Justice Conference

I decided to attend the Justice Conference about 3 months ago with the intention of trying to understand what Justice really is, and try to understand the meaning of justice, and what a just person looks like. (I had just read Plato’s Republic at the time).   I didn’t really know what to expect so I was a little bit nervous as the dates for the Conference came closer.  I wasn’t sure that I really wanted to attend, whether it would be worth it, I had a lot of stuff to do the week leading up to the conference and I also had a lot of work to be done over the weekend.  I flew in on Friday and got into the hotel at about 3:00 the main conference registration didn’t start until 4 so I had some time to get mentally prepared for the conference.  I took some of that time to plan out doing some of my school work throughout the conference and looking at the schedule to see what it looked like, took a shower and then registered for the conference. 

I went over and the first night was good, there were some interesting speakers, but my mind was elsewhere and I was a little bit out of it because I was tired.  The first day ended at 9:15 when I went back to my room, did some organizing and some work and was in bed asleep by 10:30.  I woke up and got to the conference again at 9:30 in order to hear the end of the first speaker and from this point I started to get excited and enjoy the conference a lot more.  During the lunch break I met a few people at a pizza place right by the convention center from Louisiana.  We had some good conversation that started to engage me in the conference and bring up my spirits.  After they left, I invited someone to sit with me named Maddi.  I am very glad that I did because Maddi is an amazing individual from Seattle, Washington who became a conference buddy (that means we hung out together for most of the rest of the conference).  It was a real blessing for me to meet her and share my experience of the Justice conference with her and share in her experience of the conference as well.  I hope that this is just the beginning of a long friendship. 

A few other highlights of the conference include saying hey to a good family friend Noel Castellanos (a speaker at the Justice Conference), hearing all the rest of the amazing speakers (my favorites were Shane Claiborne, Dr. John Perkins, Dr. Nicholas Wolterstorff, Lisa Sharon Harper, and Claire Diaz-Ortiz), getting Lisa Sharon Harper to sign a copy of her book for me, giving and receiving 97 Free Hugs, meeting a whole bunch of awesome people and hopefully finding cool opportunities to learn and create a more just and peaceful world in addition to giving away free hugs. 

I still have a lot of materials that I received at the conference to go through and process but I am really glad that I decided to stick it out and go even though at first I wasn’t amazingly excited about it.  Thank You Justice 2013 for a great time!!

Birthday Bliss

My birthday was a few days ago on Wednesday February 20.  I just wanted to take a moment to write about how amazing and awesome my 20th birthday turned out to be.  I started out the day by getting up at 7am to get ready for my Math Class at 830.  After class I found a lucky penny (heads up) on the ground, from that point on, I knew that it was going to be a fantastically great day.  I went back to my dorm and then approved production of my Free Hugs book.  I am now in the Production phase of getting my book published!!! How crazy is that? That was super exciting.  From there I went to my micro econ class which was rather ordinary then I studied and took my philosophy exam on Plato which i feel really good about.  I then was able to hang out with a group of close friends (Mallorym Gianna, Kelly, Rachel, Katie, Ashely, and Sandi)  After that My mom dropped off some mini chocolate dalek cakes that she made for me for my birthday!! It was fantastic!! I ended the night hanging out with my friends from my dorm (Maia, Maggie, Emily, Marissa, and Alex.)  Thanks to everyone for a fantastic birthday.  It couldn't have happened without you!! :)

Ice Skating!!

Yesterday I went ice skating with some of my family and some friends.  I decided to wear my amazingly awesome Free Hugging outfit.  I gave away 30 hugs and was able to talk to some people about my book!!

I first met a group of 4 friends Kirsten, Jessica, and Michaela celebrating their friend Katya's birthday.  It was cool to meet them and talk about my book.  I then met some people from Chicago Cru as well as some people from Africa!! :) 
As I was talking about my book with people while skating, I realized that I have not really done much with updating my blog in over a month.  A lot has happened with my book and there are some cool awesome things still to come.  I have submitted all of my photos and my manuscript to the publisher to work on.  The next steps are to get a professional copy edit and then 7-10 weeks after that my book will be in production.  That will hopefully if all goes well mean that the book will be out and ready to be sold at least a month before I start my tour on June 14th!!
I would also like to inform you all that you can track my daily hugging progress on my twitter @duckydavehugs with the #davesdailycount!! Be sure to check that out and follow me on twitter.  I will try and keep you all updated as new developments become available!!
Lots of hugs,
David Melia (Professional Free Hugger)