Adoption

I believe adoption is not what everyone thinks it is. It is a wonderful experience that kids get to have when a couple that wasn’t able to have kids, adopts them. Most of the time an adoption happens when the baby’s birth mother and father couldn’t take care of them and wanted a better life for them than what they could give them. I grew up around adoption. I am not adopted myself but most of my dad’s brothers and sisters were, but he was not. Also, my mom, both of my mom’s sisters, both grandmothers and one of grandfather have worked at Alterative in Motion. Alternatives in Motion is an adoption agency that is located in Houston, Texas and it has been open for about 25 years now. I love to go to the office with my mom and help talk to the birth mothers and try to let them know that everything would be okay. I have never been through the process for adopting a baby, being adopted or putting a baby up for adoption but I have always heard that it is a very hard thing for everyone involved. Many of the ladies that are in the situation for letting their baby have a better life than what they would be able to give them, don’t ever think they can get through it, but like my mom always says today it is extremely hard, tomorrow it will be a little better, and so on. You will never be fully okay, but you will be getting better.

 

http://www.aimadoptions.org/

 

 

Choices in Life

We all have choices in life and I believe the choices that we make, right or wrong all have consequences, good or bad. We have to live with them and learn from them. Sometimes the choices affect others so drastically that we learn from their bad decisions. My aunt is an RN in a psychiatric hospital; she has told me some really horrific stories of some of the patients that she takes care of. She told me about an 18 year old boy that smoked a plant called Morning Glory, which is basically a flowering plant that is in many gardens and has been found to be a hallucinogen drug the kids are now experimenting with. He was admitted to the hospital after he had two surgeries to fix a private vital body part that he cut off while high on this drug. The first surgery was to reattach it but unfortunately it had been unsuccessful to get the blood flowing so the second surgery was to remove it. Now he must live with the consequences of the decision he made that day to do drugs, for the rest of his life. The only good that I believe can come out of this horrendous story for others is to learn from the choice and outcome he made. We are the captain of our ship, look around you; you are only as good as the company you keep.

http://www.younglivesuk.com/choosing1.htm

Student Blog - MTV

Although I am only 22 years old, in my short life much has happened to shape and mold the person before you. I have friends from many different walks of life. I have traveled and visited people of different races, religions, and cultures; shaping a very accepting and understanding opinion of the human nature. There are very few quirks or habits in a person I cannot see past and accept as part of that person as a whole. One personality flaw I absolutely cannot tolerate is the MTV generation. The boys that think Steve-O, Bam Margara, and Johnny Knoxville are “role models” and would like to behave like them, speak like them, and create an entire personality shaped on and around these individuals. These young people watch “The Hills, Pregnant and 16, and Jackass” taking this alleged reality garbage straight to heart and mind and thus creating a ripple effect of negative consequences for the impressionable viewers and fans of these individuals. Paris Hilton, Lady Gaga, and Lindsay Lohan have all found throngs of women to idolize them, mimic their behavior, styles, and take interest in their many projects, products, and consumer products. Those same young people who live life in a blissful ignorance, believing the “Real World” ends for vacations in-between seasons, and everyone spends Spring Break in Cancun. Any person who would rather watch a less than average individual live their messy life, instead of doing something to better their own can kindly keep their pet monkeys, righteous attitudes, spray tans, fake personalities, and “reality as made for your viewing pleasure” at home. The real world is outside your front door; take a walk to the library.

http://www.siue.edu/ALESTLE/library/SPRING2001/feb13/mtv.html

Air Travel Passengers

To work in any customer service profession takes a lot of patience and learning when to bite your tongue. I work for one of the largest airlines in the United States. I have worked in several different professions; however, I would have to say that the airline travel profession sees everything that you can imagine the worst in people, the best in people, and the plain out cluelessness in people. I would like to know why the average person can find their way around town by reading signs, following directions, or just by using their common sense; however, in an airport they become brain dead. That can’t find the simplest thing, the restroom! I work in one of the largest airports in the United States, it does have signs posted everywhere. If people would just read and follow directions, like they do outside of the airport, there would be less confused and lost people in the airports. The questions I answer all day go from the easiest to the most ridiculous things you have ever heard.

If I could just video tape for one day, my experience in the George Bush Houston Intercontinental Airport, and send it to America’s Funniest Home Video’s.  People would then get a glimpse of not only what they look like walking around with a “dazed” expression, but what they sound like, which is more important! I enjoy my job; however, sometimes it can be quite stressful dealing with the cluelessness of some air travelers all day long. Most of the time, I just spend my day laughing at some of the things that are asked or said throughout the day. Where can you go and get paid and have this much fun laughing at people and the things they do and say all day? Go and work for the airlines and you will see just how funny people can be or how much smarter the kids really are today!

