Sparky and Me

So we made a decision, whether it was a good one or not we are not sure just yet, and brought my puppy from home back to school.  His name is sparky and he is just that!  His is about a year old and he is a mix between a jack rustle, chihuahua, and a beagle.

After being inside for no longer than 10 minutes he peed twice and started chewing on a shoe.  Its been extremely fun so far, but I am sure he will test our patience soon enough.

I wouldn't have thought it to be possible, but things I have picked up this semester have already helped us with him.  It is a lot of nonverbal communication.  Body language has been very prominent in how he acts around us.  He has known me for quite a while so he approaches me intimate space which is 0 - 1.5 feet all the time.  For my roommates who he just meet he tends to stay in the social space which is 4 to 12 feet.  As he warms up to them he will be more comfortable in the closer zones.  It's weird how it is works the same for dogs as it does people.  We have also noticed that he responds a lot to body language.  If you are happy he is happy and wants to play.  He recently did this,

 and he could tell right away how I was looking at him that I was not happy and he was in big trouble.  I'm hoping that the skills I have learned in Com 320 will continue to help us.  I know we will need it.

Gary Burgin

Communications helps you make deals

Today I went with a friend to negotiate an arms deal.   Let me clarify that that isn’t as bad as it sounds.  We weren’t buying machine guns or explosives, just considering a bunch of old rifles.  I had seen them before, and knew which one I wanted to buy.  My friend examined the guns and found one he liked.  When we began to talk with the seller, I was reminded of things I had learned in communications class.

Most communication is done in an informal setting.  The buyer, the seller and I were all college students, and none of us were representing a business.  Nevertheless, many rules of communication apply, no matter what the setting is.

The seller had a price that he wanted us to pay, and we had a price that we wanted to pay.  We then had to use our respective communication skills to arrive at a price that satisfied everyone.  Negotiation skills are a valuable thing to learn in communications.  They’re useful in many situations, from haggling on a price, to bargaining on international agreements.

What is negotiation, though?  I’ve think that negotiating is really about persuasion.  For instance, I had to try to convince the seller to accept a price lower than he originally wanted me to pay. 

I got a fair price and skills from communications class helped me do it.

-Mason Moyer

March Madness

With the Elite Eight round of the NCAA tournament coming to a close and two of the Final Four teams already selected, I figured it was about time to talk about this "Madness".  On March 15th, 68 of the best Division I mens basketball teams from around the nation entered one tournament looking to be the BEST in America.  Two weeks later we are down to 6 teams, and soon to be 4 after tonight's two games; and as the title says, it has been madness.   Link to current updated bracket-http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/bracket

Out of the 6 teams that remain, one of them is Indiana's own (and once again Cinderella story) Butler University.  Butler started off the tournament ranked about right in the middle of the field of 68, so making it this far is quite the accomplishment in itself.  Growing up a huge fan of basketball and having one of my siblings attend Butler, I have found myself to be an avid follower of the Bulldogs.  Their team chemistry and drive to play to the best of their ability astounds me every game I watch. 

Basketball teams are a great example of a small group setting.  This should seem obvious to most people seeing as the word team is already there, but some people may not catch it.  The definition of a team is a coordinated group of individuals organized to work together to achieve a specific common goal.  Most basketball teams, especially high school and up, consist of 12-15 players; and out of those 12-15, only 5 are on the court at one time during a game.  Communication between these players on and off the court is crucial to a teams success during the season.  Teams that develop a strong bond and relationship amongst each other off the court tend, to find that they play a lot better together on the court.  Everything you do together away from the game of basketball translates back to the court, and vice versa.  Ernest Bormann's Symbolic Convergence Theory definitely comes into play in this setting when teams are developing their relationships.  It helps that teammates already hold one thing in common, basketball, but it is important to further explore their personalities and find more common ground.  When watching Butler play you can definitely tell these guys have great respect for one another and approach it as if they even are a family.

Communication and leadership also are key aspects that a team needs to perfect.  When you watch a basketball team you can see how important communication is among the players in order to excel.  Not only verbal communication, but non-verbal communication is important as well.  Teams learn how to communicate with each other non-verbally so that they can relay information to each other without the other team knowing what is going on.  These non-verbal cues come in the form of hand gestures, facial expressions, and just knowing what to expect next in a previously designed play.  Leadership is important to have amongst a team for when times get rough.  A team is not always going to play as well as they like or maybe its just things aren't going their way.  It is important at these times to have key players step up and take control of the team, and let them know not to quit.  When I watch Butler play you can definitely see players like Howard and Mack have developed this leadership position.  Howard being a senior has been there and done that.  He has been in the league for four years now and knows what to expect.  It is his job to guide the freshmen and sophomores in the right direction to become great players like himself.

