Dive Journal 5

            After watching the movie Dive Living of off America’s Waste: I gained a newly heightened awareness of hunger and food issues of current times. The film Dive, by Jerry Seifert, is a documentary like account by group young men that eat and feed their families off of the food they collect on a daily basis via dumpster diving. The film takes place around the LA, California area and is based upon bringing awareness to the vast amount of non-spoiled food that many large chain food stores throw away verses the below poverty population that are in need of food.  In many instances the participants were able to consume better meals with the food collected from dumpsters than they could afford to purchase (Seifert).  Many fresh, organic meats, vegetables, fruit, grains and dairy products were items recovered from the dumpster dives. Food items are packaged with sell by labels. Once the sell by date and often previous to this date, is reached the store will dispose of the item to the trash. How can anyone with a conscious just throw away perfectly good food, one may wonder? Unfortunately throwing away good food instead of giving it to a needy person is a common practice of many businesses and citizens at homes. Nearly half of food items grown, manufactured and meals prepared in the United States of America are not consumed by people and thrown away when they are yet consumable (Seifert). A statistic like that in a first world country is sad and stifling.  Grocery chains try to avoid customer complaints of food freshness and lawsuits by taking the route of discarding items also to prevent lawsuits. Many people think that it’s easier to throw away than give it to others in need and hungry.  The federal government has assisted in encouraging positive actions like grocery stores, giving food to food banks, needing organizations, etc. without repercussion of being sued via the Good Samaritan Act passed during the Bill Clinton Administration. A law being passed on a federal level is not enough to save lives. Volunteers are needed to organize, distribute and cook food donations for people less fortunate. What type of country has the USA become? Does it care more about the latest fashion then the basic need of all human beings? Humans need food and water to survive: without it their organs will not function properly and can result in death. Where and when do people start to help make a difference? Start today; start now with small, personal, and consistent changes. Take leftovers to work to share with fellow staff members. Donate nonperishable items to the local food bank or church in your area. Any efforts made any better than no efforts.     

Making my American Dream

            Carl Jung stated “Who looks outside, dreams; who looks within, awakens.” After listening to the speaker named Mauricio Garcia, nicknamed   Mo, owner of MG Success Services LLC, a motivational coaching service and good colleague of Professor Warren; I was inspired to evaluate what I could improve upon. The speaker shared the story of his journey to the present state of working and living his life’s passion and calling it his career.  Mo shared that when he and his family came to the U.S.; although he faced many challenges beyond his control, there we situations that he experienced because he did not allow himself to change and grow. For example; he did not even attempt to learn fluent English until he was in the country for at least five plus years. Not being able to fluently speak English was a major barrier that stood in between Mo reaching his Dream.  Once Mo faced his fears, did a self-survey and then applied the information towards his goals; was he then able to overcome his shortcoming and move towards reaching his optimal career potential. I looked at my challenges and fears.  If certain every day challenges are resolved, people benefit as a result. Individuals looking for success in their lives and careers must start with managing their time properly.  I wanted achievable goals. Graham Greene wrote that the price for setting unrealistic goals is a feeling of despair. Time has always seemed to slip through my fingers. Proper time management is attainable and favorable. In researching Time management, it’s discovered that one must also be organized and learn to delegate task.

Geoffrey Chaucer referred to time gone as something that couldn't be recovered. Time management can be looked at in many different ways. “Time is the scarcest resource. Unless it is managed, nothing can be managed” (Dobson). Quite often people either have feast or famine when it comes to time. It seems when people have a lot of responsibility and issues to handle, they don’t have the time needed. Actually, everyone has twenty four hours in a day. How one chooses to use their 24 hours is what impacts ones success or failures.  Many people avoid task that are overwhelming, tedious, not of immediate importance, or that they just don’t feel like doing. This avoidance is called procrastination. Procrastination is one of the main issues of poor time management. Ways to avoid procrastination are: complete task on a list of importance, delegate task when applicable and getting organized.

