Incentive to friendship

One thing that has come up a lot lately and been on my mind are the concepts, small things, incentives, benefits, give-and-take atmosphere and the idea of friendship. As I continue to keep in touch with friends from home, see my friends from freshman year of college that I might not live with anymore and meet new people and become acquainted with them, I wonder why we develop friendships.

What is the incentive to friendships, and applying it further, relationships in general? What does an individual get out of being a loyal friend? Should they deserve to get anything? Is it intrinsic feeling or actions that pay off in the future? Does the feeling of mutual understanding or having similar interests with someone pay off for being a good friend to them?

I don't know. I know that society reinforces the idea that you "do unto others as you would like them to do to you," but I personally believe that selfishness has skewed some perspectives on this. People have begun to think with more of a mindset that "no one would do this for me....so why should I do it for them?" That's not a reasonable way to flip the question. I could and have gathered Biblical evidence, inspirational quotes and more that note completing actions out of your own humility and more, but you can realize those on your own; it will affect you more if you find it yourself.

So in my personal experience, if I had to define the main reason I maintain friendships, it would be because I like to know that the people I love are safe, healthy and happy. Is it nice to have people you are connected with to discuss issues with? Yes. Does social interaction make people excited and give them things to look forward to? Yes.

Friendship by definition encompasses relations or intimacy, feelings and dispositions and association. Let not the idea of association make you happy, but the fact that you chose and intrinsically care about the people you associate yourselves with provide the fulfillment friendship should give us all.

Live from Northbrook

I am happy to say that this post is being published from Northbrook rather than Columbia, since I am home in Chicago!

It's the perfect point in the semester to take a little break, feel caught up on life and spend time with family. Why am I home, you ask? As much as I travel, I'm not the type of person who takes off just to take off. Sunday is Sts. Peter & Paul Greek Orthodox Church's 50th Anniversary, with a lovely banquet that has been planned for years by now. There will be about 950 in attendance and probably be the fanciest event I attend until my wedding. Excitement is in the air. I'm also thankful to be sitting at an entire table of college students who are also home or taking time out of their schedules for this dance!

But until Sunday awaits, what do I do to fill the beginning of the weekend? Well, to start, it's Glenbrook North's Homecoming. I visited Torch today (my high school newspaper) to notice that not only has the room been redone, but Mr. Halpern had left....sad day. The paraprofessional at the door gave me an incredibly tough time to let me into the building, and the dean/other nearby teachers let me in gladly and we had some great conversation. I had the pleasure of running into Vicki (fellow-Torchie) who did the same thing I did--going to visit Torch and not being allowed into the building--and Mr. Pryma (GBN's principal) greeted us happily. He pointed out, "Katie, remember two years ago today you were going crazy about the parade?"

Memories galore! Two years ago, the beginning of my senior year, I was in charge along with one other person to plan the Homecoming parade in downtown Northbrook. It was a success, and I even stopped by today to watch the seniors in my position go crazy over every little detail. It made me appreciate my high school involvement and personal relationship with every staff member or student that said hi as they walked by me in the parade :).

So far, it's been a pretty productive trip home. Family and friends time is what I need, and since it's not a fall break or anything, I'm not going absolutely insane with seeing people at various restaurants. My productivity so far has been pretty good for the off-weekend-ness...

• Becca and I ate at Flattop in Evanston and then saw her room in DG!
• Elena, Elizabeth and I met up at Walker Bros. Pancake House for a delicious breakfast for Elena's birthday. Who would've known that we would all be home at the same time/find time to meet up? No Friday classes=awesome.
• Mom, Yiayia and I went to Egg Harbor (breakfast #2)
• Manicure and pedicure...because why not. Right before the pre-Homecoming girls crowd came in, and got to read some Glamour.
• Watched the Sts. Peter and Paul (SSPP) event DVD documentary and learned more about our history/laughed at the beautiful photo slideshow! The more I see such things, the more I want to play with iMovie and start making my own movies. If only I had time...

Inspirational Message of the Day

The Lord said, “And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from who you hope to receive, what credit is that to use? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expect nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”

--Luke 6:31-36

Marketing in the everyday world

I now have great respect for State Farm Insurance. In the past week on Mizzou's campus, this company has provided me with a new pair of headphones, a free 15 minute massage, a car wash and an oxygen mood booster.

State Farm had a tent set up on Carnahan Quad/Tiger Plaza, which is the front part of our quad, all week. Earlier in the week, they were giving students rides to class on bicycle carriages for free (no tips accepted) as part of their Random Acts of Kindness campaign.

