2008 is an election year today's news has been found to be dominated heavily by just that. Election coverage can be found nightly on almost every news television station. If not on a TV, then the coverage is definitely covered in newspapers and Internet sites alike. One topic that I have been attempting to pay close attention to has been the energy crisis debate. With my history of working for Dominion Resources, I have a new understanding about the energy field and some of the many things that go on within a power company in our nation. The candidates have debated and made their cases. I know that I have already decided to back Barack Obama, now it's almost time for you to decide who the candidate is that you plan to support.
Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama have all laid out plain and simple what their plan is for our energy future. The only difference is the importance on each candidates list and how hard it was to find their 'simple' plans. Hillary Clinton listed issues on her website to what I believed were the most important to her campaign, where Energy was listed as the fourth out of fifteen. It sat only behind strengthening the middle class, affordable health care, and ending the war in Iraq. I think that I can accept that for now. She has an comprehensive 12-point plan to changing America's current state. She wants to incorporate carbon emission programs forcing utilities and industries to make cleaner and more efficient energy. One of the big things for electric utilities is clean coal technology, because this would force many companies to invest heavily in changing over their current plant into a different view.
John McCain's energy plan I believe was the most simple out of the three candidates. Just because it is simple however, does not mean it is the best solution for our future. John McCain's website shows his plan, but also his lack of interest in this topic of our nation's energy. McCain has a three line plan to solve all of our problems.
"He has offered common sense approaches to limit carbon emissions by harnessing market forces that will bring advanced technologies, such as nuclear energy, to the market faster, reduce our dependence on foreign supplies of energy, and see to it that America leads in a way that ensures all nations do their rightful share."
I dont know about you, but for me, I'd like a little bit more reassurance about what is to come with out nation. Renewable energies, fossil fuels, and global warming as a result of much energy consumption is currently a big factor on my radar and will only become a larger part if I am to join an electric company post graduation.
Barack Obama decided to go into the most depth with his plan for changing our nation's energy future. A detailed 19-point plan as to the changes he wants to implement are led into by a section discussing the problems that we currently have. On his website, he is the only candidate to lay out the problems before beginning to discuss the solutions that he wants to put into place. He also includes his speech on energy and his energy plan. For a candidate who is willing to place that much information for his plans out in the public, there is no way he can run for election with a platform such as that and not implement those plans if elected. I believe that he will bring a sense of energy security that this nation needs in the future.
We all know that it will not happen overnight, but every knows that good things take time. I don't expect Barack Obama to be an instantaneous hit with the nation immediately after he takes over, especially while adjusting to new members in the Senate and Congress. Given the proper amount of time, I expect to see some wonderful changes to come in the future though that will make our nation as a whole a much better place to live.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Procrastination
A friend once said to me that procastination is like masturbation, because in the end, you're only fucking yourself.
This phrase used to mean very little to me until I began working on a group video project. This group project consisted of myself and two other group members who were given the task of coming up with two different videos and scripts as a group and then another video package that was put together individually by myself. In working with my group, I quickly learned that waiting to the last minute to try and finish a project especially with limited resources in a definite no-can-do. The other life-long lesson that I learned is that it is near impossible for someone put together something flawlessly the first time with a program that they have never used. Has anyone ever tried doing work on Final Cut Express?! Most of you probably have not simply because it is a program for Mac computers... second of all, it is not offered standard with a Mac computer. It is an expensive add on program that that is only used by those who make take the steps to purchase and install it on their computers. After that, there is an 1162-page instruction guide on how to use every aspect of Final Cut Express. The majority of people in life have never read a book that was over 1000 pages, yet alone an instruction manual for a random program that discusses how to crop out a fraction of a second. Learning a program such as FCE is something that takes time and like mom used to say "good things take time." So to all you readers, realize that good things take time and you can't do something very well if you choose to procrastinate. You'll only screw yourself over in the end.
~Royaly Screwed
This phrase used to mean very little to me until I began working on a group video project. This group project consisted of myself and two other group members who were given the task of coming up with two different videos and scripts as a group and then another video package that was put together individually by myself. In working with my group, I quickly learned that waiting to the last minute to try and finish a project especially with limited resources in a definite no-can-do. The other life-long lesson that I learned is that it is near impossible for someone put together something flawlessly the first time with a program that they have never used. Has anyone ever tried doing work on Final Cut Express?! Most of you probably have not simply because it is a program for Mac computers... second of all, it is not offered standard with a Mac computer. It is an expensive add on program that that is only used by those who make take the steps to purchase and install it on their computers. After that, there is an 1162-page instruction guide on how to use every aspect of Final Cut Express. The majority of people in life have never read a book that was over 1000 pages, yet alone an instruction manual for a random program that discusses how to crop out a fraction of a second. Learning a program such as FCE is something that takes time and like mom used to say "good things take time." So to all you readers, realize that good things take time and you can't do something very well if you choose to procrastinate. You'll only screw yourself over in the end.
~Royaly Screwed
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Networking
If there is one piece of crucial information that I would give to youngsters these days, then it would be to network. Meet and talk to every single person that you possibly can in life. There will be some people that you will run into that you might not think are that significant, but every person in this world brings something different and unique to the table. I have found it to be very easy for me to network in life because I am a very open and friendly person who likes to meet others. I have no problem joining into an existing conversation if I see it working for my own betterment.