            Managing one’s life is an eventful task. In order to get it all done, there will be times that people need to ask for help. For example, if an adult is a husband or wife, parent, student and has a career; he or she may need to assign their child task to wash the dishes a few days a week in order to have clean dishes. No matter how wonderful and efficient a person is, he or she just can’t do everything that physically needs to be done in those three roles. A lot of people are not comfortable with delegating, especially in the workforce.  Delegating is a management practice that is highly talked about but less used (Dobson). No one wants to be the bad guy or the overly bossy person that is always telling everybody what to do. Yet in order to handle great and large responsibilities, a manager must know when and how to ask or empower others to help. Taking time to teach others empowers them to learn a new task and allows the leader to focus on other issues that need attention. The task can be delegated but the responsibility still belongs to the parent, teacher, manager or person of authority to delegate. Delegating is an art form and must be practiced. In order for a leader of any sort to delegate; he or she must first be organized to know what the overall project or task consist of. Disorganization makes task more difficult (Leeds). Just image using Turbo Tax to file your taxes; and the many relevant documents accumulated throughout the year. As the computer program generated questions continue to arise, various documents hold the answers to the questions. Filing taxes is already a difficult and consuming task; but to have to stop and search through pile of papers throughout various places is even more taxing.  Now imagine preparing a file in a file cabinet at the beginning of the year.  Further imagine that as the documents and tax related situations arise throughout the year; placing the documents in the labeled file.  The following year at tax time, simply take the tax file and all of the needed documents are present. This scenario would be a lot less stress more and thus help the filing process go smoother. Good time management includes assessing of a project beforehand, anticipating needs and then putting a plan into action. An unknown author once said, “To not plan is to plan to fail.”  In the book “The Eight Minute Organizer” the author explains how spending just eight minutes of preparation can help a person become more organized.

           

It is sad, shameful but true that something like poor time management can assist in hindering a person from reaching their full potential. Successful time management can be accomplished with delegating task, getting and staying organized, and managing one’s self with the given time we all have (Leeds). Like Mo the motivational speaker, I have decided to face my fear and consciously work on something that I know is holding back opportunities for success. One can be more than hopeful that the American Dream, whatever that may be for the individual, is reachable. 

Works Cited

Alexander, Roy and Michael S. Dobson, Micheal S. Chapter 1 - How to Think About Time

Real-World Time Management, Second Edition.  AMACOM © 2009.

Forsyth, Patrick. Time Management. Kogan Page. April 28, 2010   Most Recent Edition

Leeds, Regina. The 8-Minute Organizer: Easy Solutions to Simplify Your Life in Your Spare Time. Da Capo Press. May 1, 2012

Mackenzie, Alec, and Pat Nickerson. The time trap: The classic book on time management. Amacom, 2009.        

American Dream- Journal 4

American Dream

On Tuesday February 23, 2013 the ENC 1102 class of Professor Kelly Warren joined another group to listen to a Life Coach like speaker named Mauricio Garcia.  The speaker nicknamed “Mo” is the owner of “MG Success Services LL C”, a motivational coaching service.  Mo also identified himself as good colleague of Professor Warren. The speaker shared the story of his journey to the present state of working and living his life’s passion and calling in his career.  He shared that when he and his family came to the U.S.; although he faced many challenges beyond his control, there we situations that he experienced because of his lack to allow himself to change and grow. For example; he did not even attempt to learn fluent English until he was in the country for around 5 plus years. Not being able to fluently speak English was a major barrier that stood in between Mo reaching his “Dream”. He continued to go through life stumbling around his deep rooted fear of change. Once Mo faced his fears, did a self-survey and then applied the information towards his goals; was he then able to overcome his shortcoming and move forward in appositive way towards reaching his optimal career potential. His speech was very interesting, informative and humorous. After hearing the speech I was inspired to look at some of the challenges I face in life. I began to put them in categories of importance to resolve, and further categorized them by the benefit I would receive as a result of the resolution. I am now in the stages of evaluating if there are any reasonably obtainable solutions. Not only was Mo speech enjoyable, but one would be wise to wager that he left a lot of the students with serious thoughts of encouragement.  We are hopeful that our American Dream, whatever that may be for the individual, is reachable.