Quick pause: imagine being an insurance company and having the funding to give away two laptop computers, free massages all day, carriage rides, car washes, oxygen liquid and supplies, and people to staff this event for an entire week....all for your company's name. This was a PR campaign. They were not advertising anything new, they weren't retrieving student e-mail addresses (which if I were them, I would regret)..they were just spreading their name around through these random acts of kindness. And can pay the cost of 'getting your name out' by doing not one, but all of the above featured things. That's semi-ridiculous.

As a journalism (strategic communication) major, business minor and current marketing student, I was very interested in this campaign, and two core questions.

• Why all of these random acts of kindness?
• And why US? Why the University of Missouri in Columbia?

So I asked. The representatives that I asked wouldn't really get into detail and said "we're just doing random acts of kindness!"

My response- I see that. I'm wondering WHY. Are you trying to get your name out? Where else are you doing this? What's the deal? Why the big promotion?

Someone of more authority walked over and could finally hold a mature conversation. She said that it was a one-week plan to complete random acts of kindness (with State Farm paraphernalia everywhere, of course) at University of Missouri for one week and Oklahoma State University for another, as a branding event. As if I was dumb, she explained that they were branding the name so when our students think of a large company or brand, they'll think of State Farm Insurance. And maybe get insurance from there in the future.

Now hold on State Farm woman...I agree with you that we as students will think of your name and probably even forever remember this...but that doesn't mean I'm going to use your insurance or even talk the actual spending part up. From advertising and PR, that's a pretty big jump to make that causation will occur. Might there be a correlation? Possibly. But thinking that State Farm is good and reputable for being kind on campus one day won't make me choose them over other insurance firms. Maybe for some people, it will....but if I was your strategist wasting a ton of money trying to appease college students, I wouldn't assume that this will CAUSE them to provide you business.

What are advertisers thinking sometimes? With coupons, e-mail listservs and more, there's more of an inference that you can track if and how more business was received. But here, you can't. I'd love to see what percentage of University of Missouri and Oklahoma State students insure with State Farm in the next couple of years and see if this causation effect worked.

As an advertising representative whose job it is to convince local businesses to purchase advertisements on a daily basis, I am guilty of these tactics. I tell managers and owners the circulation and distribution information and whatever else they want to know, but I wonder if business owners acknowledge the balance one must find between buying customers over (State Farm) and giving yourself a positive name in more money-savvy/philanthropic ways to earn business. Which would you choose?

Well, thanks State Farm for not only the variety of free goods, but the marketing thoughts and ideas for the future. If you didn't learn from my last post...they're not copyrighted, so we'll see what type of ideas spawn in the future :).

Irrelevant memo of the day:

I love how efficient my friends are. After getting home from apple picking, I got a text message inviting me to dinner. A few calls and five minutes later, all of us and Shaina enjoyed a lovely dinner at Plaza 900 (Mizzou's most grand dining hall, for those of you who don't know). I had to make us take a picture, because I love how even with our busy schedules, we can still round each other up that quickly. *Happiness!*

Social Network

After seeing the new hit movie Social Network which provides a fictional story (combined with some truths) about how Facebook was created, I really started to realize how Facebook and social networking have changed our world in just a couple of years.

Aside from the obvious, of course social media has implemented huge societal changes. But the movie did an excellent job of portraying all the simple things that you check on Facebook or social media on a daily basis that you would not have utilized even in the past couple of years. One scene portrays a friend of Mark Zuckerberg asking him if he knows one of the girls in his classes or if she seemed single. Nowadays, the typical protocol is to check on Facebook...and if it's not visible, you text a mutual friend. Simple features taken advantage of everyday that did not exist even a few years ago.

I would love to do research or just generally look into how internet and communication have evolved since 2000. So many changes, so quickly...I don't know what I would do without them. YouTube is only five years old, what did people do without YouTube? Google is now fast enough as to when you type something into the search bar, it live-updates what the results and order will be. There are millions of people on Twitter who update their statuses on an hourly basis- because why share your thoughts with real people when you can share them with your entire internet network? I can post a Facebook status and yield 50 comments in less than 8 hours. Why send engagement announcements when Facebook told everyone already?

Just some interesting thoughts that occur in my head as I ponder the effects of social media from this movie. We place so much stress in America on being #1 and doing "what's cool" and being "on top" that Mark would not let Eduardo, his business partner, monetize Facebook with advertisements for so long. Heck, now Facebook is worth $25 million....but if at any point, he would have failed, both of them would have been completely jeopardized monetarily and occupation-wise.

