My brother graduated from high school this weekend.

If you haven't been spammed by me already, about my brother's graduation, on some social media site, then here you go.

(He's the handsome fellow in the middle)

Charles graduated from Coram Deo Academy this past Friday, having earned summa cum laude (overall weighted 100-point GPA of 98 or higher).

He is an impressive guy, and has had a very successful high school career. He's a star athlete, a math genius, an eagle scout, and lots more, including martial arts and playing piano. He can succeed at just about anything he sets his mind to, and is also a pretty funny guy, who can make anyone laugh.

He is going to Texas Tech with me in the Fall, with the top tier Air Force ROTC scholarship (as well as Tech's top Presidential scholarship). 

It will be good to be out there in Lubbock with him. Our paths will likely never intersect, as he will usually be in the engineering key while I essentially live in the English and MCOM buildings on the other side of campus. 

However, we will be a lot closer, living in the same town, instead of five hours away, across Texas, and fun times will ensue. 

Watch out Lubbock. The Clinkscales invasion is beginning soon.

We've always been cool kids

I really like my brother. It was too easy for me to get disconnected while off at college, doing college-y things, but I'm really excited for him to come to Tech. We will have several more opportunities to talk/play games/chillax together throughout the school year.

I know Charles will enjoy being at Tech. He has already accomplished so much in high school, and I look forward to seeing how much more he will do, in college and beyond. 

Anyhow. . . I feel like I digressed a bit, but yes, my brother is finished with high school, and everything is awesome.

Never done bragging,

The Purple Writer

So, I've abandoned you for a month.

I could try to excuse myself with the fact that I had finals, packing, moving, etc. But really, the main reason I didn't update my blog for a while there was probably my News Writing class. (JOUR 2310 at Texas Tech, with Mr. Wernsman.)

Sure, I should be good with writing, since I'm an English major. However, I am #notajournalist


I am so glad I am finished with that class. We had to write so many informative news stories and sidebars, with the occasional service journalism. We were constantly told to use the least amount of words, to make our writing clear and concise.

That is all good, but the reason I love writing is having the ability to create something beautiful, and putting together words in ways that give shape to my thoughts and ideas.

I felt so restricted in this class, and then we had a multitude of assignments to write over the semester. I only had enough energy left to complete my papers for my superheroes seminar, before being unable to write anything more. Hence no posts for my blog for the last month of school.

I have attempted to follow the advice (pictured above), which was taped to the bubble wrap given out in our dorm by a few CAs, trying to help their residents deal with stress.

As a heads up, I am planning on updating my blog on Wednesdays (and occasionally Sundays), since my deadlines for pieces for my College-Social Magazine internship are on Monday and Thursday.

Glad to be done with journalism classes,

The Purple Writer

How to make hateful comments a positive thing.

Honey Maid received a flood of negative criticism and hateful comments after releasing a commercial with non-traditional families being presented as wholesome.

This took place almost immediately after the backlash against Cheerios’ advertisement with biracial families in it, as well as the resignation of Mozilla’s CEO, Brendan Eich, when he was faced with outrage about his opposition to same-sex marriage. 

However, instead of shutting down, firing someone, or disabling comments on the video, Honey Maid turned the obstacle into an opportunity, with a very successful result.

Honey Maid’s launched their “This is Wholesome” commercial on March 10, 2014, which presented biracial and homosexual families in a favorable light. The speaker said that Honey Maid products are “everyday wholesome snacks for every wholesome family.” This video was aimed toward families, one of Honey Maid’s largest audiences, regardless of their traditional standing or not.

Honey Maid probably did not expect their audience and supporting network to react so strongly. But, in response, Honey Maid hired two artists to take the negative comments and make a piece of art out of it. 

The artists rolled papers with the negative comments printed on them, and glued them to the ground to form the word ‘Love.’ The artists then took all of the positive comments about the video, which greatly outnumbered the negative comments, and glued them to the floor surrounding the word ‘Love.’ 

Honey Maid released a video on April 3 showing the process of how the bad comments were turned into a positive thing.

“Love” has received over three million views.

Honey Maid also received feedback from other companies, such as NILLA Wafers and Betty Crocker, publicly encouraging and praising the video “Love.”

Through turning this obstacle into an opportunity, Honey Maid gained a tremendous amount of good publicity. Not only are their videos now seen by the families they were originally designed to encourage, but also to a diverse audience across the nation. These viewers are more likely to now connect Honey Maid’s name to family values and support for non-traditional families.

It can sometimes be discouraging to see such hate and negative reactions to things that should be wholesome, but I'm glad that some people and groups, such as Honey Maid, are taking a stand and responding gently with love.

Hoping to see more of this,

The Purple Writer

I like politeness

Maybe it's because my public relations classes focus so much on bad examples, but I'm pretty tired of the advertisements and campaigns that tear down other companies or organizations.

Why are we, as a society, so quick to tear down other people? Don't we realize that, even if we cut down other people, we are really not making ourselves grow any taller.

Yes, I realize that it can be hard to be creative, but if you are really so similar to another group, and can't emphasize why you are different, then maybe you shouldn't be in business. If your only option is to try to badmouth other groups, then you should spend that time to go find or make a niche for yourself.


I find it so refreshing when advertisements and campaigns are nice to others.
My favorite may be one in the series for the new Samsung Galaxy Pro Tablet. The owner of the Samsung tablet allows the other dad to save face when he tries to salvage some of his dignity. In response to the remark on having 'Pony Princess Hair Salon,' the Samsung owner says "I hear there's amazing hairstyles in there."

