Thursday, October 30, 2008

Dual Coding

Even before knowing that this picture was Nike ad, I could tell that it had something to do with sports. This ad is sort of plain, so I think the most important aspect of it is what the words are saying. It's trying to pump you up, and make you feel like you are on their team. The font is also really important. The "practice like champions" font is perfect. If it were another font then it might not be as effective. Since there aren't really any images in this ad, they had to choose the right font because it is the imagens. Nike obviously carefully picked out the colors (or lack of). The dull colors help set the mood. The red really sticks out since the only other colors are black and white. One thing in this ad that I am still uncertain of is what is that thing where the we believe is. This ad reminds me of a like a high school football team from the 1970's. It just seems very old school. It doesn't really advertise a product, though, so I'm not exactly sure what they want you to buy from it.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Miscommunicated Information

I don't really recall any times where information was miscommunicated at any of my jobs. This is probably because I've only had a few jobs and usually I was working alone. I've played a lot of sports in my day, but there is only one time that stands out where information was miscommunicated. It was when I played football my junior year of high school. It was fourth down and like 3 yards to go. The coach told a player on our team to punt the football, but he thought the coach signaled a fake punt pass play. There was only one minute left in the half. We ended up not getting the first down, so it was a turnover on downs. It was high school football, so the aftermath wasn't anything major, but the coach was still furious. The other team was able to get a touchdown before the half ran out. Had we punted the ball, they probably would not have scored a touchdown.

I think there was a miscommunication because the player on our team did not know the signals very well. This shows how important it is to be prepared for whatever it is your doing in jobs or sports. Your actions can effect everyone. It could have easily been prevented if he studied our playbooks better.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Mock Interview Reflection

I'm glad that my interview was not postponed. It's one of those things you just want to get out of the way. Going into the interview I was not nervous at all. I wasn't even sure what to expect. If the mock interview were with someone I had never met before, then I probably would have been a little nervous. Since it was you I felt fine going in. Also knowing that you had lost your voice gave me more confidence, since I figured we wouldn't be doing as many questions or something. It was a good thing I looked at the interview specs document right before I left my house, or I would have gone to the classroom for it.

There were a few questions that threw me. The one that I mostly remember was "What moment in your life were you most proud?" I couldn't even think of anything to answer for that one. I've been trying to think of a good answer for it, and now 3 days later I still have no idea what to say for it. Another question I wasn't sure about was the one you asked at the end, "Is there anything you would like to ask us?" At least I attempted to give an answer for that one, though it was pretty bad. A lot of the questions were difficult for me to answer because I really don't know much of anything about finance, and that's my major.

If I were to do the interview again, there isn't much I would change. The major thing I would have done is found a more specific job that I could learn about and given that to you. Had I known that when we printed a job description out that we would be interviewing for it, I probably would have put more thought into had. Knowing me I was zoning out during class when we talked about it.

This has been a valuable experience for me. I have learned some popular questions that I need to be able to answer when I am doing a real interview for a job. I also learned that I need to be better at answering tricky questions. I'm sure when I do go for an interview that I will remember this mock interview.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Class Presentations

There were some really interesting presentations this week. They were are very entertaining. The first one that I am going to talk about is Cammy Culver's. Probably everyone is talking about hers because it was so unique. I think it is really cool how she has so many animals in her apartment. Obviously the thing that sticks out the most in her presentation were the squirrels. I didn't even know that you could buy squirrels. I think I heard you say that you were bit by a squirrel when you were younger, which is funny because my mom was also bit by one when she was a little kid. Anyways, the presentation itself was very interesting. I enjoyed learning about where she worked and what she has done for animals.

Another really interesting presentation was Kyle Carver's. I thought the topic choice was very creative. The whole why you need to eat meat thing was really funny. My sister would have argued with him so much if she were there, especially the meat helps prevent cancer thing. The pictures of the cows were really interesting. I have never seen anything like that one cow with the huge horns. They seriously must weigh their heads down.

The last presentation that I am going to talk about is Caroline Kennedy's. I liked learning about pole vaulting and how it is done, because I've only seen people do it a few times. She seemed very well prepared for her presentation. The video of the guy breaking his pole while jumping was really funny. I also liked how she had some audience interaction by asking us to guess things, like what the records were for the pole vaulters. There were also some cool, old school pictures of pole vaulters.

I learned a lot throughout all of the presentations, and I'm looking forward to Ben's presentation when we return to class.