Author Archives: NWtoSE

About NWtoSE

LeDroit Park Public Safety Queen, job seeker, MPH, allergic to foolishness, youngin' supporter, unofficial public health enforcer & on my pursuit of happiness!

Stress Less. . . aaaaaahhhh BREATHE.

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This last week I learned some fairly stressful news. . . . so I have decided to simply CHILL.
In the summer of ’08 I had the opportunity to intern for Mental Health America! It was without a doubt the most meaningful and well served internship I have ever experienced.
I was able to work on various projects in regards to social marketing like “Back to Campus” which gives students heading back to school tips to keep their mental health on the radar before they return back to college or before starting college.

My favorite project that I helped just a little bit in was the:
Live Your Life Well (c) Campaign.

I will be blogging about their 10 tools to help you de-stress. I actually tried them over the summer and the WORK! I forgot about them but now. . . they are BACK in my life!!!

  1. Connect with others.
  2. live longer.
  3. Stay positive.
  4. Get physically active.
  5. Help others.
  6. Get enough rest.
  7. Create joy and satisfaction.
  8. Eat well.
  9. Take care of your spirit.
  10. Deal better with hard times.
  11. Get professional help if you need it.
This publication is made possible through unrestricted educational grants from Eli Lilly and Company,
AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Forest Laboratories, Inc.

http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/go/mhm/2009/stress

So what did I do this weekend to stress less???

I watched a lot of the TUBE. I have missed you TV. . . .

What can you do to de-stress????

UPDATE: Chiron Hunt

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For those that read my blog or that know me they know about Chiron. Basically the man changed my life. I met him almost a year ago when he was working in my neighborhood we became good friends and the rest is history. I haven’t seen Chiron since last August so I am not going to lie and say I don’t miss him! Ahhh to be 19 again. . . the good old days Y2K 01.

I know I give GW a hard time so that’s why I am so thrilled to report of Chiron’s successes which can partially be attributed to the The George Washington University’s Prime Movers Media Program which pairs veteran and retired journalists from leading news media companies with students in elective media classes at Washington, D.C., high schools to help them create or strengthen student-run media. (GW Media & Public Affairs, Newswise)

“The Prime Movers program gave me hands-on experience of what it is like to work as a broadcast journalist,” said Chiron Hunt, a 2007 graduate of Ballou High School in Washington, D.C., and a three-year student participant in the program. “The professional mentors who came into my classroom brought real life experience that you can’t get in a normal class.”

Hunt added, “At first, I just took the course as an elective. After a while, I got a feel for what I was doing and started to feel comfortable on screen and was enjoying it. Now, I’m majoring in broadcast journalism at the University of Nebraska and hope to someday work for ESPN as a sports broadcaster.”

Dorothy Gilliam, founder and director of GW’s Prime Movers Media Program & prize-winning journalist who retired from The Washington Post after 33 years to start the program at GW in 2003 and Sam Ford, general assignment reporter with WJLA-TV (ABC-7) have been two major VIP’s in Chiron’s life. Ms. Gilliam and I spoke once last summer and we both agreed that Chiron was going places! It’s official I have got to meet her! I know I could have some fun discussions about my constant fight against the evils of tobacco marketing to the black community :)

I hope Chiron remembers the fan club he has rooting for him! There will never be anyone that will ever have made such a direct impact to change the course of my life. Thank you Chiron.
Last fall Chiron had me proof read a paper and he said that I could use this quote in my blog this is the first time I am using it. .

These [gangbangers and drug dealers] are the names and stereotypes I deal with everyday. Majority of the time people don’t even say anything, you can just look at their facial expression and tell! Some are good and most are bad, but I’m trying to change that by going to school and graduating. By doing this, I am showing people of the world that an African American Male born and raised in “the hood” and being surrounded by guns, gangs, and drugs everyday made it out with a degree in his hand!

