Advice for Success

At the beginning of next semester if you are worried about taking this class you shouldn't be. I think out of all the classes I have taken at Clemson, this is the one that has taught me the most. As we did the work in the class, I could see how down this road this stuff was really going to help. I actually found all of the work we did interesting and I thought it was great that we got to work with a client because you could see the work you were doing was going to make a difference and help out the client. If there is one tip I can give about this class it is to not take the formatting quiz or the grammar for granted. Just study for these two a little bit and you should be fine. These two quizzes were probably the easiest grades but I put the studying off and didn't do as well as I should have. I think it was great working in a group while doing the project for the client. It helped to have a lot of good ideas and we put them together to make a great website. Make sure you can attend all the group meetings and are prepared for them so that you can help produce a good project.

The most difficult thing about this class was making the different portfolios but Angie was always available and willing to help. If you have any problems about anything do not hesitate to ask her for help because she is such a very nice lady and will always help you. I really think just about everything we did in this class has prepared very much for obstacles I will be facing when I graduate. Thanks Angie for a great semester!

VT Tragedy

First off, I would like to say that my hear goes out to all of the victims families from the Virginia Tech massacre. I'm not so sure there is a way to prevent something like this from happening again and I don't think there was a way to ever prevent it from happening. The campus at VT is open and anyone at any time could go there whenever they want. There's really no way to tell when some crazy person is going to decide to do what the shooter at VT did. Anyone at anytime could flip and decide to do that any no one would know unless they had told mentioned it or written it down before it happened.

You cant really say that you could keep students from having weapons because theres always a way around something and someone that wants something like that is going to have it or get it regardless of whats at stake. I think I saw on t.v. where students had to have like an ID card to get in the buildings and dorms but that also would be easy for a student of another school or just anyone off the streets to obtain if they knew someone that went to school there or something. I just don't really believe that something like this can be prevented without people finding out before it ever happens.

Fired for a blog?

I must have been so excited the week before spring break that I forgot to do a blog that week so I am now making that up. I hope this is ok to do this now and I hope this counts toward the second phase of blogging.

I can't believe that people have actually been fired from there work on the account that they had a personal blog. Obviously, I know you wouldn't just get fired for having a personal blog but whats the difference in talking with fellow employees in the office about work or how bad it sucks or how you feel about certain people in the company or having your own personal blog where you could write down how you feel just as long as it doesn't discriminate or look bad on the company. It is my opinion that people would be more likely to say bad things about the company or people in a company to other workers at work instead of writing it in a blog and I bet people rarely get fired for talking at work. Now I could understand if someone had a personal blog and they were writing rude things about certain people or telling secrets that the company doesn't want people to know, then that would allow for someone to be fired.

I think it would be ok to have a person blog to let people know how you feel and let people know how things are going as long as you don't bring defamation to the company or the people that work there. As for the question Angie asked if it would be ok if they didn't blog from a computer at work, I think that would be ok still as long as when they do blog wherever it may be from that they still aren't speaking bad about the company or people in it.

The end is near

I posted on the team blog this week, see Tiger Web Design.

Dual Coding Theory...

I hadn't really heard about the dual coding theory all that much until we talked about it in class last Monday but now that we did i'm starting to notice a lot of examples. One example that comes to mind now that I know a little about the dual coding theory is the little taco bell dog that use to talk and influence you to go to taco bell. I thought that was a very good way to get the audience's attention because instead of a human talking and telling you what taco bell offered they had a little dog doing it. Another example of the dual coding theory would be with cereal. Cereal companies often use cartoon characters to entice children. A good example of this would be fruity and coco pebbles, they use fred flintstone to talk about how fruity or chocolatey their cereal is. Kids will recognize this cereal by watching the cartoon the flintstones and when their parents take them to the store they will recognize the cereal by the cartoon.

Also, I'm not sure if this is an example of the dual coding theory but I thought this thing was pretty cool. My mom sent it to me in an e-mail: I know it looks as though its just a bunch of crap but thats how the letters are supposed to be.

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too.

