the air

By no means is my vocabulary very high. In fact, most of my “advanced” vocabulary can be traced back to the days when I was studying for the old SAT’s which made use of those dreadful analogies. Just thinking about those analogies gives me shivers to this day.

The folks over at Houghton-Mifflin have posted an article that lists 100 essential vocabulary words that every high school graduate should know. I think this list should be mastered by everyone including all college students. Although I am familiar with many of the words on the list, there were about a dozen that I have absolutely no idea what they mean. You can bet that I’m going to study this list carefully and will have mastered using these words in my writing by the end of summer. Give it a shot and educate your brain.

I’ve also attached the document as a PDF Document.

No Comments »

What are you willing to do for success?  Are you willing to fail for success?  Are you willing to give up everything for success?  How long are you willing to wait for success?  Are you willing to change for success?  Why do you want success?

The answers to the questions above might seem simple and obvious.  However, many folks will change their answers once they are on the path to success.  How do I know that?  It’s from my own observations and experience.  I know that many of us are willing to do whatever it takes to succeed, but when the time comes to pay the price, most of us simply back out.  The key to success is with you!

If you are not realizing the success you want, it is probably because of you.  Many times, you have to change the way you think, the way you act, the way you execute your plan of actions, and more.  For example, how punctual are you?  If you say you will call someone back later, do you call them back later that day or later in the week?  Are you time punctual?  If you say you will meet someone at 3 PM, do you make sure you arrive a few minutes early at the very least or do you arrive a few minutes late?  Little things like these may not seem to matter much when you are in college, but you will be surprised as to how habitual this will be in your professional life.  You need to become more professional and more resilient with what you say and how you execute. 

Would you like to succeed 1000 times and fail once or would you like to fail 1000 times and succeed once?  Before you answer, carefully think about the question and your response.  If you would like to succeed 1000 times and fail once, you will always fail because if you are succeeding 1000 times, you will have no incentive to change your approach.  Hence, if you fail once, you will not understand why you failed when you were using the same formula for success.  If you fail 1000 times, it is likely that you are trying out new ways to find out success and continually changing your strategy.  Therefore, once you find your success, it is likely that you will continue to alter your strategy to continue the success and you’ll know 1000 ways on how to fail.  Sure there are general exceptions and room for arguments, but you get the idea.

No matter what anyone says, the bottom line is that success begins with you.  Only you can do what is necessary to realize success.  If you don’t change things about you or what you are doing, you cannot accomplish success.  Remember, the world is a highly dynamic place.  That means, the world is continually changing and you have to change to keep up.  You cannot expect the same method to work always and therefore, you cannot expect success with no change.  So go ahead and dare yourself to change and evolve. 

2 Comments »

Many of my friends have often asked how I am able to earn the grades I want every semester and make it look extremely easy.  I am flattered that others look to me for help with their own grades, but I should point out that it isn’t easy for me either.  For the past three semesters at Northern Illinois University, I spent countless hours studying and completing assignments with precision and dedication.  In retrospect, I feel confident in outlining the three things that really cause me to realize my potential and experience the results I want.

It may come as a surprise, but the only three words that really motivate me and cause me to push ahead are:

• Goals
• Perseverance
• Sacrifice

I am sure that many people in your life have told you the importance of making goals.  Goals serve purely as an end-point which you can use as a benchmark to measure your progress.  Without goals, we are aimlessly moving about our life and cannot measure our progress.  In fact, I strongly believe that you, like every human, already have set your own goals whether you realize it or not.  Hence, all you have to do now is simply identify your goals and measure success.  The process of identifying goals or how to develop goals will be left to other sites and maybe a later post.  But I cannot stress to you how important it is to have goals and how I use these goals to measure my own progress.

Once I know what my goals are, I work hard to ensure that I reach them.  I respect commitments and deadlines and do not tolerate incompetence or laziness.  I admit that there numerous times throughout a semester when I am lazy, however, regardless of what happens, I always make sure that I finish the task by the time it is due.  This ties into my next point, which is sacrifice. 

