November 7, 2011 | 3:19 pm

Heroes of Hope | 6 Girls, $7K, 4 Days

Posted by Nicole Behnam

Stacy Shakibkhoo, Melody Shakibkhoo, Michelle Nabati,
Melody Nabati, Natalie Kashefi, & Jennifer Nourafshan.

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” -Winston Churchill

A group of six girls made a unanimous decision on Thursday, November 3 to sign up and raise awareness for The Heroes of Hope Race for Research, an organization that raises money for pediatric and adult brain tumor and cancer research and support at UCLA’s department of Neurosurgery, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles/USC Keck School of Medicine and the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Team Big Smiles, the girls named themselves, set their standards high and decided they wanted to raise $10,000. On Sunday, November 6, Natalie Kashefi, Michelle Nabati, Melody Nabati, Jennifer Nourafshan, Melody Shakibkhoo, and Stacy Shakibkhoo gathered on Dockweiler State Beach in Playa Del Ray to participate in the 4th Annual Heroes of Hope Race for Research.

“We came up with the team name Big Smiles because you need happiness and a positive outlook to help you believe that everything in any given situation will turn out for the best,” said Melody Nabati, a hopeful team captain.

The team raised over $7,000 since the announcement of their campaign just 3 days before the race.

“No one thought we would even raise close to that in such a short amount of time,” said Nabati. “We started emailing friends, family, and colleagues, and sure enough, in just 48 hours we raised close to $7,000 for the UCLA Neurosurgery Department.”

Team Big Smiles came in 3rd place for the highest amount donated by a fundraising team. Nabati came in 2nd for the highest amount donated by an individual. In total, the race raised $119,000, twice as much as it raised last year.

“All of this really shows how friends and family members are there for you in times of trouble and need. They are the first ones to come out and show their support,” said Nabati.
 
Click here to make a donation to Team Big Smiles.

November 4, 2011 | 2:38 pm

Blogs: What’s the point? | Where to go when you’re looking for news, inspiration, or laughs.

Posted by Nicole Behnam

The Daily, Her0inChic, imgfave.

“The reason why I don’t reveal myself is because I don’t do this for the fame and glory. I’d rather be recognized for what I do, instead of who I am.” -Blogger, Her0inchic

As of today, I have bookmarked an equal amount of news sites and blog sites on my Google Chrome browser. Three and three, to be exact. A few years ago, however, I was laughing at my friends who signed up for LiveJournal. I just didn’t understand what the point was. I had a diary and I had a scrapbook. LiveJournal would have obliterated the confidentiality of my diary.

But now the blogosphere is much bigger than LiveJournal and Wordpress. Tumblr accounts have captured the attention of many of my Facebook friends. I know this because 400 people can’t possibly take the same exact picture of a Bob Marley poster and use the Mobile Uploads feature on their phones to showcase their MPS (Mobile Photography Skills).
I prefer Huffington Post, Yahoo! News, and Jewish Journal (no joke) when I want to read the latest news.

A great news blog is The Daily: TheDaily.com. Though I usually rely on Huffington Post first, I bookmarked The Daily because they don’t include much news that I find elsewhere. I feel “worldly” when I skim through their posts.

For inspiration, I always turn to Her0inChic.com. Heroin chic was a look popularized by mid-1990s fashion, characterized by pale skin, dark circles underneath the eyes, and protruding bones. The number zero is used instead of the letter o, because in physics, the zero-point energy is the lowest possible energy that a quantum mechanical physical system may possess and is the energy of the ground state of the system.

The blogger, her0inChic, really does stand out to her readers, who constantly share, re-share, and leave laudatory comments on her posts. They seek motivation and draw strength from the stories of heroism and beautiful quotes that this blogger scrupulously picks out. “You are not alone.” This is the primary message executed by Her0inChic.

For a good laugh, check out imgfave.com. This blog is where most of the comics from Someecards are shared, and where funny pictures that your friends are posting can be found. Not surprisingly, this blogger also pulls inspiration pictures from Her0inchic’s website, and vice versa. It’s a beautiful, reciprocal, blogospheric arrangement.