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55% plepoe can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Project + Proposal = Busy

This week we met on Wednesday in order to talk about the proposal that is due next week and also to check out how our website is coming along. Crystal had tried to create our website last weekend in dreamweaver but it ended up not working out, so she had to write the website out in code or something like that and for that I would like to congratulate and thank her. Just thinking about writing out or making up my own web page based on code just gives me a headache and I wouldn't even know where to begin. Right now, we basically have a rough draft of our website on the computer to look at and now we just have to figure out what information we want to put and where. At our meeting we were a little confused as to what all went into the proposal and how long each sections should be. We were hoping that Fridays class would give us an idea of what to include so that we could divide up the different sections and get this done over the weekend so we can put it all together in class next Monday. We kinda felt as a group that we had waited a little to long to find out what all was supposed to go in our proposal and decided that it would be great if we could get the proposal pushed back and due on Friday instead of Wednesday. With it being the week before spring break a lot of people in our group have said they have a lot of tests and it will be tough to meet so we felt that we are going to be rushed to get this done.

My Presentation...

Well, the time came where I had to give my presentation today and I don't think it was really all that bad. I liked the fact that we could choose to do the presentation on anything we wanted, because I felt a lot more comfortable talking about something I know a lot about instead of having to learn all kinds of new facts and different things. I hope I wasn't too nervous and didn't speak to fast, if I did sorry guys. I don't know if its just me but I kind of hate the feeling I get after giving a presentation. First off, you don't know how well it went, if you spoke too fast, if you didn't make any sense and the thing that bothers me the most is after the fact I always realize I left things out. I forgot to mention all the prizes you win for winning the tournaments, what we actually won last year and how many teams are usually in the tournaments. I guess things that happen like that are kind of good though because then it gives you something that you know you need to work on for next time.

Also, I think our team meetings went very well while we had this little time of from class. I think we got a lot accomplished with what we are going to do any now all we have to do is actually sit down and do the website on the computer. Hopefully, since we are getting a visit Monday from The Anderson Sunshine House they will be able to answer a few questions that we have about what can and can't go on the website. Well, since I blogged about other peoples presentations last week and the portfolio and stuff I guess this is it.

Here is a link to that video I tried to put on my presentation, I hope it works. This guy pitching is playing in a USSSA tournament where you have 5 seconds from the time you get the ball to do anything you want.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE2YVDgiLhU

Phase 1

Since its the last week and we are finishing up phase 1 of the class I thought I would reflect on the many things we have done this past week. I have not given my presentation yet but so far the ones that have been given in the class have been very interesting and I have learned a lot of things about the different places people have been. I particularly liked the presentation about the cruises because in May after graduation me and my girlfriend are going on a cruise so that was pretty good and gave me some things to look forward to. I'm sure going on the cruise is going to be a lot of fun but the drive to Port Canaveral, FL is going to be a long one.

I had my interview last Friday and I thought it went pretty well. I was kind of nervous at the beginning because I didn't know what to expect but after a few minutes it wasn't all that bad. Going in to the interview I didn't think I would be that nervous because it was someone that I know and see three times a week doing the interview but I think being confined in a small space kind of made it a little weird at the beginning. I guess I just expected a desk or something in between me and the interviewer but overall it was alright. When the interview was over I already knew before talking to Angie that there were a few things I did wrong. Like she said I was nervous at first and the next time I have an interview I'm going to try and tell myself to just be calm and be me. Also, when Angie asked if I had any questions about the company I said no. I knew that I had made a mistake and found out that it is always good to ask questions, so next time I will do a little research before the interview and be prepared.

well I really have a lot of stuff to do this week so I guess I'm going to end this here. Along with the portfolio and presentation that I have to do this week for English, I also have two quizzes in Law and a Midterm in Psychology so I better get to doing some work.

The Semester So Far...

Well, for me its getting about that time when all my tests and stuff are starting to pile up and hit me all at once. Last week I had 3 quizzes and a test in the same day and this week I have two test and the interview on Friday. Good thing I changed my presentation date because I definitely procrastinated this weekend and am still not prepared for my law test tomorrow.

So far it seems as though this class has went by pretty slow but I can see that things are starting to pick up now along with all of my other classes. I feel well prepared for the presentation and interview I've just got to find the time to get all of this done by the deadlines. The portfolio on the other hand I think I might need to look over a few more times before I start to put it together. I think our group is more than ready to start on the project and I believe we will be able to get a lot done by not having class and having more time to work on the project.

The Presentation...

When it comes to the upcoming presentation I'll have to admit I'll probably be a little nervous about it. I usually don't mind talking in front of people, but when its people that you have to see everyday I guess I am just a little more worried about what you guys might think about me. I don't mind talking to people I don't know and that's pretty backwards that I'm nervous to talk to people I kinda know and see everyday but not really that intimidated by someone that I don't know at all. Anyway, the topic I would most likely talk about would probably be baseball or softball. I know this seems pretty boring but It's something that I do just about every weekend from March through August.

