Since then, Adams made two important lifesaving decisions. He was going to devote his life to serve humanity with medicine and he made a vow to act happy all of the time. Adams has now spent four decades researching medicine and has lived happily for the past 46 years.

His attire includes long, baggy clown pants and a button-down shirt of vibrant, loud colors. He feels his style of clothing makes it irresistible for people to start a conversation with him.

He will be receiving health care for the first time in his life at the age of 65, and has never once charged a patient for treatment.

He believes the best treatment anyone could receive is friendship, because when you have friends you aren’t lonely. Loneliness is just one of three aspects of his pain paradigm, the other two being boredom and fear he said.

Boredom is considered a medical emergency in Adam’s hospital because it is basically saying, “I’m dead.” Being bored means one has nothing to anticipate and nothing special to remember.

Fear causes panic attacks and Adams feels it is easier to deal with if done so with other people. “Fear is less if you aren’t doing it by yourself,” says Adams.

On an entirely different spectrum from his pain paradigm is the joy paradigm. The joy paradigm simply states that being happy is a choice. When people wake up in the morning, they decide who they want to be.

Adams now travels the world speaking to audiences about his philosophy, which sometimes includes an eight exercise workshop that he feels makes those who participate happier.

The first exercise asks participants to enter a room and pretend to be furniture. It is supposed to show people that they don’t need anything to be happy. Their happiness should come from their existence.

Another exercise has 1,500 people standing shoulder-to-shoulder to practice greeting and meeting new people.

Another part of the workshop involves listening to very fast music and dancing. It is meant to show that if you keep in shape, you won’t notice yourself aging.

The seventh exercise allows participants to express their creativity. Participants are given a pencil and a piece of paper and asked to do something with it. Whether they choose to simply write something or “stick the pencil in their ear and eat the paper” is up to them.

The last exercise asks those at the workshop to lie on the ground and yell what they are grateful for. It shows that there is plenty to appreciate in life, and that pouting is just a waste of time.

So if a cure such as happiness is so easily achieved, why don’t other doctors adhere to Adams’s philosophies? Adams believes it is simply because the medical field is a business. He feels there is a hierarchy in the field of medicine, and that doctors want to preserve that hierarchy because there is a “seductive edge to being in power.”

Adams is unique in a sense that he spent years of his life studying people. He would go into an elevator for hours each day and ride up and down trying to meet new people.

The only thing he asks of those that attend his presentations and workshops is that they leave saying, “I will love life.”

The event will host 36 area vendors and businesses and 13 KU student organizations to provide an experience aimed at “strengthening relationships between the university and Borough of Kutztown,” said Julie Nolan, director of Community Relations and Development Services.

According to Shannon Connell, communications and public relations coordinator of OCAC and the Block Party, students, as well as community members, are invited to celebrate at this event. Several of the main events include an outdoor rock wall, moon bounce, food tasting and prizes. There will also be a kid’s corner aimed at children involved in the community.

Kutztown borough businesses participating in the event include The Attic, Betty’s, Made Shop, CC’s Wooden Grille and Beads of a Feather, among many others. Several KU fraternities and sororities, Up ‘til Dawn and KU Roller Hockey will join other KU student organizations at the Block Party.

There will also be live entertainment provided throughout the afternoon. The main stage will host Kutztown University Radio (KUR), the Kutztown Middle School Jazz Band, Sound Judgment and Bob Sicca from 12-4:30 p.m. The side stage will present KU students performing from 1-4 p.m.

Nolan calls this event the “‘last unofficial hurrah’ to the end of the semester and the academic year.” She encourages everyone to come out to the free event to participate in the community spirit and take a break from studying for finals.

The Beck Hall/Health and Wellness Center has a completely renovated first floor that will house Clinical Services, Counseling Services, Alcohol & Other Drug Services, Health Promotion Services, Administrative Health Services and a Wellness Resource Room, according to Health and Wellness Services Executive Director Mary Gutekunst.

These offices have been provided with what Gutekunst calls a “state-of-the-art medical facility.” The clinic has 10 exam rooms, a special treatment room and a laboratory. The new wellness resource room will “provide a site for health promotion activities and events,” she said.

She added that their goal with these renovations was to “bring as many units of Health & Wellness Services together to provide better student services,” and to provide more sufficient spaces to these offices.

According to Gutekunst, “The existing spaces in Old Main (health services) and the Administration Building (counseling services) were grossly inadequate.”

This renovation was meant to provide Health Services with additional – and far more sanitary – exam rooms, while offices for Counseling Services will encourage a more therapeutic environment as well as more confidentiality.