Well that's about all I got.  There are only 5 more games left to be played in the tournament and you can bet I will be in front of the TV for everyone of them, especially to cheer on the Butler Bulldogs.

Tyler Oehlman

Back in Action

I got back to Indiana two days ago and I can say I miss it already. Some other people and I went to Daytona for spring break and had a blast.  I was really suprised that over half of the people I met down there were from Purdue, so that was pretty sweet.  Daytona, Florida was sunny and  warm and was a lot of fun, but it's back to business.

 I feel like we have a lot of things to do to get ready for project day and it is getting close; two weeks from now and we will have be all ready.  While we do have a lot to do as a group, I feel like our group will get things done without a problem so I'm not getting stressed out.  The only thing that will hurt our progress will be the fact that we all have other classes and other things that we need to get done besides Com 320, but we have done well so far so we should be ok.  If I do really get stressed out I'll just pretend that I'm back in Florida on the beach.

Inside Scoop Vol. 5

No comprende? This is literally what I had to say my entire Spring Break. I am on the Purdue Baseball Team, but did not travel with the team this week, so, at the last minute I decided to go to San Juan, Puerto Rico with my fiancé. We stayed at one of the nicest resorts in Puerto Rico. It was awesome. Whenever I go on vacation, I always ask myself when I get home, “Why the hell do I live in Indiana?” In Puerto Rico, it was really nice waking up every morning and it all ready being 80 degrees and then everyday it got up to about 92.  

This was my first time to Puerto Rico and I would recommend anyone to go. There is a lot of stuff to do, including to go see Old San Juan, which has a wall all the way around the city and was used to keep Pirates away, very cool. The resort was on a reef, so we were able to go snorkeling there, but there was also a beach ,which was awesome. I would say that one of my favorite parts of the resort was the pool bar, especially at 1pm everyday because they had free pina colada samples, and the number of samples was unlimited. 

Tyler Calder

Travel by Train

I got back from vacation today.  On the one hand, I had to hang out with my parents, but on the other, they paid for everything.  Most of the time we were on a train.  We stopped for a few days in Portland, Oregon and San Bernardino, California.

Americans don’t move by train very much anymore.  There used to be a time when it was the fashionable, exciting way to travel.  Since Amtrak was formed in the 1970s, they’ve worked to bring a little bit of that image back.

Getting a room in a sleeper car costs more than a regular seat, but there are lots of little extras that make it worth the price.  Food from the dining car is really good and is free if you get a sleeper.  You also get a daily newspaper and all the coffee, juice, and bottled water you can drink.

Sleeping car passengers also get access to the Metropolitan lounge at certain stations.  It’s less crowded than the normal waiting areas and includes free WiFi, soft drinks, and snacks.

With all costs figured, going by train is cheaper than driving.  Over long distances, it’s also faster.  As a poor college student, this is great for me, although I probably wouldn’t have splurged on a sleeper if I was by myself.  The sleeper room was big enough for my parents and I to stay in.

If you want to get to your destination as quickly as possible, take an airplane.  If you aren’t in a hurry and want someone else to do the driving, catch a train.

-Mason Moyer

Welcome Home

After an awesome week away from school my group of friends and myself finally made it back to campus. It was a much needed week off, but coming back was one of the hardest things we ever did.  Not only did we not want to return to school but we did not want to make the 19 hour drive back from Miami Florida.  There was no positives to being in a car for that long knowing we would be returning to colder weather and monumental amounts of school work that we pushed off.  The whole week consisted of chilling on the beach followed by long nights at the bars.  All in all it was one heck of a week.

Now that I'm back though our group must get cracking on preparation for our Service Learning Project.  We have a good start on it, but there are still many small things we need to accomplish to make it successful.  The largest of these challenges is getting people to attend.  Hopefully there are plenty of our friends and other people that are willing to spend a few hours playing some fun games in hopefully some great weather.  It is in now way as nice here as it was in Florida, but I'm sure the weather will continue to warm up and make for a great day.

