Blogging for a cause: Quest for a Cure!

Check out the official site: http://questforacure.org/

Excerpted from the QUEST FOR A CURE Facebook page: (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191635826776)

Quest for a Cure partners with Michigan Music Community to Dig Deep For Ben’s Fight

Quest for a Cure

Detroit, MI—December 19, 2009—On April 23, 2009 Benjamin Martin, was diagnosed with Stage 4 Glioblastoma—a cancerous brain tumor. He is eight years old.

Since being diagnosed Ben has undergone several brain surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation. He was doing well for a short time, but at the beginning of September, the tumor returned with a vengeance and is now near the brain stem. Doctors do not feel like Ben is a candidate for further surgeries, so the family is seeking alternative treatment at the Burzinski Clinic, a major international cancer center providing alternative cancer treatments. The problem? Like many stories of American medicine, Ben’s insurance will not cover the “experimental” treatments, and his mother, determined to go to the ends of the earth to help her self-proclaimed superhero son fight, is making the sacrifice. With this treatment Ben’s chances of survival increase significantly. And we all deserve the best chance we can get. A fighting chance!

On December 19, 2009 a glimmer of hope will shine bright as the Quest For A Cure Foundation partners with BensFight.org and the Michigan music community to pack the infamous St. Andrews Hall from wall-to-wall with 1,000 fans, friends, family and patrons—to join the fight to save the life of Benjamin Martin. Proceeds will go towards helping Ben fight, in hopes that his success will increase the chance for other’s fight as well. Doors open at 9:00pm and the DJ will sound off what could go down as one of the greatest events in history. It will be a night of great music, great atmosphere and great fun for a fighting cause.

Quest for A Cure is an initiative focused on improving avenues that aid in the cure of hunger, illness and poverty—better known as H.I.P. The organization founder, Quest MCODY, will be one of the artists gracing the stage. He is known throughout the hip-hop community, and for his latest album The Light Project. He has recently been seen by millions on MTV’s Emmy award winning show MADE as a rap coach. The foundation was created from his inward desire to make a difference, save lives and to have a great time doing it.

Several of Detroit’s leading hip-hop, R&B and Rock artists will be taking the stage in support of this event. The line up will feature Quest MCODY along with artists such as Stretch Money, Invincible, PL, MonicaBlaire, Street Justice, Marvwon, K’Jon, Vina Mills, Seven The General, VP, The Bang Ups, Cold Men Young and more.

Detroit Rapper: Invincible

Giving to Ben is more than a good cause. It is something that you’re tied to emotionally and something that you would carry with you forever. And that is something that the world is missing. As the saying goes “keep hope alive!!” Lets do it today—in life.

General admission is $10 at the door. Starting November 16th tickets can be purchased online at www.questforacure.org (all pre-ordered tickets will accompany a coupon for 1/2 off ONE guest)

And remember!!! If you can’t make it physically you can always donate to the cause!  If you would like to know what else you can do to email please email us at joinus@questforacure.org

Come join us as we make this a fight to remember!

Groupwork

Why are colleges so focused on group work?  I think that it perpetuates group think, which they teach us is bad: complete offices or groups of people who all think alike; thus, convincing themselves that one way of thinking or one particular thought is the absolute truth.

Why the rant? I just spent 2 hours in a group meeting for a project that I could definitely do alone.  It makes me wonder if professors really think that groupwork is valuable, or if they just do it to avoid grading 48 individual presentations on the same 5 Harvard case studies.

So, are the professors or higher eduacation professionals caught up in group think? They’re pulling us into their vortex of wasting time and causing stress.

What do you think?

project post — this might be long

I love projects: woodwork, crochet things, photography, and of course, writing things.  So, as a normal craft-head, I decided to take on the project of making a shield for my cuZZo, Armando.

Here’s what I started out with:

First, I started out with an image that I found online.  Then, I bought a poster board, and sketched the outline of the shield for a stencil.

Blown up for the stencil

I cut the wood next.  That might not have been the smartest 2nd step, but I had to take advantage of the weather.  Here’s how it turned out:

This is the first cut of the shield, the base.

The pieces inside of the shield — the book, lamps, scale, and keys — were so hard to find!  I really got to know my computer by looking for them (and I learned that Google isn’t as useful as it’s cracked up to be sometimes).

Next step: Cut the pieces out with a jigsaw.

SLB pieces and jigsaw

FINALLY! This is where I messed up.  I sanded the pieces down, making sure that there weren’t a lot of bad spots from where the plywood chipped during the cut process.  I was supposed to glue the pieces down before I started painting but…

Halfway painted then...oops!

So, yeah — I got a little excited, but I figured out how to fix it, and kept pressing along.  After a bunch of time, painting, and nit-picking, here’s what came out (almost completely complete):

Nearly complete shield

So what’s left?  The letters, date, a nice coat of glaze, and those nit-pickey details, of course. That’ll be done this week (fingers crossed).

Leave comments! I’m thinking of making this a business so I need thoughts on prices, clients, etc.

Edit: November 17th, 2009

This is what the finished (the real finished) product looks like:

Finished Sigma Lambda Beta Shield

What do you think?

my Kicks

I love Aldo’s.  I love pretty much everything about the store: the friendly salespeople, the flyy shoes, the reasonable prices…

So, these are my shoes (some of them):

fed shoes

And, these are my “federal killin ‘em shoes”  I do a lot of programming that promotes federal employment at work, so I like to be semi-patriotic when the feds come to campus.  Maybe they notice, maybe not.

Fed shoes

So, even though I love Aldo’s,  I have gotten into Kicks lately as well.  Check these from Burn Rubber (and don’t try to steal my shoe spot ya’ll):

I went with my brother Quest MCODY to get these & the guys @ Burn Rubber are crazy cool.

I don't know the name so I'll call them: Green Nike kicks

These were Christmas presents from  Mom + Dad:

I don't know the name so I'll call them: Turquoise Nike kicks

More to come…

love where you live?

So, it may be widely known by salespeople and friends, that I have trouble making decisions.  I struggled with decisions on an apartment, on a dog, or on which kind of APA book should I get (spiral, hardcover, or paperback — I chose paperback).  It took me like 2 weeks to pick a planner (pictures to come soon), and even longer to decide on my Expedit bookcase.  Which brings me to my topic of the hour: my stuff — specifically — my new ikea stuff.

So, here it is:

Before –

Expedit desk (before)

After a LOT of saving, and a trip to IKEA…

I added the 2 doors and set of drawers

I love this desk and shelves.  The unit is in the  living room of my one-bedroom apartment.  It’s pretty functional and the desk is big enough for me to fit my laptop, a textbook, binder, and something to eat while I’m doing my homework (which was a huge problem with the last desk I had).  This desk also has lots of storage – the 25 1.5 x 1.5-inch cubes are great but I got the drawers and the door to create a cleaner look.  When I get more money, I’ll add more drawers, doors, and maybe even some magazine boxes.

Here’s my second Ikea thing: the Benno TV stand

It looks a little strange behind the Expedit bookcase, but I didn’t want to run cable cords across the floor.  This seems like the most practical solution to house my DVDs and DVD player, plus it matches my desk.

My next steps will probably be some magazine boxes and more storage for my Expedit desk, but I may get some of the LACK shelves to match (for candles, pictures, etc.)

More later.