Sunday, July 17, 2011

July 16, 2011-Music for Burra Katha

4 hours
I wrote several new songs called Fastlane, Horror, Taxi, Weve got the Jazz, and tinging. It remains to be seen how many of these songs we will actually record, but I think they are the best material I have produced in a while. 

July 15, 2011- Haven Hospice

4 hours

I was a volunteer at the Hospice again today. As I am a teen volunteer, I can only work in the Hospice Attic. My main job today was to accept donated items and then process them by sorting them out into similar categories. I was very surprised at the number of people who bring in things everyday. There were at least 20 bags of clothes and things to sort through. I thought this would be a slow paced Job, but I was busy almost all the time and it was pretty hard work to sort and continuously process items and clothing.

It feels rewarding when you place the sorted items out into the sales area after the staff decides what items are suitable for resale. It is very interesting to see how the staff prices the items for resale. Sometimes, I did not see the value in some of the clothes, but the staff said that these were very hot items and have very good resale price. I also learned that people in general are very generous and like donating to the Hospice because it is for a good cause. I will ask my parents to donate items to the Hospice for resale. I will myself donate some of my old clothes and toys, which I don't use anymore. Volunteering at the Haven Hospice has further instilled in me a feeling of helping those who are not so fortunate.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

July 6, 2011- Haven Hospice

4h

Today was the first day I volunteered at the Hospice Attic. The Haven Hospice provides support for patients with a life-limiting or terminal illness. This support improves the quality of their lives and relationships during there final days. The hospice requires the help of volunteers in various areas. You can volunteer pretty much at any position, like patient volunteers: provide companionship, support and assistance to patients, administrative volunteers: office and clerical support, alliance volunteers: organize fund raising activities. I personally wanted to volunteer as a patient volunteer, but I am not 18 yet, and therefore considered to be a teen volunteer and I can only offer my services at the Haven Hospice Attic store.

The Attic is important because it provides revenue to support the Hospice. The attic voluneers are involved in day to day operations of the stores. I arrived at the Attic bright and early at 8am. I started accepting donated items. I also realized that there were 3 days worth of stuff that people had brought in for charity. So I started to organize the received items. There was a milieu of whatever you can think of: old cassette players, chairs, clothes, furniture, canned food etc. I also realized that this was a surprisingly dirty job because people's old junk was very dusty and smelly. It was also more physically demanding that I had expected which was pleasant because I got to work my forearms a bit. I had to lift heavy bags of clothes and toss them into a bin. It was nice to know that I was helping the hospice resell items and create revenue to support the patients.

Lesson learned: 1. Somebody's junk can be someone else's gold. 2. Being organized can help in all walks of life, right from school work to processing large number of items.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

June 11, 2011- Sunshine Games at Lake Wauberg

6 hours

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20110609/ARTICLES/110609409

I volunteered at the Florida’s Sunshine State Games, 2011. The Sunshine State Games held competitions in a total of 26 sports over a period of 3 months. I volunteered at the rowing regatta for over 6 hours. I directed boats to the docks, helped people with handing them oars for the boats, and then helped to unload them from the dock. Later on, I helped with the ice cone maker. It was fun to just watch other people participating in a sport that I am so passionate about. Also, it was an experience to sit watch the sport from the perspective of an observer, rather than a participant.

Lesson Learned: The sport of rowing can be run efficiently only with the help of volunteers. The sport involves a lot of help from the volunteers in directing boat traffic, loading, unloading and serving food.






Saturday, July 2, 2011

Feburary 27, 2011 - Debate preparation

2 hours

Prepared for the debate with Akash Salwan. Resolved: North Korea poses a more serious threat to United States national security than Iran. The topic is clear, but it takes a long time to do the research and get a speech together. We have been working very hard to keep the speech clear and concise (under 4 min). It always seems a challenge to write a powerful speech. I start writing, and then I write so much that then I have to start cutting down.

March 6, 2011 - Florida Catholic Forensics League Grand FinalsPreparation

2 hours

I am still tired from the scrimmage at Tallahassee yesterday, but I have promised Akash that we will be preparing for the debate. The topic is pretty clear, "Resolved: North Korea poses a more serious threat to United States national security than Iran". We have in the past done pretty good, but this time, we want to win the the debate.

March 11-12, 2011 - Florida Catholic Forensics League Grand Finals

6 hours

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20110417/ARTICLES/110419546



I and Akash Salwan participated at the FCFL Grand Finals at Lake Mary Preparatory School in Orlando. We were well prepared this time. We were debating whether North Korea or Iran was a bigger threat to the United States of America. Each time our name was drawn we went with North Korea. We did better than we have ever done at the Public forum debate format. We were placed 7th out of 29 teams that had competed. We were named as Alternates for the National Catholic Forensics Grand National Tournament in Washington, D.C. May 26-30, 2011. If we had a little more preparation, we could have been going to the nationals. However, this was a really good experience because we had prepared hard for this debate and we got a taste of defeating several teams before reaching the final 7.