Gary Burgin

Posting from Florida

All I can say is that Florida is awesome! It's about 75 and sunny and I think it's going to stay that way for the whole week; it's going to be really hard to head back to Indiana.  I know when we get back from break we are going to have to put some work into our service learning project.  I don't feel like it will be too difficult to get things done for the project, all we have to do first is agree on our goals as a group.  Our teacher thought our goals were a little low and needed to try and make our project a little bigger, while still keeping the same idea.  We will have two weeks to put the final touches on to our project when we get back so I don't feel like we will have any trouble at all.

Josh Young

On the Road

Now that spring break is upon us we have finally escaped the rigors of school.  The group of friends I am going on break with all came down to my house for a night before we headed out on our journey.  We spent the afternoon hanging out and turned in sort of early so we could get an early start.  Today we hit the road and did not look back.  We are heading to Atlanta Georgia for a night out to the bars with some of our Purdue Alumni friends.  They are nice enough to set us up with a place to stay and show us the hot spots.  Hopefully it turn out to be a good night.  By that I mean I hope we all make it back to the house safe and ready to hit the road again in the morning.

Tomorrow we have another long drive the rest of the way to Miami which is our final destination.  The farther south we go the less we want to come back.  The weather as we get farther down keeps getting better and better.  Right now it is seventy degrees and tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer.  I am definitely ready for some sun, sand, and a cold beverage.  Just hope we are responsible enough to have the motivation to go back to cold weather and homework.

Gary Burgin

Current Events

I don’t have much to do today while I wait for Spring Break to begin.  Two of my classes were canceled, leaving me with a six hour gap in the middle of the day.  I bought a video game yesterday, but now I’ve already beaten it.  I don’t have homework, and my stuff is packed and ready to go home.

I guess that leaves current events to talk about.  Did anyone else notice the tsunami warning on Google’s homepage?  I thought that was cool, although only something that has a few hours’ warning like a tsunami would make it very effective.  In the next few days, we’ll have to see how many people the Google warning helped out.  Almost overlooked in the aftermath of the Japan earthquake was a smaller one in China.

Also in the news, France became the first country to publicly recognize the Libyan National Transitional Council as the true government of Libya.  The International Criminal Court believes there might have been as many as 10,000 casualties, something that does not sit well with the UN.  Muammar Gaddafi might be living on borrowed time.

Wisconsin recently passed a law that had all kinds of people protesting.  Most news sources seemed content to report on the protests, not the facts of what the law actually did, so I’m in the dark as to what’s going on.  As far as I have been able to determine, it took some power away from labor unions.

Oh, and oil is back below $100 per barrel.

Spring Break: Engage

-Mason Moyer

Inside Scoop Vol. 4

The week is ending and Spring Break 2011 is upon us. For some, this might mean working, going home to see family, heading to Florida, or even riding on a train for the whole break. I, as all other students, am becoming very anxious for this break because after this there is not a break until the end of the school year. For my spring break, my Purdue baseball teammates and I will be playing eight games throughout Tennessee. We actually leave tomorrow, Thursday, March 10, and will be returning next Sunday late at night. We first play University of Tennessee-Martin for a three game series, then play one game against #2 ranked Vanderbilt University, one game at Belmont University, then finish up with a three game series against Tennessee Tech University. Currently we are 9-2 and have beaten two teams ranked in the top 25 including #9 Connecticut and #20 Louisville. We also have beaten #30 ranked Pittsburgh. This has been the best start that Purdue Baseball has had since the 1993 season. After this weekend, next week, and next weekend hopefully we will be able to say that we are 17-2 and add another ranked opponent to our list. Purdue baseball is bringing top 25 buzz back to West Lafayette, IN.

On another note, when Prestige Worldwide gets back from spring break, we have a lot of work to do. We want to obviously make as much money as we can with the service learning project and hopefully this monetary amount can exceed 500 dollars. Have a great spring break everybody!

Tyler C. 

Small Group Importance

This semester I am taking a guitar making class as an elective.  In this class each there are two  lab sections and each lab section is divided into two separate groups.  Each group is responsible for its specific design.  Everyone in the group does get their own guitar, however each guitar is the same design, the purpose of this is to help demonstrate mass production and try to get the feel for manufacturing processes and the importance of keeping them consistent.  Our group chose to go with a basic acoustic dreadnought design, rather than an electric guitar, it better fit the taste of our group.

