Friday, May 11, 2007

I miss this

Wow...I never thought that I wouldd actually miss a class. Not even sure if any of you are ever going to read this amymore. Well, I'm into my next class (which is a pain in the ass). Its a very intresting class, Sociology of Deviant Behavior, but man I have things due every other day, have three quizes, pluss discussions, a film paper (analysis of Angels with dirty faces) and a 7 page min. research paper with 10 refs.... its crazy! Well I'll be done soon enough and then I'll be complaining about the credential program...

Hope all is well with everyone!!!

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Happy Cinco de Mayo

well actually is just a little bit after midnight.....actually about 50 mins after it, but any how....have a corona and say cheers. Weather its cinco do mayo or st pactrics day...any holiday is a good day to hold one up and say cheers!

Friday, May 4, 2007

WOOOOOT

for those of you who dont know what that means, its like yelling wahoooooooo!!!! The presentation is done. All went great! My other group members already posted on it...why am I always the last one to post? O-well. Well once again, not going to retype everything that everyone else said, but I will say this.

Thank you ladies!! Under all the stress that was going on and the added stress that Rebecca had to deal with today we did great! Best of luck to your sis Rebecca! (incase you havent read her post, her little sis went into labor right before we were supposed to present)

Thank you Dr. D I truly enjoyed this class and have never had so much interaction with my fellow classmates in an online class, even in some on campus classes for that matter. You're an amazing teacher!

Thank you everyone else (I feel like im giving a speech at an award ceremony..haha) Anyways, I'll be coming back to this blog site and using it. I have read all your blogs and feel like I have gotten to somewhat know some of you and I hope you guys will still provide me with reading material! ;)

peace out till later guys!

Bitter Sweet

Its been a great ride, but im so glad its almost over. ;)

My other group members already posted regarding our chat last nigt, no need to rehash it. All I have to say that is in all the chaos we prevailed and will go on tonight to make the final presentation. YAY!

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Refresh button

clicking it over and over wont make an expected e-mail come any faster, its just like waiting by the phone and expecting it to ring.

Chat Lingo 101

I noticed that when im chatting with my group members in chat rooms I often say things that no one understands. I'm one who is always on the computer....everything from banking to video games. These are a lot of abbreviations that might help when in a chat room or instant messaging people. Granted, these are not "academic" but they sure do help with keeping a conversation going at a steady rate....just don't say "lol" in rl (real life) people will look at you funny, well...unless its second nature for them too.

Well, here's a few of the more common ones. Hope this actually helps someone.

411-information
afk-away from keyboard
asl-age sex location (in other words tell them to go away)
brb-be right back
bbl-be back later
brt-be right there
btw- by the way
fyi-for your information
g2g-got to go
im-instant message
imho- in my humble opinion
imo- in my opinion
j/k- just kidding
k or kk - ok
lol-laughing out loud
lmao-laughing my a** off
omg - oh my god
p2p- peer to peer (usually involves file sharing)
pm-private message
rofl or rotfl - rolling on the floor laughing
roflmao- rolling on the floor laughing my a** off
rl-real life
sup- what's up
ttyl -talk to you later
wb-welcome back

there's a million others, but i think this is a good start ;)
so, with all that being said....i feel like a huge nerd!


anyone hear that song my weird al called white and nerdy...ummm yeah well im not whiter than sour cream...but there are scary things in that song that applies.

Here I go again with group work

I was reading some others blogs and there is at least one other person in my group that is a bit uneasy with our final project. Communication has been great, but follow through, on the other hand, could use a little work. I feel this is in part my fault for not having the ppt completely done and put together. The original plan was for everyone to have the part done and emailed to everyone in the group a couple of sundays ago. This was only done by one person. There were two who werent at that particular meeting, but were diligent about getting their part out the following day. We were only waiting on one person to get the info in.

