Final Blog

Technology definately helped my group out with our client project. We all had very conflicting schedules and were very busy, it was often hard to physically get together and meet. We communicated mostly as a group via email.
Without email at our service it would have been impossible to finish this project. For example, this past week I was out of town from Wednesday until Today and we had a big part of pur project due, the presentation. I could not be physically present at the group meetings so I emailed my input to the group.
We also used email to communicate with the other groups, when we decided we wanted to collaborate with them on a facebook group. Email was really the only form of technology I would say we really took advantage of.
I would say that technology also may have hindered our project slightly. When I saw some of the other groups proposals, the websites and groups that they came up with, I was impressed. As a group I would say we are not very technical saavy and I for one have no clue how to do some of the things they put together.

Ethics

I am surprised on how many results I have gotten so far searching for memos. I have found tons of articles talking about memos covering up many things related to politics and government mostly, including alien and UFO cover ups (So far I have mostly just found articles about memos and not the actual memos).
It seems that ethical lapses are common in the world of business and politics, and I am not surprised. Everyone wants to get to the top and sadly a lot of people will do anything to get there. What has surprised me is the fact that so many people, after seeing many others get caught, are still choosing to try and pass on important/incriminatory information in memos. From this I have learned that memos are indeed a very common method of communication in the work world and I probably will be writing a lot of them in the future.
When I enter the workforce/go to grad school and begin to write all of these menus, I hope to stick to my own set of ethical principles. I try not to do anything just because someone told me to, but to think before I act. I try and think about what the consequences of these actions may be. I think how they might effect other people or things ( the environment, animals). I try and think if I might have any regrets, if I can be proud of my actions. My ethical principles are to be truthful and not just think about myself, I want to be helpful to others and a responsible/respectable person, setting examples for others to follow.

Miscommunication

The summer before I started as a student at Clemson, I worked as a lifeguard for a private company that supplied guards to various pools around the area that I live. About halfway through the summer my section of the company received a new supervisor.
One of the pools that I often was assigned to was an olympic size indoor pool at a k-12 grade school near my house. During the week we would have guards working alone covering different shifts throughout the various hours the pool was open for. During the weekend we would have 2 guards working together the whole day.
One weekend when the new supervisor was still new a lot of miscommunication must have occured because 3 guards showed up to work. We never quite found out why 3 guards were there that day, it was fun for us, but it certainly was not planned. We thought possibly that the supervisor got something mixed up but were not sure, so no one went home until we could contact the supervisor, which was several hours later.
When the supervisor realized what had happened he was a little upset because the boss was not to happy with him since they had to pay an extra person that weekend. He wondered why we all showed up for work that day but we all wondered why he put us all on the schedule for that day.
The aftermath was that the company lost a little money paying an extra guard, and we lost a little respect for our supervisor.
This problem occured because either the supervisor forgot to tell one of us we had the day off, or someone had missed the message that they were supposed to have the day off. All of this could have been avoided if the supervisor had properly checked the schedule and made sure everyone else knew what it was.

March 8

The one presentation from this week that really stuck in my mind was Nick's presentation. Although he was lacking some information for his presentation I really enjoyed it because he was so passionate about his subject. It was easy to listen to him because he really cared about what he was talking about. It was cool that we could actually listen to some of the music he was talking about too. Hearing to his presentation actually made me want to go to the concert so he must have done a good job.
I have had to do an online portfolio for one of my classes before, during freshman year. It was a while ago so I do not remember much about it. Because I do not remember much about it, I am going to assume it was more of a good experience than a bad one because bad experiences are usually more memorable. I have not really looked into this online portfolio that we are supposed to do yet, so I do not know a lot about it. To ensure that I am ready I will have to research what it is that we are actually supposed to do, and maybe search for some examples of some that have already be done. I have a lot of things to do and some ideas to come up with to ensure that I will be ready on March 23.

Presentations

I have enjoyed all of the presentations given in class so far, they have been pretty interesting, and I have learned something new from each one. While they were all good I would have to say that I really enjoyed Brandon's presentation on sugar gliders, Kelly's presentation on surviving in a big family, and Melesha's presentation on going through a drive thru the most.
I found Brandon's presentation so enjoyable mainly because I have never heard of a sugar glider before, and somehow i have referenced sugar gliders several times since his presentation. Of course it was also awesome that he actually brought a real live sugar glider in to show us.
I enjoyed Kelly's presentation because it was hilarious and I could relate to it even though my family is not quite so big. It was obvious that she had a lot of experience with the subject matter and knew what she was talking about so it was easy to listen to her.
Melesha's presentation was also very good. I also felt like she had a wealth of knowledge on her subject matter. It was good because her material was quite funny but she was able to keep her composure. I liked it because I do not know Melesha well but she seems kinda quiet in class and so I did not really expect this presentation to come from her.

http://www.collegegrad.com/coverletters/

I read the advice on this website pertaining to cover letters and what I gathered from it was that the most important thing was to make the cover letter unique for the specific job you are applying for. I entirely agree with this and understand how annoying it is to get something that has obviously been sent to a whole bunch of different people, and just been personalized by inserting your name into the space. I imagine reading a resume/cover letter that has been mass mailed like this, is somewhat like when i get junk mail and it says something like dear loyal customer. I imagine that they would do the same thing with the resume that I do with the junk mail, that is throw it in the trash without even reading the rest.

