What Civic Action Means to Me

"Civic action" is not something that is clear to everybody. Although I fully understand it, many do not. I truly believe that we were put on this earth for a reason and that we should do our civic duty and be men and women with and for others. I believe that many people are too concerned and into themselves and tend to forget about what humanity is. To be human is to promote social justice as well as civic duty.

Many people are age believe that they have more problems then reality entails. For example, being stressed out about a tests isn't really a "problem". Although it may seem like a big deal to a college student, in the whole scheme of things, it's no big deal. Civic action puts things into perspective as well as allows us to really appreciate the important things in life. It allows us to be able to distinguish between a need and a want and be fortunate for what we have. Yes, we all take things for granted sometimes and that's okay; for it is human nature. By carrying out civic action and being a humane citizen, we can really distinguish our "problems" from the real PROBLEMS in the world.

Civic actions requires one to step out of his or her comfort zone and allow the uncomfortable to become the comfortable. Civic action requires one to go out of his or her way for someone or a population who really needs it. It is something that is important to humanity as well as for the development of the self. Civic action is a great way to help out the world a little piece at a time.

Some things that I think that would help this course be improved would be to create a service-learning aspect to it. Nothing gains experience like going out in the real world. Maybe have 2 classes and make one an optional service-learning course. Also, I think that we should have a semester long project about something that relates to civic duty and social justice, This would definitely help the course a lot :)

Attached is a link for a YouTube video on Medical-Veterinary Civil Action Program in Africa .. check it out :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hknYckzBpo

My Take on the TED Talks :)

I absolutely loved the TED Talks! No words can describe :) This was a first time thing for me and overall I was very impressed and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I liked to listen to everyone else's as well because everyone had a different topic to speak about. I thoroughly enjoyed sitting through them as well as giving my own speech.

To be honest, I doubted myself as to if I chose the correct topic to do my TED talk on as I was watching everyone else's. I am a science major and this definitely was obvious as I was giving my talk on Hospice. Overall though, I was very satisfied with the way in which my talk went because although my topic was very different then everyone else's, it was still my own and hospice is a very big part of my life. My goal was to make people aware of the issues that hospice forms as well as try to get the word out. I would do another TED talk any day!!

Hospice ethics presentation

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Hospice ethics presentation

View more presentations from lp384531.

Lisa Polera raises awareness to the unaware

Lisa Polera takes a stance to discuss a topic in which no one has discussed before. She argues how much communication has been lost in the world of hospice as well as the ethics involved in the field. While trying to raise awareness on a topic that many people are unaware about, she also will enlighten and help others to enlight on the subject of hospice and ethics.

WATCH THIS!!! Surrogates Trailer Link!

http://www.moviefone.com/movie/surrogates/29481/video/the-surrogates-trailer-no-1/25345095001

Surrogates: The Novel to Film Adaptation

I've always been an avid reader. I can usually finish a pretty big book in about 2 days. Nerdy huh?! I've also always found that 10/10 times I enjoy the novel better then the movie. Sometimes, if I enjoy a book a lot, I won't see the movie because I liked the book so much and I don't want to ruin what I think happened by watching the movie. I know.. even nerdier! As for the Surrogates, the movie let my expectations down. A book like the Surrogates is different from what I usually read. I like to read biographies and fiction but I never read comic books. Although I was a little hesitant at first to read it, it exceeded my expectations. Because I usually don't read books in comic form, it was a little hard for me to follow at times, but in the end I really enjoyed it.

As for the movie, I was a little disappointed. I always like books better so I knew I would be a little disappointed when I watched the movie. In my opinion, books are always better then the movie and I felt like the novel portrayed the story-line better then the movie did. Although the visuals throughout the movie definitely helped me to picture what the surrogates and the people would actually looked like, I like to use my imagination. Because this story-line deals with technology so much, I was actually looking forward to seeing the movie because I did want to see what these surrogates would look like and how they would act and move. Overall though, I did like the novel better.

For the Surrogates, the novel to film adaption was interesting. There were both many similarities as well as many differences. The biggest difference between the two was that in the movie, the wife does not kill herself. Also, the book left out a major part; in the movie, the reason that the couple is obsessed with their surrogates is because they had lost a child. This was not mentioned in the book and I was very surprised because this was such a big part of the story-line.. or so I thought! Another difference between the novel and the movie was that in the novel, it seemed as though all the characters were fat and ugly. I don't know if it was just my imagination of if this was really how the characters were supposed to be portrayed but I felt like they were a lot better looking in the movie then I imagined them to be. Another difference between the book and the movie was that the movie did a better job of showing how the people with the surrogates actually became their surrogates. An example of this would be the people putting on those "goggles" when they were taking the part of their surrogates. This was something that I did look forward to seeing on film because I wasn't sure about how it was supposed to be portrayed in the novel. A novel to film adaptation is good for a novel such as this because it is so good to visualize it.

Another difference between the novel and the film was that there were a lot more aestics in the movie. Again, it is a lot harder for a book such as this to portray exactly what the people and surrogates are supposed to look like and how they are supposed to act. Overall, I felt like although I always do enjoy the novels more, due to the fact that this particular movie had a lot or technological characters, it helped to visualize things by seeing the movie. I did enjoy the novel better but it helped for me to see the movie. Although the main story-line was mostly similar in both the book and the movie, there were some differences. Overall, although I did thoroughly enjoy the movie, I enjoyed the novel more because I like to use my imagination :)