Genuine Goal-Setting as an Answer to School Violence?

Goal-Setting for Students

Today’s students are lost in overcrowded schools with too few role models. Goal-setting does not seem to be a focus in most schools. Could students who have a goal to work towards get in less trouble than those who don’t? Click the link above to hear my mp3 on the matter.

~Tara Overzat

We Are Not Independent

Click here- We Are Not Independent – WMA audio file

Just a brief thought about how we as individuals aren’t ever alone, even when we are lonely. You can click the link above (it will take you to a second page where you can click the link again) to hear the WMA file.

~Tara Overzat

Philosophical Questions

By Tara Overzat

Just a few questions I’ve had on my mind lately…

1) If emotions make up the human experience (love, loss, happiness, grief, anger, adoration, etc.), do people who experience fewer or less intense emotions have a “less human” experience?

2) If you have an incredible moment with someone, but then forget that moment due to drugs, alcohol or disease, is that moment still important to the other person?

3) Can people be judged by the net value of how they touched other people’s lives? If someone has done more harm than good (even unintentionally) was his/her life worthless?

4)  If we all could conquer our fears, how much happier and more productive would the world be? Is facing that fear, and doing the scariest thing you can imagine (just scary, not evil or unconscionable) the only way to combat fear?

5) If everyone chose one person to be 100% honest with at least once a day, would there be a chain reaction of truth that could change someone’s life?

6) Does the truth always come out eventually, or are some things destined to remain a secret?

7) Is it true that some people just meet each other at the wrong time, like ships passing in the night, or are all our meetings predestined, with people guiding us along our paths?

Inspirational – Christopher Wall

Posted by Tara Overzat

Thirty-three years ago, a baby boy was born with his heart outside of his body. Doctors initially thought this newborn with ectopia cordis would have just days to live. Today, Christopher Wall is alive and well, and though his heart still beats visibly outside his body, it doesn’t stop him from playing basketball and going out with the guys.

Wall’s courage and zest for life can remind all of us to live to the fullest despite the difficulties thrown our way.

ZoNation Video – Cash For Clunkers

Posted by Tara Overzat

AlfonZo Rachel is a conservative Republican putting a young, sometimes corny, flavor on the conservative message. His Cash For Clunkers video below is some food for thought. I don’t agree with everything he says, but the hyperbole makes a great point.

I’m looking forward to the fallout, I mean feedback, from this post.

Don’t Play With Little Girls – Steve McNair’s Fatal Mistake

By Tara Overzat

Former NFL quarterback Steve McNair made more than just an error in judgment when he decided to take on 20 year old Sahel Kazemi as his mistress.

Young people have strong responses to sex and love. A girl of 20 is very inexperienced in the world Read more »

Nancy Drew, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Real Women

Old Nancy Drew book

By Tara Overzat

On Good Morning America the other morning, a guest was on lamenting that young girls don’t read Nancy Drew novels anymore (Is anyone really shocked? The books were antiquated when I was a child, and that was before the internet sped everything up tenfold.). She felt that little girls looked up to beautiful celebrities instead of brave women who thought for themselves and went on adventures.

When I was little, I didn’t know women who were lawyers or doctors or businesspeople. I did, however, stay up late to watch the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” on Nick at Nite Read more »

Too Much Bad News – Information Overload

By Tara Overzat

It seems like so many famous people are dying- entertainers, athletes, businessmen. On top of that we all have dealt with family or friends who are ill or have passed. Why does it feel like so many people we know are suffering? Blame it on facebook. Myspace. Twitter. Read more »

An Experience I Will Never Forget

Amber suspending

Suspension is the art of hanging one’s body off the ground, using hooks embedded into the skin. The practice seems to have started with Native American tribes, some of which continue to do this today as part of the “Vision Quest” or othert rituals. Amber Sutton is a modern day suspensionist and shares the story of her first time suspending below.  -Tara Overzat

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An Experience I Will Never Forget

By Amber Sutton

An experience I will never forget, the hooks I was soo worried about, were nothing. Getting off the ground was tough for the first time. I cried a little because, this was the moment I had wanted so bad and it was finally happening Read more »

The Michael Jackson Tragedy- What Happens When You Don’t Deal With Your Past

Young Michael Jackson

By Tara Overzat

Michael Jackson died on my birthday. I received a text message from a friend at 6:09pm. TMZ was reporting the death well before any of the other news outlets.

Everyone was shocked and saddened. I feel like Jackson was robbed of his last shot, his last chance Read more »