Project and Party

probably just like everyone else in the class, when i first heard of the project that we were going to be doing I was a little confused. I didn't really have a clue on which way we were supposed to go with this thing, but now that we have some information about what The Sunshine House is about I think we will be able to help them out a lot. I was a little confused as to who or what our target was, what were they looking to get out of the end result of the project and things like that. I think it will be a great opportunity to help an organization like this and I look forward with working with The Sunshine House staff.

As far as the party goes that happened on campus 2 weeks ago I don't really have a lot to say about it. I don't agree with it or think it was right and I believe that it would have offended people regardless but I think it blew up so much because of the date on which the party was on. If the same party had been this past weekend or last semester I don't think there would have been as much talk about it but I think it had a lot to do with the timing and date of the party. Two of my friends and many other people dressed up for Halloween, one of them was 50 cent and the other as Flavor Flave but no one said anything about that.

10 Years...

When I first read this topic about how I see myself in 10 years I began to think about it more and more. Ten years sounds like such a long time, but I know when I graduate from college and start a full-time job that it will begin to fly by.

In the next ten years I would first like to start off by graduating, hopefully by December 07 or if not definitely May of 08. There is a good chance that when I graduate or soon after that I would be able to take over as the Human Resource Manager of the company my father works for but if this does not work out hopefully an internship could get me a foot in the door of another company. I sometimes think that I would like to move to a big city when I start my career but that would all depend on the amount of money I would be making. I wouldn't mind staying in South Carolina or around it but sometimes I think a change might be good and I could always come back. I would like to be married in the next 2 to 3 years and possibly have at least one child before I'm 30 and two kids all together. I want a job that allows me to make a lot of money but one that also allows me to spend a lot of time with my family. I would also like to design my own home and have enough land for a pond to do some fishing. Another one of my goals that I may not be able to complete in 10 years but I would definitely like to start is to rebuild an old car. I'm not really sure what kind yet but cars have always interested me and I think it would be great to restore something that's old and doesn't have much value. In the next 10 years I know many ideas will come and go but the main thing I want to happen is for me to be able to provide for my family and make them happy.

A Little Introduction

How's it going today? I just wanted to take a little time and introduce myself to everyone. My name is Josh Winkler and I am a junior Human Resource Management major from Spartanburg, South Carolina. I transferred here after two years of playing junior college baseball at Spartanburg Methodist College. I had scholarship offers to some smaller schools after my two years at SMC but I kinda got burned out on baseball and thought it would be better to just focus on school and get a good education. I graduated from Spartanburg Methodist College with an Associates of Arts degree in 2005 and technically should be graduating this May but if any of you have transferred here, you know they screw you on your credits or at least that's what happened to me. I selected HR as my major because I feel that I have very good people skills and I like to be in the loop about everything. This past summer and semester I worked for a company called Fastenal as a inside/outside salesperson. I felt like this was a great experience for me and it really introduced me to what life will be like when I graduate. I use to be shy and I didn't really like talking in front of people that were new or I didn't know but after making sales calls and dealing with people everyday its really not that bad anymore. I still sometimes get a little nervous when I have to get up and speak in front of people though.

A few of my interests include baseball/softball, basketball, football, fishing, working out, going downtown, eating good food,working and spending time with my girlfriend Lauren who is an accounting major here. . I know I said earlier that I got burned out on baseball so I pretty much just watch it now but I've really got hooked on competitive slow pitch softball. I've been around softball all of my life because when I was little my dad always played it. The team I played on last year is basically the same team I am playing on this year with the addition of three new guys. I am the youngest at 21 and most of the other guys are between 25-40. We won two world tournaments last year one in Panama City, FL with 256 teams and the other in Atlanta, GA with about 75 teams and also finished second in another world in Alabama that had over 128 teams in it. I like softball because it is very competitive and believe it or not you can actually make it a career and get paid for it. People that play A major for teams such as Easton, Worth or TPS actually get paid a salary around 50,000-60,000 to play.

I'm really a very easy person to talk to and get along with and I like working with other people as a team to accomplish a goal. I'm a very reliable person and look forward to working with whoever would like to have me as a part of there team.