Another point the movie proposed was copyrighting ideas. Oddly enough, in J2100 (News), last week's lesson was media law and I was clearly taught that ideas cannot be copyrighted, pieces of work can, so I had a pretty strong viewpoint on this when two groups were suing Mark Zuckerberg for funds- one for the idea (the Winklevoss crew), and Eduardo for his lack of ownership. It taught me that honestly, if I ever have a huge media idea, to pursue it myself and maybe with someone you love and trust. Eduardo and Mark lost their friendship over this, had dumb revenge games, and while they were college students...they should be mature adults. When I think of how to dominate the world via internet, I am avoiding the ridiculousness of lawsuits by doing it alone and hiring people of lower positions later....I do not have the patience for ownership rights arguments and more. This also teaches us to define things in the beginning and let it out there so people are not disappointed, confused or excessively angry later.

Thus, Social Network was a great movie in my opinion. The anti-climactic ending was disappointing considering it was fiction, but it definitely spurred a couple of laughs within the media law and creation controversy. Watching it with two members of Alpha Epsilon Pi...the Jewish fraternity, made the movie's references to that even more amusing for our entire aisle, who burst into laughter. I would recommend you see it and then realize for yourself all the ways you take advantage of social media and Facebook without noticing it!

October begins

Fall activities galore!

Last night, we saw Social Network after a nice dinner at Jina Yoo's (new favorite restaurant in Columbia). Sherman, Kathryn, Andrew and I actually function normally for one photo.

I fulfilled one of my fall goals and had an amazing day apple picking in Mexico, Missouri! Google maps thought that you could make a turn from the highway onto the overpass so it took a little detour on gravel roads to find the apple orchard, but it was a success.

This stuffed animal is made completely out of alpaca fur...and costs $70! It was so comfy!!
Amy and I eating apples while picking them
Me at my best...kidding. Falling over while trying to grab the tree branch and some small apples.

Jen and I!

Jen, Amy and I
Past the gardens, there's a beautiful lake! As much as I thought it would stink to live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, I guess if you provide yourself with everything you could ever need and want, then why not?! The owner of Binder's had this beautiful lake, home, land, garden and farm, so she is probably kept busy with all this.

The alpacas roaming!

What an interesting animal.

Fun weekend!

Week in review

It is officially October! Time has flown by since this summer and I cannot believe that I'll be home for five days at the end of this week!

It's funny how apparently in Chicago, it is rainy and cold while it's still sunny and in the 70s here in Columbia. This fall, I've been inspired by my three day weekends and the weather to partake in more fall activities. On weekends without football games, a lot of students will go home to St. Louis, Kansas City, etc...so I figure, let's go on adventures! If I was a college student in a larger city, that's what I'd be doing anyway, so let's explore Missouri!

I'm about to go apple picking for the first time since church youth group in junior high and have never been more excited. There's corn mazes, haunted houses, Halloween stores, raking leaves...all fall activities I will participate in :) I'll enjoy the free time while I have it, right?

Despite having a lot of exams this week (four tests/quizzes in one day on Thursday!), I really did feel like I had time. I got to relax, hang out and chat with people in my room for hours guiltlessly, catch up with friends I hadn't seen in awhile and overall felt successful.

Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) is a group for college students across the country to establish as their respective campuses so Orthodox Christians have a place to befriend each other and complete service to the church together. Mizzou did not have an established chapter when I came here, but one guy had registered OCF as a campus organization so I 'joined.' Thursday night, me and the two other most active members held OCF's first official meeting and planned activities for the entire school year. We're doing a weekly bible study, meetings, activities with other OCF chapters at schools like Kansas and University of Illinois, and taking trips. It's nice to finally see our hard work follow through and create such a close-knit group of Orthodox Christian students. With six active members to start and probably 10-15 that might attend activities, we're off to a good start and I really look forward to working with OCF in the future. Be on the lookout for the OCF blog, so then I will officially be running four blogs.

Thursdays at 4:45 pm is my favorite time of the week. I no longer have any class until Monday at 11, and can finally drop all of my books and take a breath and sigh or relief. So after the OCF meeting, I met up with Miles to catch up and get coffee at Lakota (a popular Columbia coffee venue). Funny thing...I have never drunk (there you go grammar exam, have never drunk..dranked...drank...I think that is correct) an entire glass of coffee before. I decided to try the pumpkin spice latte (fall fever again) and a girl from my dorm last year was working so she threw in an extra espresso shot. So I drank the entire glass....and was on a caffeine high for HOURS. I was scared of myself. I liked the glass of coffee, was energized....and need to somehow convince myself that if I ever need to stay up and get work done, I SHOULD NOT rely on coffee. I WILL get addicted and spend money for the rest of my life....so now another challenge of resisting temptations has been added to my life.

I have also realized how nice and happy it makes me to genuinely know and be acquainted with a large percentage of students on campus. I rarely walk anywhere without waving, smiling or stopping and saying hi to someone, it really does feel like home. This week in itself I have seen almost everyone I know walking around and just laughed upon reflection about how I know or met them and how a campus of 30,000 feels so small.

Off to apple picking but don't worry...more to come later!