The rest of the building will house approximately 140 first-year freshmen voluntarily participating in “A First Year Community” program sponsored by Housing and Residential Services. The program is designed to offer support and personal attention to incoming freshmen in hopes they will be more successful, according to the Housing and Residential Services website. This program allows these students to live with fellow freshmen, establish partnerships within the dorm as well as with a Freshman Mentor provided to them through the program. They can also attend an “Orientation to KU” program, as well as four additional academic skill programs throughout the semester, according to the “A First Year Community” brochure.

Renovations have finished ahead of schedule, said Gutekunst. “The project could not have gone more smoothly,” she said. The total cost of the renovations is an estimated $3.5 million, which includes furniture and equipment for the building, said Gutekunst. These funds were taken from a reserve account set aside in the Health and Wellness Services budget specifically for renovations and repairs. The budget is initially supported through student Health Center Fee.

Gutekunst said operations will move into the newly renovated building on May 10-11 and will be open for summer sessions. She added that the building is ready, but the move was put off to minimize disruption to student services prior to the semester’s end.
Although the fate of the existing Health and Wellness Services building is unsure, Gutekunst mentioned that Public Safety and Police Services has requested a move of some of their operations into the building.

Rohrer has been a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 128th District since 1992. In Rohrer’s speech that preceded the question-and-answer session with local residents, Rohrer emphasized what he called the “three E’s”: improving problems he said were caused by Gov. Ed Rendell relating to the economy, education and ethics.

In an interview after the event’s conclusion, The Keystone asked Rohrer what changes he could promise that would have a noticeable impact on KU students. Rohrer responded that state universities in Pennsylvania are more independent from the state than K-12 schools are. By having the state government get involved with the universities, Rohrer said, the colleges would lose the independence that makes them “the best system of state schools in the country.”

Asked to respond to KU’s budget problems and whether or not reducing KU’s independence from the state would improve the deficit, Rohrer told The Keystone he would “construct a state budget that would ensure predictability. Schools need budgetary predictability. It also didn’t help that [Rendell] pulled the rug out from under the schools at the last minute and whacked funding.”
The town-hall meeting was hosted by the KU College Republicans, the first event hosted by the club. Before Rohrer took stage, College Republican President-elect Sam Shoemaker, a junior History major, asked attendees to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

After the event, Shoemaker told The Keystone he hopes to continue commencing College Republican events with the Pledge.

“It’s something we should do,” he said. “It’s good to keep some traditions. [The Pledge] is something we can all participate in, something we all have in common.”

Current College Republican President and senior Political Science major, Mitch Weglos, would not tell The Keystone if Rohrer has the club’s endorsement.

Weglos said, “For Republicans, there are two strong candidates: Rohrer and Attorney General Tom Corbett. People should do research on their own, and find out what works for them.”

The gubernatorial election will take place on Nov. 2.

Senior Business major and Student Government Board (SGB) President Dan Walker introduced the 82-year-old chairman of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board (ERAB) and assisted him in interpreting the multi-layered questions from the audience.
Audience members addressed concerns over the accountability of CEOs, economic recovery and the U.S.’s continued global leadership.

Volcker, at six-feet-seven-inches, could barely reach the microphone to address the 1,100 in Keystone Hall about the possible financial outlook for the nation.

Although Volker feels the U.S. is still considered by many as a leader in the global economic community, countries such as Brazil, India, and China are positioning themselves to replace it.

“It’s a much different world than when I was growing up,” Volcker said. “China lending money to the U.S.; that’s not the way it was supposed to be in the world I grew up in.”

He used an example of the government tax profits being around 23 percent whereas government spending could be at 18 percent. He was illustrating the need to decrease the spread between government tax spending and profits.

His ideas for recovery included tax increases (even a small one may be necessary to reduce the deficit) and changing the age of eligibility for Social Security over a 10-year period and reducing benefits.

He offered the possibility of investing in manufacturing and small businesses, increasing exports and reconstructing the infrastructure.

“We must develop a renewed sense of responsibility and discipline at the personal, community and national level,” Volcker said.
Recently he proposed the “Volcker Plan” which prohibits banks from making speculative investments if the banks are not on behalf of their customers. President Obama endorsed the proposal in January 2010.

ERAB is releasing a report in December with the details on the restructuring of Social Security, Medicare, defense spending and infrastructure development.

The service provides a space more than 65 million users from more than 200 countries to share résumés, exchange recommendations and network with executives from all Fortune 500 companies and 170 industries.

New users are first encouraged to create a profile summarizing professional expertise and accolades before establishing a network of trusted colleagues to consist of personal affiliates, second and third points of contact, according to the website.

Additional features include the use of 13 different applications, the chance to join groups or associations and cross-file services via Twitter for status updates due to a recent deal forged by both companies, enables users to customize their account.

Some English/Professional Writing majors debated the relevance of LinkedIn to their job search in a Discussion Board assignment on Blackboard for a Professional Seminar course with Dr. Elaine Reed.