Digital Nation

             

I have mixed feelings about digital technology and its usage in various aspects of society. Computer, Online, and Virtual technology has become an enormous part of most societies. It is not uncommon to drivers, especially young adults and teens drive while talking and or texting on mobile devices on a daily basis. Technology is supposed to help make life better however; many times it is because of technology that people are more stressed. Many people say that driving while talking on phone is not distracting. Most people believe that, until they are ticketed for traffic violations that at they are unaware that they are even committing.  Multitasking is another method that digital and virtual technology has helped to enhance. Is multitasking really accomplishing multiple task or should people complete one task at a time?

Driving while distracted by digital and virtual technology is becoming an increasingly contributor to poor decision making skills and increased traffic accidents. Drivers can be seen with hands free devices like ear buds, blue tooth, using speaker phone and built in wireless devices. Although hands free devices can be helpful, it is still distracting to drive and engage over the telephone for long periods.  Notes that “driving while distracted can have effects like driving while drinking.”() Drivers have been observed swerving while on phone by law enforcement officers and other drivers. I had an incident recently that involved myself being distracted, speeding and received a traffic ticket. I was entering the interstate while talking on the phone with my husband. I felt the need to speed up while coming on interstate in order to not continue sitting waiting for a pause in traffic. After I entered the right lane, I quickly moved over to the left lane to what I judged was avoiding impact of the traffic behind me. Once in the left lane I allowed the cars in the right lane to pass then made my way to return to the right lane. Little did I know or pay attention, the vehicle in the left lane was a state trooper that observed the entire event and decided that a ticket was necessary for the way of driving. I explained to the officer that I was going with the flow of traffic and felt the necessity to speed in order to get in position for the lengthy ride I had ahead of me. The officer acknowledged that the entire traffic cluster was speeding and that I was randomly selected because I was following his vehicle in the left lane too closely before I pulled back over in the right lane. When I noticed the vehicle that the officer was driving, I was very disappointed in myself. First of all I should not have been speeding. Secondly, surely a black Suburban with jet black tented windows was an officer under cover, everyone knows that. I don’t make a habit of practicing any unlawful or unsafe driving habits but had I paid attention to that vehicle; I would have had extra precaution and avoided that ticket. I know that the distraction of talking on the phone contributed to my failure to observe my surroundings, speeding and following the officer too closely.

Driving while talking on the cellphone, is just one of the many forms of distractions. There are websites that show case ridiculous things being done in public, while driving and on occasions when the person is unaware that the picture is being taken. People are constantly taking pictures and posting notes while doing everyday life activities via their digital/ virtual device.  This generation calls the constant digital interactions multitasking. While many people think that multitasking is a helpful way to get many things done, others find it distracting and dangerous. Teens call it being “wired”. When I’m trying to do too many things at once; talk to a person on the phone, doing homework on the computer, text, answering emails, and pay attention to my face book updates ding every few minutes…..I feel “wired”.  The wired I feel is translation, nervous, jittery, confused and overwhelmed. The movie (Digital Nation) discussed how some people felt a need to be relieved of the digital overhaul. I understood and agreed that it no longer is just a matter of unplugging your devices. Even when the computer is off, there are still emails and various requests being made via digital that people have to later answer to. Is it fair for an employee to give eight plus hours to their employer daily; then still be expected to answer text messages and emails from their managers throughout the evening as they attempt to cook, clean, spend time with family and friends or whatever they choose to do with the few off work hours. A quick response to an email or text could be beneficial to jump start task at work the following day, or help a situation that may be going on with the sender of the text or email.  However, we need to work together and respect that we are human beings with lives, families, likes, dislikes, responsibilities, various other issues, situations and events that prohibit one to answer every phone call at the moment that it is received. 

