Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize

Barack Obama recently won the Nobel Peace Prize, marking yet another historic day and accomplishment in the life of our 44th president. With the award, Obama became the first sitting president in 90 years and the first president in history to earn the honor during his first term. In essence, Obama was awarded for "his work to improve international diplomacy and rid the world of nuclear weapons" in addition to other efforts. When I initially read the news on my iPhone (shameless plug) I was not only shocked but also slightly uncomfortable with the notion of him being awarded one of the world's highest honors. I shared his sentiments when he said "To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize." However, after giving it some careful thought, I realized that although his tangible accomplishments may not necessarily merit the award, he captured it perfectly when he said (of the Prize) "It's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes." Obama's election gave legitimacy to his cause, the Nobel Peace Prize will provide the necessary impetus to transform his ideas into the palpable, corporeal change that we need. Oh, and to all those who are upset that Obama won the award: remember, you don't apply for the Nobel Peace Prize. Don't be mad at him, be mad at the committee!

The Importance of Fall Semester

School is back session and Penn has a newfound energy - atleast until midterms arrive. Nonetheless, its exciting to be back at school, especially as a junior. My first two years at Penn have been tremendous and have definitely taught me a lot of bout myself and life in general. That being said, I wanted to make a quick plug about the importance of the first semester. In general, I think first semester is more important than second semester. I say this for a few reasons; First, when applying to summer opportunities, potential employers will most likely only see your grades from fall semester. Needless to say, its important to have strong grades and demonstrate that you are focused and off to a great start academically. Second, its easier for your grades to go down than to go up. I think of it this way, each additional class you take has a decreasing marginal impact on your overall GPA. Therefore, the classes you take second semester have less of an impact than those you take first semester. Lastly, (and this is a serious thought) if you're like me, there's an inverse relationship between my ability to do work and the quality of the weather; the better the weather, the harder it is for me to be productive (good weather = more distractions). Gameplan for good weather by giving yourself a cushion via your fall grades. That's just my two cents; good luck everyone.

Forum of Huntsman Hall

...And I'm Back

After entirely too long of a hiatus, I've made my return to the blogosphere. For those of you who keep up with my blogs: I apologize for the long time in between posts. Intensely studying for finals lead to an overwhelming need for a break from most activities that require some sort of analytical thinking. But now I'm back, mentally well-rested and eager to blog. Stay tuned for upcoming posts.

The Twitter Movement: Mixed Reviews

Twitter has become a new social phenomenon. Everyone is quickly moving towards the service whether its creating an account to tweet(post messages) , or logging in to follow friends, families, celebrities and/or companies. However, I have very mixed feelings about the movement. On the one hand, Twitter provides a quick, convenient way of reaching a select group of people. For instance, I can use twitter to let all of my "followers" know that I have new Blog posts. Or if I'm a company I can let everyone know the release date of a new product. However, in contrast to these benefits is the fact that Twitter is open to anyone and as such people are free to tweet about whatever they want—and they do. For example, I read someone's twitter feed and over the course of 4 hours they had 'tweeted' 5 different messages all stating where they currently were inside of a club (just walked in to the club, chillin in the back of the club, sitting at the bar come find us). Needless to say, tweets like these bother me. I almost feel as though its an abuse of the service. In an article titled "With Oprah Onboard, Twitter Grows" briefly touches on the problem with these types of tweets. Essentially these tweets make it hard for people to filter out the important messages. To quote the article, when the system becomes overflown with useless messages “People can no longer digest the content, [and start to think] what am I really getting out of this service?” While I'm a big fan of the technology that twitter is employing and feel that it can, and will be, an extremely useful means of quickly disseminating information, I hope that people start to use discretion when tweeting—it'll make it easier for everyone to find information.

Penn Previews

So, its that time of year. Spring is in the air, the end of school is near (no rhyme intended) and college campuses all over America are being populated with excited families, eagerly analyzing the their surroundings to determine if the school is a "good fit" for their child. Here at Penn we call it Penn Previews. Aside from us students having to occasionally "run in circles around confused and wandering families" (a phrased borrowed from a friend), previews is generally a great time. The families add a palpable buzz to the air, providing a sense of affirmation that you school is a great place to be. Looking back at my time here so far, It definitely has been everything I expected plus more. I think this is a sentiment that the majority of my classmates (shout out to Penn '11) share as well. Although we may complain about teachers, classes, etc. there is no doubt that we have all grown and matured as individuals during our short stay at here. Being around great people (students and faculty) who are constantly doing amazing things puts a sense of creative pressure on us as students—forcing us constantly strive for our best. Simply put, my time here at Penn has been amazing by challenging me to grow in ways I never thought possible and the main driving factor behind this has been the people I've been fortunate enough to interact with. That being said, I want to publicly congratulate all of the students accepted into UPenn '13. You are all bright and will undoubtedly add value to whatever school you choose to attend, but of course I'm pulling for Penn.