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November 1, 2011 | 10:35 pm

You have no privacy. What to do about being exposed on the internet

Posted by Nicole Behnam

Standard Facebook Privacy Settings

 


 
 









“Information on the Internet is subject to the same rules and regulations as conversation at a bar.” -George Lundberg
 
Like most of my friends, I’m extremely selective about what I choose to post on my Facebook page. Even when I write to my friends, I meticulously read over the post before I decide to brand myself on their walls.  I want to make sure I wrote the correct variation of the word “your,” the word “their,” and the word “too”—even I make those mistakes sometimes. And I’m a language stickler.

When it comes to my profile pictures, I’m even more of a nitpicker. Though I rarely upload new ones, I’ll ask some of my friends questions like “Is this default-worthy?” or “Should I crop it?” before I upload a picture that will be displayed on an icon wherever I comment or click the “like” button. I ask not because I want to make sure I look absolutely beautiful on Facebook, but because I want to ensure that I don’t send the wrong message… to anyone.

I learned a few years ago that employers and even schools look up prospective applicants on Facebook and other sites.  I don’t think my last employer would have hired me if he looked me up and was greeted by a picture of me in a bikini at my friend’s pool party. The red cup in my hand could have been filled with pure H20, but the setting would have suggested otherwise.

People judge. There is nothing we can do about this. I don’t want to judge anybody, but sometimes I do it too. And even though I don’t like to judge out loud, when somebody writes something offensive, or posts a picture that I find distasteful or insulting, I can’t help but develop an aversion.

For this very reason, I urge you to be meticulous about what you post—your pictures, your status updates, and even your wall posts. Adjust your privacy settings, but don’t be surprised when your ex-boyfriend logs onto his friend’s account, only to find that your last status update was a YouTube link to the song “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child. Expect to be judged for that too.

By the way, “Survivor” is outdated. It’s acceptable for your “Moving On” iTunes playlist, but if you want to be more relevant, try “Someone Like You” by Adele.

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October 28, 2011 | 6:06 pm

Friends, connections, networks: Utilize all of them—they are one and the same.

Posted by Nicole Behnam

Nicole Behnam with her best friend/connection

“You can’t make any one person your world. The trick is to take what each can give you and build a world from it.” Sarah Dessen

I was embarrassed to hold up my copy of “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi when I would read it in public. The title makes it sound like a self-help book—it’s a business book. And, frankly, I was reading… alone. But after the first few chapters, I made a realization, and ultimately, a decision that shaped the framework of my thoughts from then on: I wanted to meet as many people as possible, make as many friends as possible, and utilize as many connections as possible.

It may sound like a coldly-calculated attempt to establish a reliable network for myself. I can assure you, though, that it went far beyond that.

“Never mix business with pleasure,” they repeat like a mantra. But this mentality is wrong, and I refuse to live by it.

All of my friends are, naturally, my connections. They formulate my “network.” And the benefits of our friendships go far beyond reciprocal arrangements and favors. We exchange thoughts, stories, ideas—these are the components of friendship. We learn together; we grow together, and we can rely on each other when we need something. This is the benefit of having a “connection.”

I also enjoy network growth. For example, I will facilitate a relationship between Andrea and Diana if I know that they will benefit from each other as friends or as connections. Each of my friends is unique. Everybody has a different talent, a different opinion, and most importantly, a different set of life experiences from which the rest of us can learn.

Each friend is, figuratively, a resource; a set of chapters that comprise the book they are still writing, and the story they are telling. A story that you and I can learn from.

“Poverty isn’t only a lack of financial resources,” says Ferrazzi. “It is isolation from the kind of people that could help you make more of yourself.”

Sure, we can be independent, but we can’t do anything alone—we certainly can’t succeed alone. And even if we did, what good would it be if we couldn’t celebrate our achievements with our friends?

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