MLK Jr Oratorical Contest

On a rainy, thundering, and even hailing Thursday evening, the UCLA gospel choir performed at UCLA's annual Martin Luther King Junior Oratorical Contest. It was held in the De Neve auditorium (the dorms). This year's theme was "Promised Land or Wilderness?" Is America finally in the promise land of equality and true independence or are we still in wilderness?
There were awesome spoken word and influential speeches that really engaged with the audience. Made me think about how much the United States has changed since MLK Jr's death in 1968. We've still got a long way to go. Racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, and the list goes on and on. Those still exist. But there's no question about the progress our nation has made thus far in the pursuit of equality and freedom. Most presentations concluded with the idea that we are still wandering in the wilderness but progressively getting closer and close to the promise land.

The UCLA gospel choir really "rocked the house" that night. The 100+ voices sang anthems of hope, justice, peace, and freedom--all of which MLK Jr avidly supported and dreamed of. Although some people in the audience and stage were not of the christian faith, the themes of liberty and tranquility embedded in the words of the gospel songs moved everyone. In fact, a presenter before the gospel choir took stage was an atheist, who expressed his opinions about God and religion.

This was my third year attending this event. I can definitely say that it is getting better and BETTER every year. It's become somewhat of a tradition for the gospel choir to perform at the contest. I look forward to next year's event! Ya'll should all come out too!

New Blog for Ethno188!

This is a new blog I've created for my Ethno188 class at UCLA.

My tweetdeck has both lists/groups and search columns. Both are very similar. My lists/groups include diet and exercise, faith, nursing, food, airline sales, and news. My searches include: airline sale, HASOM, and nursing school.

My reasons for these subjects.
I exercise regularly and try to eat healthy. I gained some holiday weight (about 4 pounds) that I have to shed. I hope to do so by the end of this month but it's not easy. I am following twitter accounts of the magazine Cooking Light, Women's Health, Jillian Michaels, among others.

I love to travel. So I have up to date news on any deals on airline tickets! I'm thinking about taking a weekend trip to chicago soon.

I am following some pastors that I look up to. They don't just post up scripture daily, nor are they super "religious". Just ordinary people.

I'm applying to nursing school. I find it obvious to search about my future career! I am curious to see how other people are doing in nursing school. Most tweets are something along the lines of "First week of nursing school done. Sadly, it only gets worse from here" or "I look forward to at least one night of not studying for nursing school".

HASOM is required for class :)

The news section is just for me to be updated with what's going on in world-wide, not just my own little closet!

I really enjoy tweet-deck. Since I love surfing the internet for fun facts, news, and blogs about things that interest me. Tweet-deck is like quick link for personal blogs and news articles. If I have a concert that I'm performing in...I can let people know through twitter and hopefully garner up a bigger audience.

Okay that's all. I'm pooped from 8am class...nap time it is.