-Chiron Hunt

*For information about Prime Movers please contact Dorothy Gilliam @ 202 994 0761 or visit http://www.gwu.edu/~primemovers

UPDATE: Chiron Hunt

Posted on by
Reply

For those that read my blog or that know me they know about Chiron. Basically the man changed my life. I met him almost a year ago when he was working in my neighborhood we became good friends and the rest is history. I haven’t seen Chiron since last August so I am not going to lie and say I don’t miss him! Ahhh to be 19 again. . . the good old days Y2K 01.

I know I give GW a hard time so that’s why I am so thrilled to report of Chiron’s successes which can partially be attributed to the The George Washington University’s Prime Movers Media Program which pairs veteran and retired journalists from leading news media companies with students in elective media classes at Washington, D.C., high schools to help them create or strengthen student-run media. (GW Media & Public Affairs, Newswise)

“The Prime Movers program gave me hands-on experience of what it is like to work as a broadcast journalist,” said Chiron Hunt, a 2007 graduate of Ballou High School in Washington, D.C., and a three-year student participant in the program. “The professional mentors who came into my classroom brought real life experience that you can’t get in a normal class.”

Hunt added, “At first, I just took the course as an elective. After a while, I got a feel for what I was doing and started to feel comfortable on screen and was enjoying it. Now, I’m majoring in broadcast journalism at the University of Nebraska and hope to someday work for ESPN as a sports broadcaster.”

Dorothy Gilliam, founder and director of GW’s Prime Movers Media Program & prize-winning journalist who retired from The Washington Post after 33 years to start the program at GW in 2003 and Sam Ford, general assignment reporter with WJLA-TV (ABC-7) have been two major VIP’s in Chiron’s life. Ms. Gilliam and I spoke once last summer and we both agreed that Chiron was going places! It’s official I have got to meet her! I know I could have some fun discussions about my constant fight against the evils of tobacco marketing to the black community :)

I hope Chiron remembers the fan club he has rooting for him! There will never be anyone that will ever have made such a direct impact to change the course of my life. Thank you Chiron.
Last fall Chiron had me proof read a paper and he said that I could use this quote in my blog this is the first time I am using it. .

These [gangbangers and drug dealers] are the names and stereotypes I deal with everyday. Majority of the time people don’t even say anything, you can just look at their facial expression and tell! Some are good and most are bad, but I’m trying to change that by going to school and graduating. By doing this, I am showing people of the world that an African American Male born and raised in “the hood” and being surrounded by guns, gangs, and drugs everyday made it out with a degree in his hand!

-Chiron Hunt

*For information about Prime Movers please contact Dorothy Gilliam @ 202 994 0761 or visit http://www.gwu.edu/~primemovers

Think smoking is "Gay". . . . The Tobacco Companies do!

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Luckily, we have an amazing resource in the District! Outtoquit.org not only provides you with where to go for Tobacco Cessation information but it also provides you with facts about how the Tobacco Companies are targeting the LGBT (I use LGBT because that is how I was raised HA HA- “you say tomato TA MA TO”) communities. What I don’t understand is why I have to have constant arguments with my friends about the Tobacco Companies evil ways. . . the evidence is clear!
Check out Outtoquit.org and encourage someone you know in the District to call 1-800-QUIT-NOW to get their FREE patches or gum to help them start quitting today! (wow I sound like a commercial!)

The GLBT Community is Disproportionately Impacted by Tobacco Members of the GLBT community smoke at a far greater rate than that of the general population, although estimates vary widely. In one 2004 California Study, lesbian women were 70% more likely to smoke than other women, and gay men were more than 50% more likely to smoke than other men. More recent research suggests this number may be even higher. The LGBT National Tobacco Control Network estimates that the GLBT community is 50% to 200% more likely than others to be addicted to tobacco.

Smoking and HIV/AIDS Smoking weakens the immune system, and makes it even harder to fight off opportunistic infections associated with HIV. Smoking also increases the risk of HIV-associated malignancies and other cancers found among people living with HIV/AIDS. Further, HIV positive individuals who are at greater risk for heart disease because of lypodystrophy, significantly compound that risk by smoking.