Sacrifice is another key component that has helped me to realize my own success.  Sacrifice encompasses giving up those things or persons that hinder or impede your progress.  Some will argue that sacrifice is a harsh term or is unnecessary.  However, when I set out to accomplish a goal, my only concern is to accomplish that goal.  If that means I have to not attend any parties, help friends out, or even blog, then I will do just that.  To me, if I cannot accomplish a goal, then I have not realized my success and must set out to analyze what went wrong.  It becomes pertinent to me to avoid the hassles of figuring out why I could not accomplish a goal.  Therefore, I will sacrifice whatever is necessary to accomplish my goals.  Do not mistake my tendency to sacrifice with inattentiveness to the other essential parts of life.  Occasionally, some goals are just not worth the price and therefore not worth accomplishing.  But if that is the case, then there must be another way to go ahead and accomplish it with a much lower price tag.

The moral is that success is not easy.  It takes time and it takes effort.  I know many people out there who do not understand the true concept of success.  They are unable to or are unwilling to do what is necessary to realize success.

No Comments »

Now that I have spent a few days with my new MacBook, I am quite pleased with it and am surprised at how easy it was to transition from a Windows environment to a Mac OS.  Interestingly, the learning curve is not as bad as some might be inclined to suggest.  However, there is a small learning curve and things do work differently in the Mac world than in the PC world.  For starters, installing and un-installing applications is extremely easy under a Mac.  To install, all you have to do is drag the application into the Applications folder and it is installed automatically.  To remove, simply drag the application to the Trash Bin and it’s gone.

Having used Linux for a few months last year, I can see some similarities between MacOS X and Ubuntu.  I won’t go into too much detail since I do not have an operating Linux machine nor do I want to overload you with needless information.  Apple does a great job of providing useful resources to ease your transition from Windows to Mac.  In addition, they also provide a web page that contains common keyboard shortcuts that many Windows users might use.  The trick to remember is that there is no longer a windows key.  Rather, the Macs come with an “Apple”/command key that functions frequently as the Windows and CTRL key.  I should point out that there is a CTRL key on a Mac keyboard, but many keyboard shortcuts won’t use the CTRL key like it is used in Windows.  

My only complaint, so far, is the price of this machine.  I spent roughly $1265 including the extended warranty and after my student discount.  Is the extended warranty worth it?  The warranty gives me three years of tech support via phone and protection for the machine.  I have heard that Apple machines are not very error prone, but can be subject to expensive repairs.  Hence, the $183 price tag is a small investment to ensure that my machine can enjoy three years of trouble-free service.  My machine is the base MacBook since I do not need a DVD burner as my desktop as a DVD burner already.  Before you buy a Mac, make sure that its specs meet your needs and wants.  There is not much you can upgrade on a MacBook once purchased.  In fact, I think you can only upgrade the RAM and hard drive but you will not be able to change the Combo Drive into a Super Drive.  

No Comments »

As summer continues to move forward, I have no choice but to read interesting news about how the American justice system “fails” or “succeeds.” It seems that everyone has an opinion and when the moment or outcome suits them, the justice system is quite reasonable. Alternatively, the justice system is a failure if the results are not in their favor. However, my thoughts today do not circle around the validity of the justice system but instead focuses on my interpretation of a the punishing values handed down by judges.

In McHenry, IL, a 16 year old girl was denied bail because of the severity of her actions. She was charged with distributing hate flyers that went against the gay community. The judge’s reasoning was that she has a repetitive pattern of mischievous behavior. The article goes on to illustrate how other, more violent, suspects were granted bail for violent crimes that included rape and murder. So this is where my dilemma starts.

My personal political views are quite liberal. I don’t believe in religious views running a country that plays hosts to a multitude of religions. In fact, I despise any politician that invokes God as an excuse or reason to think or make decisions. Hence, in a way, I do not have any sympathy for this girl for using hate language against gays. However, at the same time, she is entitled to her own opinion as it is protected under freedom of speech. I think it is safe for me to say that she should be punished for passing out hate propaganda on school property but not for expressing her personal views. Regardless of what the article claims, the important solution that should be investigated is whether or not “propaganda” should be allowed on school properties. In my view, a school is a safe haven for ideas to be shared in a peaceful manner. That does not mean that hate viewpoints should be expressed, but rather discussed in a professional forum. However, it appears that the girl might be being punished a bit too harshly. In this case, I would have to go and claim that the judge is not being fair and is trying to make an example out of her for no good reason and I strongly believe that she will not learn her lesson in such a harsh manner.

No Comments »