Now that I've explained a little bit of  what this class is about I can get to the point of writing this blog.  As we move further into the semester the faster the deadline for completion of our guitars approaches.  At the beginning of the semester the idea of finishing these guitars by the end of the semester seemed like an easy task and we should have no problem with this.  However, none of us had ever made a guitar before and were unaware of what all went into this process.  As week after week passes by we realize how important it is that our group works together to get everything accomplished and accomplished in a timely manner.  Group communication has become key to keeping on track and staying on task.  I feel like being in COM 320 this semester, while also taking the guitar class, has kinda pushed me into a leadership position in this group.  I feel like I have a feel for how groups should be run and know what important concepts to stress to the group.

As the semester moves on the two of these classes in unison have accelerated my abilities of participating in groups and has been very beneficial.  I will definitely continue to stress concepts I learn in COM 320 in all group interactions and will help me in the future when I am working in a company group setting.

I have included a few pictures of my guitar that I am currently working on, just to show how its going

                                       -Bending the sides

                               

                                            - A few neck blanks

Tyler O

Post pres

This last week we gave our presentation for our project.  I feel like it went fairly well; the only thing that really got attacked was the flyer.. this may have been my fault.  There were just a couple things that our TA really didn't like such as it wasn't clear that our event was for the Boys and Girls Club.  I can correct this pretty easy.  The only other thing that our TA really didn't like was that our goal.  We decided on a small goal so we knew we could reach it (around $100), however, Jasmine thought our goal should have been much higher (at least $500).  This could be really cool, but much harder to reach.  Besides these two things, our presentaion went really well and very few people had questions.


Josh

Busy Busy Busy

This coming week will probably be the most exciting week yet for me this year.  Spring break is less than a week away for everyone and I only have 4 days of class this week.  The down side to this is the fact that I have five exams and many large homework assignments due.  So to say I will be ready for Spring Break is an understatement. On top of that most of them will be pretty difficult if I do not prepare for them.

This week will be almost impossible for me to concentrate on my studies.  We have not had a large break from school in a while and with spring break so close most of us are ready to pop.  We have taken in so much material from so many places and have not had much time to ourselves to just relax.  We have been putting in the man hours so that we can fully enjoy the break to come.

I'm not totally sure what everyone in our group is doing over the break, but I know that my roommates and myself are heading south to Miami.  We have been checking the weather there pretty much every day lusting over how nice it is.  It has been seventy to eighty degrees every day and there is no sign of it getting any cooler.  it will be an awesome change of pace!

Gary Burgin

Inside Scoop Vol. 3

In my BCM 419 class, Sustainable Construction, we watch a lot of short films and talk about sustainability in the United States, as well as, the World. The concern that I am going to talk about today is a practice that could potentially contaminate all of the water in the United States by the year 2050. Here is a few words outlining the movie:

"The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a "Saudia Arabia of natural gas" just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire.”

Before watching this movie, I had never heard anything about this subject. It disturbs me, and it should you too. Going along with their drinking water catching on fire, in Pennsylvania, there was a home where their drinking well exploded because of the contamination of the groundwater. There are many people throughout the country that have to have huge tanks for their water because all the water is contaminated around them. That is ridiculous that trucks have to bring in water to residents homes each week just so that they have clean water to drink and bate with. Workers and owners of Halliburton truly feel that they are not doing anything wrong and deny that their drilling procedures are safe to the animals and people around the area. I encourage you guys to watch the youtube video that I am going to attach. If change does not occur, this could be the future of the United States water supply. 

 
Tyler Calder

The Week Ahead

I’ve been waiting for a vacation since we got back from Christmas Break, snow day notwithstanding.  Spring Break is less than a week away, but school isn’t over yet.  The next week is going to be kind of hectic for me.  I have three homework assignments due, and two exams to take.  I also have to attend two club meetings and probably go to some club events.  I’ve also got to help plan an event for Communications class.

I think Prestige Worldwide has a good idea for helping out the Boys and Girls club.  I believe the easiest course of action is to raise money for them, so they can spend it any way they like.

We’re going to put on a cornhole tournament and charge an entry fee.  Our goal for fundraising is $500.  We’ve taken donations and borrowed supplies to make it come together on the cheap.  We have a small budget, so even if only a few people show up, we shouldn’t lose money. 

Everyone in the group seems enthusiastic about the event.  I think we’ve hit a pretty good Reward to Recreation Ratio (RRR).  Perhaps I should trademark that phrase.  I think it’s a good expression that describes the amount of compensation you get for doing an activity versus the amount of fun you have while doing it.

Speaking of fun, I’ll be aboard a train for a large portion of Spring Break.  Maybe I have a different definition of fun than most people.

-Mason Moyer