Downtown St. Pete

I am finding myself becoming increasingly fond of my school, the University of South Florida, which is located just on the outskirts of downtown Saint Petersburg, Florida. The only problem that I noticed nearly right away is the lack of "normal" fast-food restaurants. I was amazed at the number of bars within the downtown area along with the specialty and independent restaurants. One will have no problem getting a beer or any other spirit drink. One will not have a problem getting a one of a kind dish at one of the many restaurants. But when it comes to wanting a regular, good old cheeseburger from a place like McDonalds's, all luck has one out. What makes matters worse is how these shops and restaurants that do serve burgers and fries are not cheap. Even "The Tavern" which is located on the USF-St Pete campus charges $5 and up for a fulfilling meal. I have to hang it to the good people at "The Tavern" though, the food is good. I bought a chili dog with cheese one day because I was craving for one. I must admit that when the server brought it to my table I was shocked. I immediately thought to myself, "This is no chili dog!" Yes, the hot dog was HUGE, but it was served "gourmet style. The way it was put together was on a slice of bread that prohibited the picking up of this already behemoth of a chili dog. The cheese was shredded shrivels of cheese which added little to the taste and added to the mess. But, let me tell you, that was one good chili dog; despite that real actual chili was used.


Back to the problem at hand. Not being able to get a ordinary AMERICAN cheeseburger. This problem makes me miss the city of Detroit with there being a Coney Island restaurant on just about every corner. At a Coney Island restaurant, you could get a nice sized cheeseburger for $3 and a loose burger (chili dog minus the dog) for 99 cents. IF I had the money to do so, I would invest in buying a franchise of a Coney Island and open it up in the Tampa Bay tri-city area. I am pretty sure that I would make a killer in profits.

OMFG!!!!!

Just before the week ended a new one began, I cam to a realization that I really did not want to come to. It seems that I cannot be myself without upsetting family and friends. My family do not want to accept me for me. Many of my family have only just begun to meet me and is so shocked at the things I do and the way I may act at times. It is mind-boggling to me. One feel that family should be the entity that one may go to whenever they need support. It does not seem that way with me. I find myself having to go to close friends for support only because my family will be quick to either turn me away or put me down mentally.

This morning I had a HORRIBLE dream. I had a dream that I was in a fight that caused me to be arrested and violate the probation that I am on. That in turn caused me to bve sent to prison. Dreams like that scares the *ish out of me because some time down the road, they always become reality. I am hoping that this NIGHTMARE is not a window into the future, because if it is I am going to have to watch every step I make.

Break is over!!!

Well Spring Break is over and it is back to class. It seems like I did not accomplish anything doing the week of "relaxation". I did have one day of fun while on my break which got a bit crazy with me waking up on the floor at home with the television out of place and things on the floor. To my knowledge I did purge the contents of my stomach before making it home. That next day was all about sleeping it off before going in to work that evening.

I managed to complete the project draft for one of my classes and is proud of the results. It has only been two months since composing an operations manual and I forgot the WORK it takes to formulate one and not leave anything out while at the same time not putting irrelevant information in it.

I took the opportunity during the break to also straighten up my apartment a bit, but it still is not where it should be at. Probably going to have to wait til after finals and before I leave for a summer weekend in Detroit for my ten year high school reunion. I am so stoked about the approaching of this monumental occasion. I plan on having a BIOTA (Blame It On The Alcohol) weekend.

Mid-semester has come and is going and I am not thrilled with my progress in school but know that I am doing my best at achieving. I know that whatever grade that I receive at the end will be a grade that I deserved. Just hope that it does not be a HORRID grade.

In closing, I guess I enjoyed my Spring Break and is looking forward to the summer and seeing all my old friends from high school. No wonder I am addicted to Facebook!

Service Learning

This morning, March 9th, I was stuck in a thought of how I am working on an operations manual for the Mount Zion Human Service's Children Center and just last semester I had to author a similar document for the fledgling student newspaper of Marygrove College. It took me the entire semester just to formulate the manual for that entity. It was not at all difficult because I was the Editor-in-Chief and founder of the newspaper. As well as how I was enrolled in an independent study course to compliment being the administrator of the newspaper.

Formulating this operations manual for the Children Center has become a slow process only because the information trickles in and the workload for being a college student is strained heavily by each individual professor. i am starting to wonder if the instructors of University of South Florida-Saint Petersburg takes into consideration the other classes that the students are enrolled in. I don't believe they do. If the instructors considered the student workload on and off campus, they would not be assigning tons of work which would overburden an average persons daily tasks. This is expecially common for English majors. I do not understand why English professors wants to bog students down with massive readings and writings and want ALL work completed in such a short timeframe. The concept is ludicrous.

Chp 8 Assessing Your Progress

The chapter of the Service Learning text which describe the steps in assessing the project by means of a progress report was insightful. As I was reading the chapter, I in a way wished that the information being provided was known a week ago.

The progress report sounds more like a summarized memo-formatted proposal. The only difference is that it documents changes in the time-frame of the project and any new outcomes that may have surfaced during the overall implementing of the project itself.

I found it interesting how the chapter brought up the problem with writing in an active style versus passive. This makes sense in trying to convince the agency that the progress is going as planned even if certain deadlines have changed. Writing actively just creates that sense of assurance that the proposed project will be completed on time with a sustainable final product.

As with all the other chapters of the book, I did find it extremely time consuming to read and digest. This is due to the overall length of not only chapter 8, but all the other chapters as well. I feel that it is ironic how the book tells of how to keep the length of proposals, memos, and such to a minimum so as not to lose the audience's attention but the book has chapters which goes on forever. Makes it difficult while learning how to successfully administer a group service-learning project while juggling the actual class along with other classes.

VisualKulture.Cat

Today on this Thursday afternoon, February 19th the exhibit that has been in construction in the Poynter Library of USF-StPete for nearly a week, finally opened. This exhibit features artistic books from world renowned artists. It just turns out that this is a two-part exhibit. The sister exhibit will be at the Dali Musuem which is conveniently located next door to the library. I plan on going there because not only is it a free tour for USF students showing their identification card, but it will give me an opportunity to learn more of the exhibit and the artists behind it.

This exhibit reminds me of a project done at my previous school, Marygrove College in Detroit, MI. The senior art students was commissioned as their senior seminar to creatively turn a book into art. I found that exhibit very moving. The visualkulture.cat exhibit here at USF-StPete sent "goose-shivers" down my spine as I saw works of art which compared to that one exhibit at Marygrove College. WOW.

**CORRECTION**

The exhibit opens at the Dali Museum Friday evening. I will not be able to make that, but I should be able to make the one on Saturday. I will be making an effort to see this exhibit just because my interest has been piqued.

Mt Zion Human Services visit

The visit to Mt Zion Human Services was not too much exciting, but it was informational. Upon arriving to the location, I was surprised to see many buildings comprised of the Children's Center. While I was younger, all I had was pre-school and kindergarten. I envy the children enrolled at MZHS for having the opportunity to congregate outside their school environment, and in some cases before their initial enrollment into school. The activities that the faculty provides is stimulating to their developing minds. The cozy corner that they have in place for the children to watch television is a good touch. I was in awe to see the children glued to the television as Spongebob Squarepants was on. I knew that the show was addictive, seeing all those little faces hypnotized just proved it solidly.