It communicates the point of the advertisement, the Samsung tablet features, while being nice to the owner of the other tablet, and being humorous. Samsung didn't have to tear anyone down, because they legitimately have a cool feature to tell their audience about.

Now, most of the other videos in this series of advertisements for Samsung do make fun of the other brands in a rather harsher light. They still focus on humor, though, and the idea that Samsung tablets have new features that would be helpful.



Wishing we could all be a little more polite,
The Purple Writer

A blast from the past.

The other week in my honors seminar on superheroes, we watched an episode of the old Batman TV series. Man did that bring back memories! I remember watching the old Batman movies over and over again with my dad and brothers. So much good, cheesy fun.

"Holy forgotten memories, Batman!"

So, I was cleaning up my room at my mom's house over Spring Break, and found a picture from a couple years in the past. It brought a flood of great memories. 

It's only been two years, but it's almost sad how quickly I've forgotten my life when I was in high school. I remember my friends, of course, but sometimes I forget exactly how close we all were.

Most of my friends were fantastic artists. It must have been one of those funny things, like how now I'm an English major and yet have a bazillion friends in engineering.  Anyhow, I think it was the summer before my senior year, I got this drawing for my Birthday.

Team Awesome Forever! #tbt

Isn't it so cute!

My friend Greer drew it for me (she's the red-head on the left). She drew the three of us (I'm in the middle, and my best friend, Laura,  is the blonde on the right), and included our favorite mythological creatures, of course, in our favorite colors.  The red dragon, the purple pegasus, and the green gryphon. Pretty fitting.

We were going to be team awesome forever! We still get together over breaks, and have tons of fun together, but then we go back to our separate universities and don't talk to each other for another couple months. The same things happens with my other close groups of friends.

We knew each other so well that a few months or years doesn't change us enough so that we can't enjoy jumping right back into having fun together. But, I'm not sure how much longer that will last, and that is a bit scary. I love my friends, and although I continue making fantastic new friends as I move through life, I definitely don't want to lose my old friends.

I guess it's a bit of a balancing act. I don't want to stay stuck in the past, but I don't want to be looking so far into the future that I forget who I used to be.

That's why I'm glad we have little things like this drawing to bring up these memories, even if only for a few days. So, I posted this drawing on "throwback Thursday" and shared the memories with my friends.

I plan to try to find something like that to share each week, if I can. Spending a few minutes remembering the past can only help me stay grounded in the past as I keep moving forward.

Enjoying fun memories,
The Purple Writer



I now own a humidifier.

I had never really expected to say/type that sentence in my life, but there it is. I remember my parents having humidifiers for us to have in our rooms when we got sick, but I never really remembered them being especially helpful or cool or anything.

But then I got sick this past week. It was "just" a cold, but it wasn't any fun. Especially when I would try to sleep and wake up completely dehydrated and stuffed up and feeling miserable. I get sick a lot, but that doesn't mean that I don't still feel awful every time.

A visualization of the virus attacking me

Anyhow, I was talking to my awesome friend Emily, from English classes, and she suggested that I go get a humidifier. I think she had also gotten one not too long ago, so she told me I could get one for $16 at Walgreens, and I thought "why not?" I drove over to Walgreens before my SigTD meeting and picked one up. It wasn't like it could hurt, and $16 isn't that much for a potential help.

Let me just say, humidifiers can be a giant help! Maybe it's more noticeable because I currently live in Lubbock, which is usually very, very dry.

I filled up and plugged in the humidifier, and then I slept soundly, all night long. Which is unusual, especially when I'm sick.
There was no tossing, turning, or waking up because there is no more moisture in my body. Instead, I woke up completely refreshed and ready to face the world (although my congestion came back pretty quickly throughout the day, as I was away from my humidifier).

Thank you humidifier, for clearing up my day

So, yes, I am still slightly sick, and have an ugly-sounding cough. But really, each morning after I run my humidifier, I feel 100% better, just because I was able to get a good night's sleep. Never underestimate the power of sleep (and humidifiers in a desert)!

Glad you can't hear my cough as you read this,

The Purple Writer

I'm addicted to my smart phone.

I know it's pretty sad, but what do you expect? I got a smart phone for the first time last week, and I haven't been able to put it down.

I'll try to blame it on my majoring in Public Relations and needing to be in constant contact with social media and news and all, but let's be honest. I spend a lot of time playing games. A LOT of time.

Before I got this smart phone, I had a prepaid phone, which was pretty reliable for calling people. I also had an iPod Touch that I could basically use as an iPhone when I had WiFi. I always carried both of these devices around with me, and they worked pretty well, even though it could be a little awkward to carry both of them around when wearing dresses without pockets, and all.

After all, most of the buildings here at Tech have WiFi throughout them, so I could check social media and everything on my iPod in between classes and when going to meetings that have been cancelled while I was walking across campus in areas without WiFi.

But now! I no longer need to switch between my devices to text and be connected to social media. I have it all on one marvelous android device.  And I'm addicted to it.

It is easy to make phone of people absorbed in their phones and not socializing with people right in front of their faces. However, it is all too easy to become one of those people. The important thing to remember is that there is not substitute for face-to-face communication and socializing. Even if we have the power, through these small devices, to keep up with every constant update in world events and friends' lives, not to mention apps that provide entertainment galore.