Amin's Blog

This week has been so stressful as I have three midterms (one on Monday, then Tuesday and finally Thursday). I feel my procrastination tendencies getting stronger as these midterms get closer. I was recently reading a blog from Roxanne that stated, " There are just not enough hours in the day" and "sleep is a waste of life." I have truly been feeling the same way these past couple of weeks. When one stops to think about all the things you want to get done for the day, its hard finding the time to actually accomplish your tasks. But I guess I have a ways to go before I learn how to budget my time.

Last week in my international relations class we had a speaker from an aid project in Ghana, talk to us about the charitable work they were doing in that country. She spoke about the schools they were building, the people they met and the culture of the country. It was really interesting learning about how charities for (non-profit organizations) use their funds, donated from people, to do good in the world. She stated that an impressive 90% of the donations they receive go to help the people of Ghana. This is truly an accomplishment, as I have heard of organizations giving a measely 30% of their funds for charitable givings, while keeping the remainder for "administrative purposes." Suffice to say, there is still a lot of work that must be done to help those in Ghana, but I'm glad to see someone not only talking about the ideas but putting them into action. She is eventually going to write a book about her own experiences, and the great part about this is that she feels that she still has much work left to accomplish.

I'm a little bummed out that the Alternative Spring Break to go to Oakland for habitat for humanity is already taken up. I had completely forgotten about the volunteer opportunity to help those in need in California. Just thinking about my negligence is making me frustrated with myself so lets switch gears and turn to the latest movie I saw which was Hotel Rwanda.

It was a good movie in terms of portraying how the genocide happened and the factors influenced it. However, I do believe that it could have included more visual displays of the killings in order to sensitize the audience to the plight of the Tutsi's, such as in the case of the Jewish people in Schindler's List. The atrocities that they went through were just horrendous. I actually finished reading a book on the genocide, called "Left to Tell" written by Steve Irwin about the story of Imaculee IIibagiza who was one of two survivors from her family. It was a very heart wrenching book that I recommend to everyone.

Unfortunately, I must get back to studying for my International Relations midterm. I'll get back to you on how I did!

aminm11@u.washington.edu

There goes another week of classes. I am so glad that today marks the end of what was an exhaustive week for me. There is nothing that can compare to the thought of having three days off (well, I do have work on the weekends and I also have to write 2 four page papers as well as a lengthy report on a company I am researching for in my business class). That reminds me I had a presentation today in my business class which turned out to be a really fun group project. We had to come up with a new invention that was somewhat feasible, and persuade the classthat there was a market for this product. I came up with the idea for my group to invent "Ice Cream Chips." Here was our company logo (click on the link):

Download file

I have to admit it doesn't look too shabby? The product idea is basically a potato chip wrapped in a layer of organic vanilla ice cream and then coated with a thick layer of either dark or milk chocolate, which is all frozen. Doesn't that just sound good? We added a late 50's theme to it and we decided to start out first on the west coast to test out the product and if it was succesful, gradually move across the nation. But since we weren't running on a budget technically we could have gone international. All in all, I think our group did pretty good and I was proud of the way we cooperated with one another despite the fact that we had two weeks to prepare. But ours wasn't the only great "invention," there were others which were rather interesting, such as a jacket that determines whether a person needed to be warmed up or cooled according to the individual's body temperature.

Oh I forgot to mention, on Wednesday, April 23rd from 10:30-1:00 the Bothell campus will be hosting a "College Awareness Day" for underrepresented students from local area high schools and I have been invited to serve on the panel to field questions from potential college bound high school students. I'm really excited about this opportunity to share what I've learned from college life and impart it to high school students. It was just last year that I was a wide-eyed college student yet to graduate from high school, so I can relate to what they will experience. If you would like to add your experience of college life and what you have gotten out of it then please email me.

Has anyone noticed the sun peeking through the clouds these past couple of days? I wished I could have stayed out in the sunlight last week but, unfortunately I had to work.

It was cool though, I still played some basketball with my brother to keep up my conditioning, but its hard maintaining a disciplined regimen throughout the quarter. I guess working though does have its benefits (besides for the pay). For example, if I hadn't been working just a few weeks ago I wouldn't have known about the lunar eclipse scheduled to happen that night. And in case you missed it here it is:

Time seems to fly when I let my mind wander. I better get back to this paper I was telling you about for my business class. I'll keep you posted on next week's events on campus.

QUESTIONS or concerns about this week's blog (or previous ones)? EMAIL me at aminm11@u.washington.edu and I will respond to your comment as fast as it takes for my brother to sink ten three pointers in a row, (which, for those of you that don't know, is pretty fast).

Just a quick announcement before I tell you about my exciting weekend: Student Life is currently recruiting students for the following leadership positions:Campus Events Board
Orientation Advisor, Services and Activities Fee Committee, Student Technology Fee Committee, Student Retreat Coordinators. An information session will be held on Monday, March 10, 3:30-4:30 p.m. in UW1-103. Applications are due, Friday, April 4.

Also sign up now for spring recreation sports leagues. Registration is now open for spring soccer, softball and basketball.

And speaking of basketball, I went to the Lakers game a couple of weeks ago. For those of you that don't know the Los Angeles Lakers are my favorite sports team period and Kobe Bryant is unquestionably the greatest player that ever picked up a basketball (that's right he's even better than MJ). I went with some of my coworkers and we managed to get there about an hour before the game to see the players warm up. Usually the big time players never warm up with their teammates but Kobe was this time so I fumbled my way through a throng of onlookers trying to take snapshots of the talented player. I was literally standing two feet away from him! It was a rare moment and I took full advantage of it by taking a few pics rights next to him.

We had a blast, but we knew that this could be the last time the L.A. Lakers would ever come to Seattle again, because of the Sonics managements persistence in moving the team to Oklahoma (could you imagine the Oklahoma Sonics?! Yikes!).

Anyway...lets get back to business. I somehow managed to finish my papers for business class, which has led me to become mentally and physically drained. The papers were essentially reports on the Apple company which has been at the forefront of electronic technology. The success of their iPod is amazing as well as their other accessories such as the Mac. The next paper I have to write for that class is a report on a public company of our choice. I chose Starbucks because it is well known, and their mochas (while pricey) are still really good.

Anyway, that does it for me today. Go Lakers and Huskies!

aminm11@u.washington.edu