The students primary concerns regarded presenting employers with a traditional print resume versus its digital replica on LinkedIn. Some also feared the service was meant for an aged demographic or the technologically elite.

The New York Times referenced a study conducted by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder.com, stating, “45 percent of employers questioned are using social networks to screen job candidates — more than double from a year earlier…on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn.”

One student wrote, “I’m not sure that ‘drawbacks’ really apply to LinkedIn. I think that depending on what kind of job you are seeking, and what sort of working environment you would like to participate in, it might be a good idea.”

Similarly, an article for The Washington Post stated, “according to the latest January data from comScore, the LinkedIn’s U.S. unique visitors shot up 22 percent to 7.7 million, up from 6.3 million in December. Total minutes spent on the site doubled in January to 96.8 million, from 47.6 million in December” in response to layoffs due to the recession.

Another student wrote, “Are there any real disadvantages to LinkedIn? Unless an individual does not use the website properly, how would using such a website make you a less-attractive potential hire?”

In my experience, there are two kinds of people who sponge off the government for no reason: druggies and lazy people who just don’t want to work.

The lazy people — the ones with whom I have the biggest problem — almost always claim there is something medically wrong with them. My suggestion to stop these people is to have the government make them provide an official document declaring that the person is terminally injured or injured for the duration of their welfare deposits.

In order to make sure the people who are injured for only a certain amount of time don’t go overboard with the welfare, I think they should have to show a new document from a doctor for each new year.

For the terminally injured, they should have to show it for only the first three years because – let’s face it – if the injury is diagnosed as terminal and it’s been there for three years, it’s probably not going to magically go away.

These people also claim they just can’t find a job. I know times are tough and the economy is still in a recession but, really, if they tried hard enough, they would find a job – even if it’s a dead end one, it’s still money. These people irk me most because while I’m out there, along with any other self-respecting person, making money the legit way, paying taxes like everyone else to help those in need, lazy people are taking those tax dollars and using them so they can live without having to get a job and work daily. That’s sad and pathetic, and I suggest something is done about it before it gets any worse.

The other group of people, the druggies, claim to have the same problems as the lazy people, but yet they have enough income to buy drugs, right?

My suggestion for this is that they have to take a yearly urinalysis in order to keep getting money for the following year. This should be done every year, without fail, to help weed these people away from the welfare system’s money. Those who have a problem with this are probably one of these people.

If you think about it, almost everyone has to pass a drug test in order to get a job. If you don’t want a job, what’s the big deal with taking a drug test not to work?

I don’t mean to be harsh but this is ridiculous and it’s getting on my nerves. I hope I’m not the only one with this view on the welfare system.

Thousands of blog sites make up the web, some containing information that people believe is newsworthy, while others are just miscellaneous musings and random gibberish.

Blogging has morphed thousands of times since its “invention,” whenever that was. There have been chat rooms and online forums, to a more modern individualized webpage and video blogs. Usually each blog is singular, focusing on one subject, whether it is someone’s daily doings or bashing a politician. More recently, however, I took note of a new (kind of) trend—if I can call it that: death blogging.

I am not sure how long it has been around, and I am not positive on how much play it has received in other media. But, I was unaware of anyone documenting their death — day by day, symptom by symptom — until I had come across 65redroses.livejournal.com.

Anything that came close to this concept of “death blogging” had been from Dr. Kevorkian’s videotaped assisted suicide, which landed him in jail, or Randy Pausch and his “Last Lecture.”

I came across this blog after an interest in the subject. The site covers the life of now deceased Eva Markvoort, a 25-year-old who was struggling with cystic fibrosis. She began documenting her journey online through videos, dialogue, images and poetry.
Markvoort gained friends and almost a celebrity status as media attempted to interview her and get a feel for her life and what she was doing. A documentary has been released about her, and it won awards. But, in terms of a media-driven/computer-addicted society, she brings a conversation that can last for a long time.

Her struggle is not for the faint-hearted. I think it takes some moxie to follow her story from the beginning to end, all while getting attached — crying when she died.

This is different than reading about random news, or following someone’s Twitter account. Following the struggle and thoughts of someone dying, watching them slip away and weaken with every new post is gut-wrenching.

She has supplied more than just a quick video or chat session, given more than simple quips and packaged more, not wanting pity and sympathy — or mere reaction. She simply told her story, unlike most blogs.

I don’t know how I feel about “death blogging” quite yet. I don’t know if I can consistently watch someone weaken and die. Markvoort kept her courage and strength and seemed upbeat throughout her journey. But, in the end, it’s like losing a friend, someone you’ve grown close with.

This blogging might be a symbol, a new way of being social. Not a book, but a site. Not a funeral, but a post. Not flowers, rather memories.