Driving while talking on the phone is; driving while talking on the phone. An unknown source once said “I can walk while chewing bubble gum.” The mind of a human being is complicated yet brilliant. We are intelligent beyond our own knowledge. However the disregard of our own weaknesses and limitations can lead to poor outcomes. It is wonderful that pertinent and important can be relayed in a timely manner or real time as it is happening. However, this technology doesn't give us a right to violate the privacy and choices of others. Advancement of technology can be of benefit if we respect and use it properly.

Digital Nation

Digital Nation

            In review of the documentary “Digital Nation”, I have mixed feelings about digital technology and its usage in various aspects of society. Computer, Online, and Virtual technology has become an enormous part of most societies. The movie featured description of how teens and young adults constantly fluctuate between multiple mobile devices on a daily basis. It’s not uncommon to see a teen with ear buds in his/her ears listening to I tunes, cellphone in hand texting friend and a tablet on desk with the face book program.  This generation calls the constant digital interactions multitasking. While many people think that multitasking is a helpful way to get many things done, others find it distracting and dangerous. Teens call it being “wired”. When I’m trying to do too many things at once; talk to a person, do my homework on the computer, answer text, phone calls and pay attention to my face book updates ding every few minutes…..I feel “wired”.  The wired I feel is translation, nervous, jittery, confused and overwhelmed. The movie discussed how some people felt a need to be relieved of the digital overhaul. I understood and agreed that it no longer is just a matter of unplugging your devices. Even when the computer is off, there are still emails and various requests being made via digital that people have to later answer to. We need to work together and respect that we are human beings with lives, families, likes, dislikes, responsibilities, various other issues, situations and events that prohibit one to answer every phone call at the moment that it is received.  It is wonderful that pertinent and important can be relayed in a timely manner or real time as it is happening. However, this technology doesn't give us a right to violate the privacy and choices of others. Advancement of technology can be of benefit if we respect and use it properly.

Reality TV Bonanza

Chandala Hagans                                                                                                                           

Journal 2

Reality TV Bonanza

Reality TV shows are in excess. The airwaves seem to be filled with television shows that claim to display the regular ordinary lives of people from vast walks of life. The shows claim to show an exclusive, unscripted, yet highly entertaining view into what goes on in the lives of others. Yet if the shows receive low ratings, mundane boring characters, or less than desired viewing stats then the shows usually are quickly discontinued. In the Sports Wives and House Wives of…… series, women that most of the time are not married; neither have ever been, are grouped together and portrayed as friends.  The women in these shows waist a lot of time sitting around gossiping about each other.  Surprisingly, or not, the gossip is brought to the then absent person with exaggeration of what the party not present spoke and negative emphasis. Predictably, the listener is outraged that her new BFF would gossip about her and speak negatively.  This person then vows to confront and retaliate against the betrayer. The friendships in these shows seem to fizzle as fast if not faster than they start. Add a few shopping trips, meals, exotic vacations, colorful characters and wardrobes that fit the par and you have your basic elements to a lot of the current shows. These shows are not limited to certain channels. Historical and respectable channels like Discovery Channel and Animal Planet are not exempt. Although the reality programs on these channels appear to be more realistic and not overly dramatized with the script. The show Ice Road Truckers tells about the experiences of Class A license Truck Drivers. These drivers endure with some things like harsh weather conditions, delays in scheduling and equipment difficulties. The show Pawn Brothers  highlights the uniqueness, value, and sometimes interesting facts or qualities about different items brought into a Los Vegas pawnshop. Who knew that pawn shops and findings brought in for pawn could be so interesting.  Many people seemed to be drawn to reality TV shows. There are so many ongoing and new shows to choose from.  Just when we think that there cannot be another subject or category to display on TV in the “reality” faucet, comes the next show. Why people are draw to reality TV shows? Like most, I criticize and complain about Reality TV shows taking over the airways yet I’m glued to the television at least once a week for my favorite one as much as the next person. Are we that interested in what is going on in the lives of others; trying to keep up for conversation or are we truly entertained? One thing for sure is that there are so many shows to choose from, too many.  

