Big Orange Give vs. Harvard

So as this week began the University of Tennessee, a lot of talk began about Big Orange Give! It is a week long campaign – exactly 125 hours – to help raise $125,000 for the University. Every day UT students, faculty, staff, and alumni change the world by making groundbreaking discoveries, developing innovative programs, and by sharing their volunteer spirit and talent in their communities. Big Orange Give is a new effort to publicize this good work and to encourage investment in it.

After discussing this campaign with some members at the Golf Course I work at, I heard talk about Harvard. I asked what was going on with Harvard and what did this have to do with UT’s Big Orange Give? Then I found it.

“Harvard launches $6.5 billion capital campaign”

Largest fundraising effort in history of higher education will fund wide-ranging research. The school aims to reach its $6.5 billion goal by 2018. If it does so, the campaign would surpass a five-year, $6.2 billion campaign by Stanford University that ended last year. With the largest contributors being Bill Gates and CEO Warren Buffett for Harvard.

Well then..What do I say to that? The only thing I know to say!

GO VOLS!

Related articles

• Harvard launches $6.5 billion capital campaign (bostonherald.com)

Its called Rule 7.06..

There is nothing like waking up in the morning, turning on ESPN and seeing that your team lost. But wait, what is this? A controversial obstruction call. How wonderful! NOT!! As you might have not guessed, I am a Boston Red Sox fan. I have no personal ties to Boston, but when your father says you are a Boston fan, then you must be a Boston fan.
The controversial obstruction call was called for a win for the Cards (St. Louis Cardinals). This play also somehow got the first place on ESPN’s top plays. Why?

Boston third baseman Will Middlebrooks tripped St. Louis’ Allen Craig on Jon Jay’s ninth-inning grounder. Third-base umpire Jim Joyce called obstruction. However, if you watch before the obstruction call was called, Allen Craig was called safe at home plate when he made no attempt to touch home plate!

I understand this was a rule and the umpire’s made the correct call, however Jim Joyce (the umpire in this situation) has another famous call that has gone down in history as well. He took away the Detroit Tigers, Armando Galarraga’s perfect game back in 2010. This call by Jim Joyce caused him and his family to receive death threats after Galarraga game.

Your Klout score is what?? Wait..What is KLOUT?

I recently just finished reading one of Mark Schaefer’s best selling influential books, Return on Influence (ROI). This book has turned my mind upside and has made me feel unworthy of using social media. It really has scared me to think that there is so much more to social media than just having fun. I personally cannot compete with the every minute tweet and always posting my feelings, my life, my everything onto a site that I am being judged on constantly.

“I do feel some pressure. I got to this level, and I don’t want to slip. So I’m always tweeting at my work breaks…I never stop.”

This quote by a friend of Mark Schaefer’s explains a little how I feel.

For those of you who do not know what Klout is or what it stands for, here is a little background information: Klout is a website and mobile app that uses social media analytics to rank its users according to online social influence via the “Klout Score”, which is a numerical value between 1 and 100. However I have not yet reached his social media hierarchy either. Being judged constantly not just by individuals that I know, but individuals and companies all over the world; with a number, with a rank completely distraught my self-esteem.

Going from this, Klout has personally taken over my life and gets checked each and every day to make sure my Klout score of a simple 44 has not gone down.

Speaking about Klout, Mark has thoroughly thought out a plan or best practice themes for us not as good socializers which should be MEMORIZED.

First, do you have a conversational brand? What is that I am thinking. Why does it matter? Great. Now I need a book on this. Any suggestions?

Next, have a strategy. I understand this, have a plan on what you want to tweet or blog about.

Thirdly, make it relevant. Tie it in personally! The audience or your followers do not want you to be fake, they want you. Which for me is the two-job working, full-time student, sorority wanna-be (or actually has-been). This also goes along with the Keep it Real technique, and the Don’t Get to Specific practice.

Then there is also the Keep it Legal and Local. Obviously follow the rules! Then keep it local (at first, unless you can reach a larger geographic range). Pay attention to your perk. Which has to do with Klout and the free merchandise, valuable digital content and so much more. I personally have received two already!

Finally, just make sure the content is shareable. That is self-explanatory I feel. Make sure your audience will be interested and want to ready it.

Needing a Happy Ending to his fairytale.

Everyone deserves a chance. My parents raised me to believe that if you want something so bad you must work for it, earn it and deserve it. This is what this young boy has done. He is changing his life around to be a better person, with or without a family. It really disappoints me to learn that this boy’s story has gone viral and that there has been no move for a small donation fund, no family has adopted him or anything has happened yet except that his word has gotten out to the world. But sometimes that is all it takes to change his world upside down for the better.

“I’ll take anyone. Old or young, dad or mom, black, white, purple. I don’t care. And I would be really appreciative. The best I could be.”

After reading this boy’s story and determination of will power, I am not so afraid for his life anymore. I know that one day he will grow up and become a great man. He might lead an orphanage, he might have his own family one day, become a teacher, or whatever. I do know however, that he will be great. As Dr. Seuss would say:

“You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one that will decide where to go.”

http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/will-orphan-davion-s-courage-bring-him-hope–164213337.html

Facebooking your way out of jail!

Go and behold, a 19 year old boy named David White got arrested on Saturday in Massachusetts. Seems to be a pretty typical story of the arrest. He was at a party that got called in by some neighbors because of a noise disturbance, and the boy was arrested for disturbing the peace. So far so typical. However, when he arrived at the jail (you are always allowed a phone call from my understanding) he could not reach anyone through the phone call. So “he asked officers if he could use his phone to post a plea to his Facebook page.” I mead how cool is that!? Yes from my perspective, I would not have put it on Facebook or any other form of social media because I have family members, friends of the family, co-workers and much more that do not need to that I am in jail. It worked out for White, though. Shortly after posting his online call for help, a friend arrived to pay his fee to get him out. This does seem however very generous for the police department to be giving you more than just one chance and yet even your own personal cell phone.