In our initial meeting I took it upon myself to do the ppt for the group and I told them that I would be able to get it done within a couple of days after we all agreed to get all the info in. (This was assuming that all the info would be in when we agreed) I thought I would be able to have my part done that wednesday at the absolute latest. Technically I could have, but it would have been missing one group members information. So, being that this group member said that she would get me the info asap. I waited. Well, im still waiting and its been about two weeks. I'm sry, but this is starting to drive me crazy!! I feel like im not doing my part to help the group out, yet at the same time, I dont want to give my group an incomplete presentation.

We are meeting tonight again, and I hope that everyone makes it. I need to get this resolved, at least for my own piece of mind.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Anger Test

I took it and scored a 4, mild to moderater anger. I'm typically one who goes with the flow and I dont let thing get to me very often. It seems to me that the test was more about agression or hostility than anger though. One can be angry without being hostile. Anyway, im calling it a night ...been sick all day :(

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Phone convo 3

Today I had the opportunity to talk to Lynnette regarding our third phone project. This worked out quite well. She was the employee and I was the boss. She came to me wanting a raise in pay and plead her case as to why she deserved it. She argued her case and we came up with a mutual agreement in a very short amount of time. She stated all that she does for the company and requested a raise as well as more responsibility and after looking at the stipulations of what she was asking, it was determined that she could have the raise that was asked for upon certain contingencies. She will be put on a “probationary” period in the new position for 90 days. After which she will be evaluated. While she is in this probationary period she will be assessed on the merit of her work as well as having the prearranged work done that needs to be done. This entails finishing her degree as well as meeting the expectations that was put forth. If all works out to reasonable expectorations, she will have the promotion that she asked for.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Group Challenge

A challenge that I had tonight, while its still fresh in my head, is that I was unable to log onto the chat whit my group. I did everything I possibly could, but if u read my other post about Windows Vista you will know that I had some browser problems. Anyhow, after giving it my all to get on and realizing that the chat was starting and I sill was unable to get into the chat room I started e-mailing all my group partners. I did this quite a few times in hope that one of them would check their e-mail and see that I wasn’t just being a flake. So, as the minutes pass (I hate being late I even literally ran home from my kids open house to make it) my frustrations grew. No one was responding to my e-mail so the I have one of my group member’s yahoo messenger address and I try contacting her on there. I actually have tried contacting her on there a few times to no avail. By this time I’m fuming to say the least….I feel like throwing my computer out the window. I contacted It and get the issue resolved and a couple of my group members e-mail me back after they were done with the meeting. But this is what somewhat gets me. No one in my group was able to be gotten a hold of. Other than e-mail there really is no other way to contact those in my group. As a resolution to this problem, It would be nice for others to give out their instant messaging contact info it this happens again and be logged in to the program weather it be YIM, AOL or any other one that everyone agrees on. That way the lines of communication are still open and someone doesn’t get shut out somehow.

My group

My experience with my group has been challenging. Though I am working with many wonderful people we have had scheduling problems. We have had three different meetings via a chat room and we have yet to have a meeting where everyone makes it. This last one, the one that we had tonight, I was the one who was unable to make it. I had problems with my browser letting me log into the chat. I was e-mailing my group partners and even tried contacting a group member through and online instant messenger. I must say I was getting very frustrated. The previous meeting I also a bit frustrated. We all agreed to meet and only three of us showed up with no communication from the others who didn’t make it. I’m going to be frank here, I was livid. I missed going to the Zoo with my kids to make it to the meeting and for those who didn’t make it not to even say anything about not making it or even attempt to log on, I felt was a huge let down to the entire group. Each person in the group was to submit their part of the assignment that Sunday and only one person did. I still am waiting for one more person to get it to me. I am putting everyone’s work together in a ppt and I need to have it all or it won’t flow right. However, those who didn’t make it to the meeting contacted everyone after the meeting was over and got caught up to speed.

Our communication style, I believe, is very open and compromising. Negotiation between those in our group was very easy. People seemed to be very accommodating and understanding of others situations. No arguments occurred and people were very flexible with the needs of others. The emotional iq of my colleagues was somewhat undeterminable. There was really no conflict that arose that would bring about strong emotions.