Tobacco Companies Have Targeted our Community The tobacco industry spends more than $13 billion each year to promote cigarette use in the United States. The Tobacco company has targeted the GLBT community since at least 1991, advertising at Pride and other GLBT community events, and contributing to both national and local GLBT and HIV/AIDS Organizations. An early Tobacco industry document described the plan for increasing sales among San Francisco’s gay and homeless populations, it was labeled “Project SCUM”.

Social Stress Factors also Contribute to Increased Smoking Rates 30% of gay, lesbian, and bisexual high school students in the District of Columbia said they were bullied at least once on school property in the 2006-2007 school year. More than a quarter of GLB high school students said they had skipped school once or more in the past month because they felt unsafe in school or on the way to school. Social stress factors such as these contribute to greater smoking rates.
(All of the above statistics are taken directly from “Out to Quit- The Facts” http://www.outtoquit.org/facts.html)

Think smoking is "Gay". . . . The Tobacco Companies do!

Posted on by
2

Luckily, we have an amazing resource in the District! Outtoquit.org not only provides you with where to go for Tobacco Cessation information but it also provides you with facts about how the Tobacco Companies are targeting the LGBT (I use LGBT because that is how I was raised HA HA- “you say tomato TA MA TO”) communities. What I don’t understand is why I have to have constant arguments with my friends about the Tobacco Companies evil ways. . . the evidence is clear!
Check out Outtoquit.org and encourage someone you know in the District to call 1-800-QUIT-NOW to get their FREE patches or gum to help them start quitting today! (wow I sound like a commercial!)

The GLBT Community is Disproportionately Impacted by Tobacco Members of the GLBT community smoke at a far greater rate than that of the general population, although estimates vary widely. In one 2004 California Study, lesbian women were 70% more likely to smoke than other women, and gay men were more than 50% more likely to smoke than other men. More recent research suggests this number may be even higher. The LGBT National Tobacco Control Network estimates that the GLBT community is 50% to 200% more likely than others to be addicted to tobacco.

Smoking and HIV/AIDS Smoking weakens the immune system, and makes it even harder to fight off opportunistic infections associated with HIV. Smoking also increases the risk of HIV-associated malignancies and other cancers found among people living with HIV/AIDS. Further, HIV positive individuals who are at greater risk for heart disease because of lypodystrophy, significantly compound that risk by smoking.

Tobacco Companies Have Targeted our Community The tobacco industry spends more than $13 billion each year to promote cigarette use in the United States. The Tobacco company has targeted the GLBT community since at least 1991, advertising at Pride and other GLBT community events, and contributing to both national and local GLBT and HIV/AIDS Organizations. An early Tobacco industry document described the plan for increasing sales among San Francisco’s gay and homeless populations, it was labeled “Project SCUM”.

Social Stress Factors also Contribute to Increased Smoking Rates 30% of gay, lesbian, and bisexual high school students in the District of Columbia said they were bullied at least once on school property in the 2006-2007 school year. More than a quarter of GLB high school students said they had skipped school once or more in the past month because they felt unsafe in school or on the way to school. Social stress factors such as these contribute to greater smoking rates.
(All of the above statistics are taken directly from “Out to Quit- The Facts” http://www.outtoquit.org/facts.html)

Have you been "flowin" lately? Writin’ a new beat?

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Like a bunch of my friends who have gettin’ their beat on. . . you too may also want to consider getting your work copyrighted. For once the old great cinder blocks aka The Government actually attempted at making the experience a little bit more user friendly and basic for not only the youth but frankly everyone involved in the process. Here is what the site looks like and if you click on the image you can just peruse the site for directions on how to protect your tunes!

Happy Copyrighting!

Have you been "flowin" lately? Writin’ a new beat?

Posted on by
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Like a bunch of my friends who have gettin’ their beat on. . . you too may also want to consider getting your work copyrighted. For once the old great cinder blocks aka The Government actually attempted at making the experience a little bit more user friendly and basic for not only the youth but frankly everyone involved in the process. Here is what the site looks like and if you click on the image you can just peruse the site for directions on how to protect your tunes!

Happy Copyrighting!