Problems With First Person Shooters

I don't understand the community of first person shooters. If you're good at something that you enjoy then you are either a hacker or have no life. Neither of these are the reality. I have no experience in hacking and I hardly have time to play any video games due to homework and errands that I have to do on a daily basis. People just need to realize their level of gaming and accept it. It's worse if you're new to the game. The harassment changes from you having no life to you just simply being a scrub. Even your team will yell at you for bringing them down. There is no escape from the harassment. If you mute the people then they can still send you messages complaining about how angry they are. Reporting them to the gaming company does nothing. They just get warnings. Even if they get banned they can just create a new account and be in another game within 10 minutes harassing another person. I just want to play a game without having to have an argument with people that I would never talk to in my life. If you're bad then don't complain. If you're good then don't run around taunting everyone. Just show that you're better than your opponents by simply doing better than them. If you're faced with competition it will make you better. There is no point in yelling at someone for being better than you. I just want to play a game without being verbally harassed to the point where I need to yell and taunt the people back so that they'll leave the game.

Good Morning and Welcome to Bliss

That place where everybody knows your name and knows your morning cup of joy, Starbucks. I have worked for the company for over 2 years now, been a supervisor for 1 year and absolutely love it. It's amazing to see people walk in looking tired and angry, and leaving with a smile on their face because the person that welcomed you by name and already has your cup of sanity being made, has a smile on their face first. The store I previously worked at is close to the airport and is also surrounded by housing subdivisions, so I had my regular customers and people from around the U.S. and the world come in. We've had customers travel to different places around the world and send us post cards and bring us back gifts. The best one I've gotten so far is a pearl necklace from a lovely woman that had went to China. Different partners have been given Coach purses, jewelry, clothing, and the most popular, food. Customers will come in with a box of donuts or a bag of breakfast taco's to help get our morning started. At night, we'll be brought BBQ, soup, cakes, and other homemade goods. Christmas is the most unhealthy time for partners due to boxes and boxes of Christmas cookies and goodies that come in everyday from our Starbucks family.

Don't get me wrong, Starbucks can be stressful, especially when people are snapping at you wondering why their drink isn't in their hand as soon as they ordered, or if there wasn't extra whipped cream on their skinny latte. Random fact, Starbucks whipped cream has over 700 calories in it; don't even bother with the skinny. People can be rude and disgustingly mean, but we learn to shake it off and move on. Since I've been at my currant store, I've realized customers there are much more, vocal. Not only in the sense of being rude, but other customers are quick to come to our aid and have gotten in arguments defending us.

All in all, it's a great job that has taught me a few things about business, people, family, and how I should treat others in the customer service industry.

Psychiatry and Brain Development - Why the large following?

            I am tired of psychiatry, tired of  hearing about it all of the time. I have an eating disorder, I am obsessive compulsive, I’m somewhat autistic that’s why I can’t control my temper! Give me a break. A study where you generalize any reaction in the human brain is in my opinion (not factual, but a vote of common sense) asinine. I mean common sense tells me you put a person on the planet, each brain engineers itself differently, as each and every person has different experiences, and on top of those different experiences they have different personalities that make them view those different experiences completely different then does other people. So every single brain in the world is completely different, sort of like fingerprints, only even more so, as fingerprints are born different and never change, and a brain you are born with, and through millions of different big and small situations becomes different. Psychology is everywhere, this idea I don’t believe in, and it drives me crazy. Here is a hypothetical situation: Just the other day I turned in a paper, and instead of a constructive response that corresponds to English class someone analyzed me and I quote (hypothetically of course), “The entire paper feels like you have a lot of anger still towards your mother. Maybe work on a balance of blame, Marriage is tough.” Granted marriage is tuff, but why would this hypothetical person psycho analyze me, and on top of that why not at least be in the ballpark, I wasn’t talking about marriage, I was talking about divorce. Marriage is a two part system, divorce more often then not is one person calling it quits, and a bunch more people being devastated by that act. On top of that my father and I don’t even talk, and I have a close relationship with my mother. I said that to say, psychiatry is generalizations, most people react this way to this certain situation, but when one reacts differently we must “tweek” their character  so they can be more normal. Sure there are some extremes where psychiatry is relevant, but now at all these lower levels such as: I cant eat a steak, I just cant put it in my mouth, not possible? I mean people need to learn to control their mind, do things because they know is what needs to be done, and if their first reaction says no, well who’s the boss? My summation of psychology: Prescribe pills and lower level disorders so that people will not have to overcome the “disorder” themselves, and in doing so give them an excuse not to build character. Lastly and most importantly, this is the single-minded opinion of a person choosing to live against the grain, not a summation of book and science driven facts, I mean no offense and hope none will be taken.
Link for more info:  http://www.ruthlesscriticism.com/gegenpsych.htm