Chandala “Shawn” Hagans

ENC1102

Final Essay

1/28/13

Kent Campus Gallery Review Assignment

On Tuesday January 15, 2013 the Kent Campus of Florida State College at Jacksonville opened the Kent Campus Gallery. The ENC 1102 class attended the gallery opening as a class assignment. The gallery displayed a variety of photographs taken by amateur students and entered in a college wide competition. In review of the photographs on display, three photographs sparked my attention in interesting ways. An unknown source once said, “Clowns wear a face that's painted intentionally on them so they appear to be happy or sad. What kind of mask are you wearing today?” It’s amazing how pictures and facial expressions can influence others feelings. Facial expressions or lack thereof along with surroundings can set the emotional tone of others. Have you ever felt down and out then noticed the toothless smile of a child and instantly felt better? On average people agree that a frown from your boss can instantly upset a good mood. The three photographs that I will describe and discuss ignited emotional response from myself as real life faces can do. All three photographs were dominated by the subject’s facial expression or the lack thereof.

The picture entitled “Don’t Enter” by Charde La Roche displays what appears to be a young lady standing in front of and guarding a door. Her facial expression is mysterious. It is not necessarily good or bad. The picture registers a pleasant vibe for many other visible reasons. The person looks very normal to today’s standards. One would possibly guess her age to be around late teens to twenties. She has a pleasant innocent face and is visually in the average body weight percentage. Her hair is styled and about three tattoos are seen to the bilateral upper arms and right leg. The usage of models that display pleasant but common physical assets can be a way to relate or gain acceptance from a viewer.  The young lady is blocking and guarding the door in a way that suggests that it not be entered. There could be something behind that door that she doesn't want to be seen. Another view could be that she is bracing herself in the doorway and that the title of “Do Not Enter” refers to her.  The contrast of wondering if the focus is the person or the door is interesting. Her facial expression warrants a ponder of finding out if physical assistance is needed or if she just needs an ear to listen as she embraces an important decision.  

“Angel” by Amanda Gross is a photograph of a little girl that instantly warmed my heart. The picture was so simple yet profound. The little girl looked so sweet and precious with her double dimpled smile.  Her naturally high cheek bones allow those dimples to be accented with a ray of sunshine shining and bouncing off her smile. She is dressed in a simple floral summer dress and has her hair pulled back yet flowing in a headband. The picture immediately arose an outward smile and inward feeling of joy for me. A child’s simple and lovely smile can be refreshing and angelic. Initially, I thought that this photo was my favorite of the three pictures that were selected.

On the surface, “Relax” by Pierre Weher seemed like a weird photograph. After careful review, it became my favorite. It displayed what appeared to be a lady covered from face to foot with a nude suit, bound with ties to hands and feet. This photograph expressed how difficult it can be to stop engaging in our surroundings and simply relax or be still. Relaxing can be defined as a form of peace and rest. It comes natural for some and more difficult for others. The photograph also reveals that relaxing can be more difficult for women due to the illusion that women are naturally relaxed. This point is revealed in the positioning of the lady on what could be a bed, yet she has to be blinded and bound to have the result of relaxation. My overall concept and interpretation of the photograph was one that was personal.  Sometimes it might take all of the photographed measures to stop whatever activity, thought, or scenery to allow you a break for sanity. The persons lack of facial features expresses an inability to see, think, or speak. Everything is shut of physically and mentally for this person.

Facial expressions or the lack thereof can ignite personal emotional response from others. We all should watch and be mindful of our countenance because it is usually being read by and influencing others. People use this assessment information to formulate acceptance, belonging, understanding and direction. In a world where there is so much to feel negative about, let’s watch that we are contributing to the positive, or that our face express what we truly mean.