Client Project

This week, you will have a visit with from our client. Now, it's finally time to get started with the work on the client project. For this blog post, I'd like you to blog about that. What ideas do you have so far? What are your biggest concerns? How are things coming along in your group? What questions do you have for me about how to complete this project?
I was really glad that Jennifer Goree was able to come in to speak to us about the project. I did not really know anything about the project, so she cleared a lot of things up for me. I was excited to hear that the healthy campus initiative was to include all aspects of health not just diet and exercise. I am glad that the organic farm is still in existance and that it will possibly be more integrated into the students lives. I am a strong supporter of the slow food movement and sustainable agriculture plus I think fresh local produce just taste better. I would say that Ms. Goree and I have similar visions/hopes and it will be exciting to be able to help her out. I really liked the ideas of cooking lessons and the eat this not that flyers on campus, I definately think that will help students to live healthier lives.

Interviews

I read the article about the biggest interview mistakes you could make, and I did not think that the things they listed were all that bad. The examples that i did think would be big mistakes were: don't treat the secretary poorly and don' t lie in your interview. I have had job interviews before but they were not too bad because i basically already new I was getting the jobs. I disagreed with the advice, "do not ask stupid questions." They mention in the article that asking stupid questions makes you sound unprepared. I have been asked in an interview if I have any questions and i never really do, but i ask one anyways. I usually know the answer to the question that I ask, but I ask it anyway because the interviewer always sounds disappointed when i say i do not have any questions. They seem to like being able to answer any questions one may have. In the article they explained asking questions you can find the answers to on your own makes you sound unprepared but i think its good to verify your information. I think the best thing to do before going into an interview is just to relax and not worry to much about the interview itself.

Superbowl 43

So I just finished watching the Superbowl and I gotta say I think the game is rigged. Now I am not just saying this because I do not particularly like the Steelers, but I feel like it is all about money these days, and what makes money... entertainment. Think about it, the game was going pretty slow for a while there. No one had scored for a long time, and people around me (and probably elsewhere) were beginning to lose interest. We actually started watching a movie on another channel and were just flipping back to the Superbowl to watch the commercials. At one point, we timed it wrong and flipped back to the Superbowl while the game was actually playing, we noticed that the Cardinals were near their end zone and started watching again. The Cardinals scored, and it was getting exciting again so we actually kept it on the same channel for the remainder of the game. Interesting how just as we were losing interest something exciting happened and we were sucked back in, huh. And then of course Holmes made that incredible catch with three men on him in the end zone with just a few seconds to go to win the game for the Steelers, exciting. Maybe too exciting?

The Future

I am currently studying nutrition here at Clemson, so I hope in ten years I will be using this education. Specifically my dream is to be a registered dietitian working with professional athletes. I also hope that I will be married and have a kid or two. I love the beach, surfing, and the excitement of the big city, so it would be cool to live around L.A., San Diego, Miami, or someplace like that. I grew up in D.C and I miss it a lot, so I would not mind living around there either. I also think living in a different country would be interesting. I have worked as an ocean lifeguard for the past two summers and I really enjoy it. I would love to volunteer as a ocean lifeguard whenever I have time away from my dietitian job.
As you can see I am not exactly sure where I want to be in ten years. I have a lot of different ideas and I will probably have even more next week. I do not really like to plan things, I just like to go with the flow, I believe life is more interesting that way. I just hope that however I end up, that I will be happy.

About Me

Hey guys! My name is Becca Viner and I am currently a Junior at Clemson. My major is nutrition, and I hope after graduation that I will be able to become a registered dietitian and help people to become healthier. My dream job would be to work as a dietitian for professional athletes and teams.
I love sports and cooking. I love water, I enjoy swimming, surfing, windsurfing, and any watersport. I am currently taking whitewater kayaking as a leisure skills class. I am on the triathlon club here at school and I completed my first triathlon and my first marathon this year. I had a lot of fun and I hope to do more of both in the future.
If I am not working out I am usually cooking. I love trying new recipes and eating delicious homemade food. The exercise thing I get from my dad and the food thing i get from my mom. I was born and raised in Bethesda, Maryland which is just outside of Washington D.C. Coming to Clemson was a big change for me. I miss being in a big city a lot, but it is fun meeting new and different people here in Clemson, and I look forward to meeting everyone in this class.