|
|
|
We have completed the first week as an organization for IST THON and the progress is really refreshing. I hope we don’t lose steam when classes end.
But first, I’ll provide some background.
After THON this year I was reflecting on how at a IST Student Government meeting Sophomore year, we talked about how we had lost our Dancers and needed to re-focus our THON initiative to start over. Approaching the end of my Junior year, I realized we had failed again as a college to raise any money for the cause. The College of Earth and Mineral Sciences cracked the Top 10 in independent organizations, why can’t we do it too?
Enter IST THON. After talking with the Student Government, it was decided that we move forward with a new THON committee, with me as its Executive Chair. After pouring over the THON website, I called for a “meeting of the minds” to talk through what we needed to do. This brings us to Monday a week ago, where we elected a Vice-Executive Chair, a Canning Chair, a Fundraising Chair, an Inspiration Chair, a Website Chair, and an Alumni Relations Chair. We also decided to get a Faculty Advisor, a website (coming soon!) and an email for FAQs (THON@ist.psu.edu) and set a goal for how much we could feasibly raise.
$10,000
So over the summer we will be preparing for action. Designing a website, facebook fan page, logo, t shirts, a whiffle ball tournament, working with interested companies and the IST Alumni Society would be a good start I think. We can’t fund raise until the fall semester is in full swing, which gives us time to prepare, to start from scratch essentially. It looks like we have the people in place to do just that.
The key to this committee isn’t succeeding this year, it is to set in place a base that future IST THON committees can draw from, improve upon, and ensure that IST doesn’t go dormant again.
So start saving up readers! I will place a link for donations when it is created. Until then, For the Kids!
 THON Mission Statement
The mission of the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon is to conquer pediatric cancer by providing outstanding emotional & financial support to the children, families, researchers, and staff of the Four Diamonds Fund.
www.THON.org
.
Recently I came to the realization that I was out of space on the 150GB Hard Drive my Macbook came with. So I was in a bit of a pickle. Do I migrate everything to an external? Do I delete stuff? What are my options? I have old external hard drive set up as my Time Machine so I decided to head over to trusty Newegg.com and buy a new internal hard drive.
I was in luck, the 640GB Western Digital Scorpio was on sale so I made the purchase while preparing for the Super Bowl last Sunday. Tuesday afternoon rolled around and I already had my hard drive so I began this amazingly easy process. I will break it down in steps below:
Step 1: Hardware Continue reading …
Facebook only wants us to have 250 friends, or so the new update leads us to believe.
In a new setting (at least a setting that I just learned about), Facebook has limited your news feed to 250 random people you are friends with. I have roughly 524 friends, which means that I won’t see updates from more than half of the people I ‘know’ on Facebook. I didn’t choose what 250 I would see, meaning I could see updates from people I don’t care about and miss out on my best friends. There is a list of ‘Recommended Friends’ but I don’t care who they recommend, I want to see everybody!
The important part, how to get rid of it. It’s very simple. Scroll down to the bottom of your news feed and you will see an ‘Edit Options’ button. Click and on the bottom left of the screen that pops up it will say “Control how many friends you want shown in Live Feed,” tell it 5000, which is the maximum amount of friends Facebook allows you to have.
Happy Facebook-ing
Well I am entrenched in Syllabus Week (WooHoo!) and figured it was time for an update.
I have 15 credits this semester, a pretty normal workload for the normal student. While I am doing way more work than in Fall 2009, it is still a slower semester for me. I am taking:
Security and Risk Analysis 468: Visual Analytics for Security Intelligence
Econ 302: Intermediate Micro-Economic Analysis
English 202D: Business Writing
Criminology 100: Introduction to Criminal Justice
Information Science and Technology 432: Legal and Regulatory Environment of Information Science and Technology
I would say that I am most worried about Econ 302 as I am no economics major, but I don’t think it will be all that bad. One of the big projects for English 202D is creating a blog (gasp!) about my professional work. Sadly neither this one or my previous blog (russwbeck.wordpress.com) will count, so attempt number three at blogging looks to be in the works. After preliminary glances at my syllabi I have a few busy weeks ahead of me (3 midterms in 3 days for instance), but also should only have one final. Here’s to hoping it isn’t on Friday!
I hope the rest of you Penn State students have a great semester, but for now, let’s celebrate Syllabus week before we actually have to do real work!
Last season Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu suffered from injuries that could have sidelined them from playing in crucial playoff games. Polamalu never missed a game and Ward was able to play in the Super Bowl because of a new and innovating treatment being used by not only those two, but also by a few MLB and Soccer players along with thousands of recreational athletes.
What is the treatment, you may ask? Steroids? A new exercise? Nope. Continue reading …
While I was in Orlando, my Great Grandmother sadly passed away. What was weird was that my cousin and I were just talking about her and how she wasn’t doing so well, less than 30 minutes later I got the call. My Great-Grandmother’s first husband, my Great-Grandfather by blood, died in the Battle of the Bulge in 1945. She was born with a heart condition that at the time (1920) killed more than 90% of those born with it, but she lived. She had a stroke in her 80s, and wasn’t supposed to ever move again. One night my Grandmother and Aunt were with her in the hospital and asked God for a sign that we shouldn’t pull the plug, at that moment the power in the Altoona Hospital flickered, went out and came back on…we let her live and she not only moved again, but talked and moved back to her house to live on her own for a few more years until being placed into a home. She once bought coffee from Hooters and only complained that the coffee was cold. She was married for 61 years when my Great-Grandfather died.
Continue reading …
 I know that you’re thinking I’m insane. Surely Lavar Arrington, Talor Battle, Kerry Collins, or John Capelletti were better athletes than this Hodge girl. But when you step back and think about it, what defines a great athlete? Utter dominance, constant production at the highest level, championships, national recognition, and success with honor would be a good starting point. Sure Arrington was dominant, if Megan Hodge suited up and ran head first into a ‘Lavar Leap’ I’m positive she would break in half (as would I, as would you most likely). And you would be correct in thinking that Kerry Collins produced at the highest level and John Cappelletti was nationally recognized as the best player in College Football in 1973, but none of them accomplished what Hodge did throughout a four year career. In fact, you could combine every award the aforementioned players have received and they wouldn’t stack up against the great Megan Hodge.
Continue reading …
|
|
|