The Role of Sports in a Child's Development

The other day my little brother, Miles, was placed on a baseball team in my town's Little League. Even though we sent in his registration forms way after the deadline, they let him in the league and needless to say I was ecstatic when I heard the news. Not only was I happy because I'll have an opportunity to watch my brother play a sport I once loved, but also because I am a huge believer in the positive impact that sports have in a child's development. For me personally, sports were a huge staple of everything I did when I grew up. I also learned a lot of transferable skills from sports such as teamwork, motivation and leadership skills. A paper title "Healthy Child Development Through Sport and Recreation: A Discussion Paper"details the benefits associated with playing sports as a child. One benefit that the paper discusses is "smart" risk taking, meaning children are less likely to smoke or do drugs if they play sports. The paper also details how sports can enhance family relationships and also allow children to develop positive supportive attachments with adults outside the family (coaches). Anyway, the bottom line is that I am extremely happy for Miles. I can't wait to practice with him and go to his games. I encourage everyone to support their brother/sister/son/cousin to participate in activities with positive benefits, whatever that may be (*cough* sports *cough*)

The Month of Madness

March Madness has finally arrived. The time for people to fill out their brackets, jump on a team's bandwagon, and suffer declines in productivity at work (due to constantly peaking at scores) is upon us; I couldn't be more excited. The tournament officially kicked off this past Tuesday, with the first real slate of games taking place Thursday. Myself and a friend managed to get a bargain on some tickets ($25/each for $70 face value tickets--thanks Stubhub!) for the afternoon games. It was cool to see Texas A&M v. BYU and Chattanooga vs. Connecticut--Hasheem Thabeet is even taller in person. Although my bracket took a major hit Friday night with the huge upset of Wake Forest, I've decided to share it anyway: Malc's Bracket. Below are some pictures from the game.

Going green, Pescatarianville here I come..

Yes, after heavy consideration and thorough contemplation, I have decided to go green; I'm becoming a pescatarian. A pescatarian is someone who abstains from eating all meat and animal flesh with the exception of fish. It's usually a stepping stone towards become a full fledged vegetarian—something I'm definitely not ready for yet. There are numerous benefits to becoming some type of vegetarian, a few of which are documented in this article titled "21 REASONS for being a Vegetarian." For me personally, I decided to make the change in order to be healthier and because of the numerous positive social externalities that result from being a vegetarian. I'm not writing this post to implore you to become a vegetarian, but rather to entreat you to stay interested in your health and nutrition; it makes a difference.

A trip to the museum

Saturday, I took a trip to the African American Art Museum of Philadelphia. Trips to the museum can always be an amorphous experience since you never know what to expect. Feelings can range from absolute boredom to a life changing experience; mine was more towards the latter. Connecting with my past always inspires me to learn more and give back to the African American community. I think we should all spend some more time participating in whatever experience(s) motivate you to give back. Anyway, here are some pictures I took at the museum.

Another blog?

Yes, I've decided to start another blog, (maybe even two, but we'll see) mainly because there is so much that I want to write about, but I didn't feel that everything "fit" this page appropriately. This new blog focuses around business and to reach it just visit www.malconbiz.blogspot.com

Value of Family

Today I had one of the most touching experiences of my life. I called home to talk to my family; anticipating either my Mom, Brother or Dad picking up the phone. But to my pleasant surprise, first my brother picked up the phone with an excited "Hey, Malcolm!", followed by the same greeting from my Dad and then my Mom just seconds later (so if you can imagine it was like "Hey, Malcolm" x 3). Needless to say it was a great moment. My family's exuberance made me feel special and loved. It reminded me of the importance of my family in my life and how much they truly care for me. However, the excitement transferred through the phone was clearly inverted. After everything my family has done for me I should have greeted them with a tremendous amount of excitement.

With that said, I want to implore everyone to show more love towards their families. Call them more often. Talk longer on the phone. Show them how much you appreciate them. I know that as people (especially as college students) we often get caught up in the day to day grind, but make time - it's important. In fact, call your family tomorrow and speak to them. Trust me, it'll make you and them feel special.

The incubation of violence in our youths

Today is a beautiful day here in Philadelphia and as such, many people are outside in shorts and t-shirts, enjoying the good weather. Today is also a Wednesday, and on Wednesdays I go to visit my little brother (not my real brother, although that would be amazing). With today being the beautiful day it is, my Little and I decided to go outside to play a game of Uno. Within minutes of being outside we were both startled by a loud noise. It turns out that the teachers let the rest of the kids who had lunch at this time go outside too, and who wouldn't on a day like today. But the point of this post isn't to talk about the mere fact that they were outside, but rather the way they they interacted with one another while outside. I know its been a while since I was in 6th grade, but I remember kids spending time outside playing basketball, tag, jumping rope and the occasional game of kill the carrier (if the teachers allowed it).

However, this was far from the case. In fact they were all fighting, nearly all 120 kids. Not wrestling, not an aggressive game of tag, but Roy Jones, Muhammad Ali I'm going to knock you out fighting. It was wild and disturbing, needless to say. The sight was a clear example of the prevalence of a violent culture within America. A culture that is incubated in our youth and birthed in our adults in the form of robbing, raping and domestic abuse. I admit that I don't spend enough time analyzing these situations and as such am not truly aware of the underlying causes, however what I do know is that this is a problem and it needs to be addressed. However, for now I'm going to keep visiting my little brother and observing his interaction amongst his peers, trying to curb his aggressiveness and make a difference one child at a time.

So, I've decided to start a blog

So, I've finally decided to start my own blog. After mulling it over numerous times, I've finally put action and commitment behind my persistent thoughts. I know you may be asking yourself the question, (the same question I asked myself many times over) why am I of all people starting a blog? Well, my reason is multifaceted and thorough but for the sake of brevity I'll break it down into 3 components. First, I was inspired. As someone who consumes anecdotal and experience based knowledge from the small to the mainstream, I couldn't help but be inspired by those thousands of people who blog about their daily experiences. To those people, thank you, you've inspired me. Second, life is beautiful and words are powerful, so why not combine the two through some sort of documentation, ergo a blog. Third, my writing skills. I study business at school, and its great, but a key to life is one's ability to communicate, and quite frankly as a business major, writing is something I don't do enough.

With that said I guess this pretty much sums up my first post. It was a lot easier than I thought and I eagerly look forward to blogging about my experiences on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!
Malcolm