego Padres.  In this game Pujols had four at bats, two hits, one home run, and one RBI.  That is the last time we have seen a hit from Pujols since.  On Sunday the Cardinals finally brought home a win where Albert Pujols went 0-4 hitting.  Last night the Cardinals lost again, this time to the Pitsburg Pirates 3-4.  Once again Albert Pujols went 0-3.  Did all this contract talk go to his head?

I am still an avid Pujols and St. Louis Cardinal fan, but I have always said that it is sad to see players get caught up in the money aspect of professional sports.  I fully agreed they should get paid well, and if you are a huge part of any team there is no reason why you should not get paid the most.  What I do not agree with is getting paid outrageous amounts of money or simply not attending training camps until someone gives you the ridiculous amounts of money that you are asking for. 

Even though Albert Pujols has gone 2-16 in their first four games that should not take away from any of his other accomplishments that he has made since he has been in St. Louis.  All players go through rough patches.

On the other hand, if you are going to claim that you deserve three hundred million dollars for ten years you better be able to back that up.  Back it up with hits, homeruns, or at least RBIs.  Right now Pujols is averaging .125.  His career high is .331. 

This is very early in the season and he could quickly come out of this slump.  This year Albert is playing with a lot of pressure.  He has pressure from the fans of St. Louis constantly questioning his future with the Cardinals.  Pujols is feeling the heat from the franchise.  They are going to be watching him extremely hard this year.  His performance will determine their ultimate decision on whether to grant his proposal or not.  Along with those pressures, Pujols is placing a lot of pressure on himself.  He has to perform well in order to even have a chance for the franchise to accept his offer.  He also has to prove to the fans of St. Louis that he wants to be here and will do what it takes to stay.

It is only four games into regular season play, and a lot can change.  Cleary Pujols has not started out on the right foot, and definitely his play has not proven that he desires three hundred million.  Once he relaxes a bit I know he will be right back into the old outstanding Pujols that brings millions of fans to Busch Stadium every day!

Costly Prints

Until the fall of 2010, the cost of prints on campus was free.  Whether you were printing in color or black and white students were held at no cost or limits.  I am sure this was costly for the University.  Some students took major advantage of this access and printed endless amounts of junk.  This abuse of student’s printing privileges forced the University to implement a new printing policy.  The University took a dramatic step and is now charging fifty cents for every colored print and ten cents for every black and white print.  This is a pretty drastic change for most students at Missouri Southern.  I feel that on top of the increased cost of tuition and the new recreation activity fee this is just unnecessary added cost.  Students are already paying for their class, within in this fee should include access to printing the notes required for the class at no added cost.  If each power point is twenty pages long and you are required to print off a new one for every lecture that is two dollars per class period.  Multiply that number by the number of times an average student has that class a week, three, and in just one week you are spending six dollars.  Now let’s multiply that number by four, the average number of classes a student is enrolled in a semester, and the cost for one week of printing notes is twenty four dollars.  Multiply this number by the number of weeks in a semester and you have soon found yourself paying an extra three hundred dollars on prints for your classes.

I honestly never realized how expensive this new policy was until I was writing my practical proposal paper.  I do feel that within the cost of tuition that each student pays for each class should come with access to their notes required for that class.  Whether the teacher prints them out of each student, which is probably an inconvenience for the teacher, or the students have access to free prints to obtain these notes required. 

I never thought about the inability for students to be able to afford this new cost.  Some students already are up to their neck in loans for school.  Any extra money goes to their cost of living and food.  Telling these students that they must now pay for each print may turn them away from printing out this information.  If this information is not printed out they are in return jeopardizing their academics. 

I feel the University should look for a more appealing way to keep them financially stable, but also keep the interests of students first and for most.  I am sure that the school is trying to make up for all the money they probably lost when prints were free, but they should start looking for a new way to keep the students happy.

After writing my practical proposal paper for our third paper I realized I might actually turn in my proposal and get this shananigains fixed.