Networking is something that I have long had a natural ability to do, but it wasn't until recently that I realized that such things don't just happen by chance. In a book that was bought for me by my ex-girlfriend's mother as a Christmas gift, When God Winks, I have found that everything in life happens for a reason. I discovered that the people that we come into contact with all fall into place for a certain reason. The planets align and the stars move into place so that things may happen according to how the Lord wants them to be done. The author, Squire Rushnell, talks about how the power of coincidence guides your life. I've found that God has played a significant role in guiding my life and keeping me on the right path. This straight and narrow has also begun setting me up for success in the future.
Rushnell talks about how he got his break into radio from walking down a main road to the main town and also attempting to hitch-hike on the way. His radio broadcasting idol happens to pick him up on the way and personally knows his interviewer and asks Rushnell to tell his interviewer hello. Interesting the way that things worked out for Rushnell. My breaks in life have come similarly.
The summer before my sophomore year of college, I was working at Cold Stone Creamery and was looking for a second job with the lack of hours that I was starting to receive. I talked with my neighbor who happens to own his own landscaping company and said that I could work for a few weeks before I had to go back to college. After a few weeks, we had a new job and Billy told me that the lady whose house we were going to work on happened to work at Dominion and knew my good friend and neighbor Billy Warf. Deciding to play innocent, when I saw her walk out of her house that morning, I conveniently saw her Dominion ID badge. I asked her if she knew my dad and we talked for a while. It ended with me telling her I was a Communication Studies student and her sayins to 'keep in contact.' The following summer, I got a job as an intern at Dominion.
During the spring semester of my next year back at school, I was working on an assignment for a professor and he asked me to research information about the Richmond Times-Dispatch. During my search, I came across a sweet woman by the name of Andrea. She was kind enough to talk to me for just under a half-hour. At the end of our conversation, she gave me all of her contact information and said that if I'd like to come by and sit in on a meeting, take a tour, or just see what things are like at a newspaper station, that she'd be more than willing to help out and set up arrangements.
I have yet to explore the final option, but all of these things happened by chance. Things fell into my lap. Many networking opportunities that people have in their lives, they don't pay attention to the significance of it. Chances to network remain all around us in all facets of life. A connection could start from a friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, parent, cousin or anyone else for that matter. Be aware that networking is an essential tool for the world that we live in. It can and will get you far in many places. The only exception to the rule being, if you are the CEO's daughter or son, you will always get a foot in to places. No networking necessary for you except to be born healthy and your parent will be all of the networking that you need in life.
Networking is something that I have long had a natural ability to do, but it wasn't until recently that I realized that such things don't just happen by chance. In a book that was bought for me by my ex-girlfriend's mother as a Christmas gift, When God Winks, I have found that everything in life happens for a reason. I discovered that the people that we come into contact with all fall into place for a certain reason. The planets align and the stars move into place so that things may happen according to how the Lord wants them to be done. The author, Squire Rushnell, talks about how the power of coincidence guides your life. I've found that God has played a significant role in guiding my life and keeping me on the right path. This straight and narrow has also begun setting me up for success in the future.
Rushnell talks about how he got his break into radio from walking down a main road to the main town and also attempting to hitch-hike on the way. His radio broadcasting idol happens to pick him up on the way and personally knows his interviewer and asks Rushnell to tell his interviewer hello. Interesting the way that things worked out for Rushnell. My breaks in life have come similarly.
The summer before my sophomore year of college, I was working at Cold Stone Creamery and was looking for a second job with the lack of hours that I was starting to receive. I talked with my neighbor who happens to own his own landscaping company and said that I could work for a few weeks before I had to go back to college. After a few weeks, we had a new job and Billy told me that the lady whose house we were going to work on happened to work at Dominion and knew my good friend and neighbor Billy Warf. Deciding to play innocent, when I saw her walk out of her house that morning, I conveniently saw her Dominion ID badge. I asked her if she knew my dad and we talked for a while. It ended with me telling her I was a Communication Studies student and her sayins to 'keep in contact.' The following summer, I got a job as an intern at Dominion.
During the spring semester of my next year back at school, I was working on an assignment for a professor and he asked me to research information about the Richmond Times-Dispatch. During my search, I came across a sweet woman by the name of Andrea. She was kind enough to talk to me for just under a half-hour. At the end of our conversation, she gave me all of her contact information and said that if I'd like to come by and sit in on a meeting, take a tour, or just see what things are like at a newspaper station, that she'd be more than willing to help out and set up arrangements.
I have yet to explore the final option, but all of these things happened by chance. Things fell into my lap. Many networking opportunities that people have in their lives, they don't pay attention to the significance of it. Chances to network remain all around us in all facets of life. A connection could start from a friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, parent, cousin or anyone else for that matter. Be aware that networking is an essential tool for the world that we live in. It can and will get you far in many places. The only exception to the rule being, if you are the CEO's daughter or son, you will always get a foot in to places. No networking necessary for you except to be born healthy and your parent will be all of the networking that you need in life.
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