For our generation, social media is actually a more sure-fire way to reach out to just about anyone at anytime. The Beverly Police Department has also jumped into the mix, addressing the incident earlier this week on its own Facebook page.

“We allowed it; it worked. We are only required to allow one phone call, but when people are cooperative with us, we work with them, and that was the case here. Another good reason to own a smartphone.”

It still stings…

I thought after a night of sleep, many other games played that just maybe everyone wouldn’t be talking about the the huge disappointing Vol game. However I was wrong. We’ve made the news and it doesn’t seem to be going away. [Tennessee adds another disappointing Loss]

“If Tennessee did teach us anything, it’s that conference play is hard. Many believed Georgia was just going to coast through the rest of its schedule following last week’s dramatic win over LSU.

Not so.

And Tennessee has put the conference on notice that it’s getting better and it’s going to put up a fight”

As I was at the game yesterday, I have never heard a stadium get so loud. I have never heard a town come together in such a strong atmosphere and show their love for every other fan, for our team and for our coach. No matter how old, no matter how small, we all were there to show everyone that we are here. We are not a lost team anymore. And If I could quote Butch Jones,

“It’s called Brick by Brick for a reason. Today was a step in the right direction back to GREATNESS.”

VOL FOR LIFE!

Gotta love the squirrel!

As I started to watch the President cup today for round 2 I kept hearing about the infamous squirrel. Where did this squirrel come from and what did it have to do with Tiger Woods and Davis Love III? I thought maybe it was a squirrel had come on the course and maybe stole one of the balls, or had moved the ball (which would be a penalty stroke against the USA team). As I kept watching the president cup, I then saw Davis Love III holding a squirrel on his lap! Okay, now I have to find out what is going on. So I searched and came upon the video of Tiger Woods and his girlfriend, Lindsey Vonn.

After watching the video and reading about Davis Love III and the squirrel, I have come to LOVE the golf team USA’s mascot of the squirrel.
Then we find out the squirrel has a name, Sammy! and he has a very moving story which can be found here:
http://www.sbnation.com/golf/2013/10/4/4803582/sammy-squirrel-2013-presidents-cup-american-mascot

Manning IQ Bowl, Who wins?

The obvious part to this competition is that Eli comes in last. The surprising part for this competition is that there are 4 participants. The three you know, Archie, Peyton and Eli. Then there’s the one you don’t know, Cooper. I am not going to waste my time discussing second and third place but merely why Cooper would tell you that intelligence is based on more than just football. Believe it or not, according to Cooper, the world does NOT run on football it runs on energy. According to an interview done by the New Orleans Business Journal, Cooper states, “Everyone thinks football is so important. But it’s just a game. Energy runs the world, you get me? Not football. Energy. And Peyton and Eli don’t know shit about energy investment equity.”

Though football is a great love of mine and being a Tennessee Vol, Peyton is as well. However, I undeniably see Cooper’s point when I drive my car everyday, see planes fly above me, read about wars that have started over the necessity for oil and plug my computer into the wall to be able to write this article. The question then becomes not if Cooper is right, or is the most “intelligent”,  but is there some ill-tempered feelings between the Manning family? Later in the article, Cooper states, “I’m so sick of people treating me like I’m the failure of the Manning family. So my brothers play in the NFL. Whoopdee shit. There are 32 starting NFL quarterbacks. You know how many partners there are at regional energy investment company of this size? Not 32, I’ll tell you that. We’re a division of ScotiaBank, godammit! That shit’s international!” So will boys be boys or will boys be pissed when there brothers become famous for playing a “game”? Ironically Cooper would have seemingly followed the same path as his brothers had his body not failed him. So this blogger replies in the same sense, Cooper don’t know shit about football. The difference is not intelligence, but merely specialization in their respective fields. So who’s smarter? I don’t know..Who’s more important to the world? Probably Cooper, but I am sure about one thing. Eli gets last.

http://www.sportspickle.com/2013/09/cooper-manning-peyton-eli-dont-know-shit-energy-investment-equity

Cookie Monster or Sea Monster?

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/nature/post/cookie-monster-of-the-sea-photographed-off-curacao/

An amazing special hobby of mine, scuba diving, has a community of humor all in its own. I came across this article a little bit ago about a couple who had been diving and had seen this sea sponge. It resembles the Cookie Monster from Sesame Street ( a popular children’s television show). Although, sea sponges are animals which is perfect because what is cookie monster exactly? Isn’t he an animal himself?

Related articles

• Cookie Monster Of The Sea: Photo Of ‘Sesame Street’ Sea Sponge Goes Viral (socialnewsdaily.com)
• Diver photographs ‘Cookie Monster of the Sea’ (grindtv.com)

Blogging isn’t as easy as 1,2,3..

8 posts later, I finally have realized how to actually work a blogging site. Well to the best of my knowledge as of right now. I will master this! I have been struggling how to use this website in general. It does seem easy to use but then again, I have never blogged so the “terms” are a little new to me. And I thought I was tech-savvy. I have barely touched the surface of knowing the very vast world of technology.

From the beginning, given this assignment of blogging twice a week seemed so difficult. What was I personally going to write about. I do not want to be known as the girl who complains about everything on her blog, I did not want to be the girl who publishes everything about drama and girly stuff. When I asked my boyfriend exactly what I should blog about, he simply put “you”. Wow what a great help he was. That just made it worse for me. He laughed and just said think about yourself, you have a voice and live a pretty interesting life You have something to say, so say it.