She gave people a glimpse of what it’s like to die. What it’s like to suffer and seriously feel pain.

Death was not taboo — but real, real content out there for anyone. This was not just another 150 character snippet, but timeless entries upon entries. It is revolutionary.

Blogging is changing all the time and the way people blog is ceaselessly being reshaped. The way bloggers write and what they say and how they perceive things are what makes a blog what it is — an opinionated forum, and in that sense 65redroses was/is no different.

Markvoort customized it herself and controlled the content. She just added a spin on what type of material was covered. Her audience was broad, and she got a high response, like any good blog will.

Although I might not be ready for this autobiography death blogging, the world seems receptive to it. Now that she is gone, what happens to the site? Will her friends and family continued updating and keep her memory alive? Or, like many blog forums and sites before, will it fade into the desolated cyber halls of yesterblogs? Only new stories and sites can tell.

Does this mean before people start dating they should have to get their heads screened? Celebrities such as Tiger Woods and Jesse James use sex addiction as an excuse for their scandals, but is it truly unpreventable?

The ladies of The View discussed the topic at length, and Dr. Phil dedicated an entire show to the question: Can a CT scan prove a cheater? In a word: no.

It might be the new trend in town, having an excuse for infidelity, but cheating isn’t genetic, and it’s not a disease.

When people say, “My father cheated, so I have no chance at a healthy relationship,” that’s simply not true. It is easy to repeat parents’ mistakes, but it’s not unavoidable.

Cheating isn’t the new disease being passed around. There is no antibiotic or preventive shot made for cheaters. Simply put: people don’t have to cheat.

Getting a CT scan to see if a person might possibly have the trait is unnecessary. Stay faithful to someone, and if it proves difficult, break up before something disastrous happens. You don’t want your friends referring to you as Tiger. Think of the urge to cheat as nature’s way of saying something isn’t right in that relationship, but do not say you were born to cheat.

The lesson here is keep it in your jeans, because your genes can’t be an excuse.

If you’re asking why, then you are unaware of the violence that has occurred when other publications have depicted the Muslim religious figure.

One of the most recent – as well as widely publicized – acts of terror was the bombing of a Danish embassy after a Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published 12 pictures depicting Muhammad.

Not long after “South Park” aired its provocative episode, it received warning aimed at its creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. A journalist from Revloutionmuslim.com, Al-Amrikee, posted on his website, “This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.’’ A picture of a murdered Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker killed by Muslim fanatics for a film he directed about Muslim women, was posted along with the warning from Al-Amrikee.

Outrage stems from the Muslim tradition of aniconism, which prohibits the depiction of Muhammad and other religious figures. For many countries, companies and individuals, the liability associated with showing images of Muhammad is too great.

The next episode, which led viewers to believe that Muhammad would be shown, was almost incomprehensible due to the censors placed throughout it by Comedy Central.

Bleeps every couple seconds prevented the audience from hearing even a syllable of the prophet’s name when uttered by the characters of “South Park.”

Furthermore, Comedy Central bleeped out a roughly three-minute speech at the end of the episode, which, according to the “South Park” creators, never referenced Muhammad or Muslims. According to a statement released on Southparkstudios.com from the “South Park” creators, “Kyle’s customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn’t mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too.”

In the U.S., we have enjoyed our First Amendment rights unchallenged for quite some time. For the most part we stand by individual right to say and write what we want. In fact, the 200th episode of “South Park” depicts the Buddhist deity, Buddha, doing lines of cocaine. This is a much more disrespectful representation of a religious community’s deity, but there were no warnings from Buddhists calling for the murder of those responsible.

So the real question that we should be asking ourselves as not only U.S. citizens, but also as citizens of a global community, is: will we allow a radical religious group to impose a strict censorship on what we do, say, think or depict?

For me, this question does not require a second thought; the answer is an unequivocal “no.” Every artist, journalist, director and even politician who censors himself in response to terroristic threats only confirms to terrorist organizations that we will indeed bow to their threats of violence.

In the case of “South Park,” the creators had no choice but to accept Comedy Central’s censorship; the boss is the boss, after all.

Unfortunately, the message sent to the audience was that with enough threats you can effectively silence anyone you deem fit.
It is this message that stirs uneasy feelings whenever my mind dwells on it. We have indeed entered a dark moment in history, ruled by theological sects, and a struggle that may well determine how a whole generation defines its freedom of speech.

I would like to state that I am not completely unsympathetic to the Muslim community. I understand many are offended by portrayals of Muhammad. I also understand that the groups committing these crimes are a small part of the overall community. When violence is used as a means to suppress individuals’ rights, then there is only one option, and that is to stand against that threat to your rights.  In this case it means taking a stand and saying, “No, we will not be intimidated.” For trying to do this, I applaud Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and I hope more will follow suit.