Although this post was a bit more on the negative side, I am in a great group with wonderful ladies. I’m just getting a bit stressed not having all the info I need to put the pt together yet. I was planning on having this done two days ago, and as it stands I have a Blank power point presentation just waiting for me to throw some info on it. I’ll be starting on it tomorrow weather I have all the Info on it or not and hopefully when I do get the last piece of info I’ll be able to still make it flow.

Windows Vista and national University dont mix

I was supposed to be in an online chat with my group members tonight and to my dismay I was unable to log on. I kept getting html errors as well as different browsers errors. So, me thinking that im a computer nerd and know what I'm doing, when in fact im pretty clueless,, goes online and tried to figure out this problem. I thought it was just a matter of updating Java or something simple like that. So, i do that and nothing. Then I decide to see what I can find about windows Vista and Java. I find on the Sunsystem, or whoever it is who makes Java, site that there is a download specific to Windows Vista. YAY.....wrong! Well i download this and then end up getting some sort of other weird error. I do what no wanna be computer nerd does....I call tech support....ohhhh no. Anyways He has me download Firefox (a different browser) and tells me that that is what I probably will have to use because national university does not support Windows Vista yet. How that matters when it comes to Java script and web browsers is beyond me. So, for all of u who actually read this and get a computer with Vista....make sure to down load firefox too, cause you cant go into the chat rooms with explorer.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

So tired!

Thats right. I've been so bust that I've been getting home from work and crashing. Been doing my readings at work, when the kids arent going crazy and my own children have had projects due this week for school so I have been a bit out of it myself. I have tons to say about my group project but I will write it out later. For the most part though, it has been going fairly well. There have been a few glitches, but nothing that cant be overcome. Well, more to come!

Sunday, April 22, 2007

My group

I have to say that my group rocks!!! At first I felt kinda iffy, but after meeting with them last week in a chat I feel that we will do very well. 4 of us showed up to discuss what we needed to do. Agreements were formed and things got on their way. We are meeting again tonight to go over what we have been doing. I have a ppt/slide show to do, that I'm actually working on atm (at the moment). Well, i need to get back to doing it so I have something for the group later tonight. =)

Saturday, April 21, 2007


Jake Brigance played by Matthew McConaughey, is a young vibrant attorney who chooses to take a case that wound not only impact the life of his defendant Carl LeeHailey (Samuel Jackson), but those lives of all he knows. In the small town of Canton, Mississippi the K.K.K. submerges from the town’s depths and tensions swell to an all time high. This is in result of the crime that Carl Lee, a black man, committed. His crime was one of passion and retribution. In fear of the judicial system not upholding the law, Carl Lee decided to take it upon himself to make sure that those men saw justice. Carl Lee brutally killed two men who raped and attempted to kill his 10 year old daughter. Racial tensions go on a rampage and affect everyone who crosses its path.

This movie is filled with conflicts ranging from racial differences to sexual tensions between coworkers. To list them would be nearly impossible without posting the screen play and commenting on every scene.

Jack Brigance

Young defense attorney having money problems. He is faced with taking on a case that will inevitably have a great impact in the law system.
~Conflicts:
Money problems and lack of clients
Knows about the pending murder and does nothing to stop it.
Putting family and friends in jeopardy due to this trial.
Needs help with trial and has no assistant
Sexual tension arises between him and the new assistant.


These conflicts do seem realistic for one who is a young attorney taking over a practice. I believe that he handled most of the problems very well in the movie, with the exception of the money problem. He gets so obsessed with this one case that he stops returning phone calls and stops trying to get new clients.
Carl Lee Haily

A man on trial for the murder of the two men who raped and attempted to kill his ten year old daughter.
~Conflicts:
Will the judicial system set him free?
He doesn’t have enough money to pay Brigance.
His wife if down to less that 50 dollars to provide for the family.
In the shooting he accidently shot his long time friend in the leg.




He too handled all his situations well and seemed realistic for the situation that he was in. He apologized to his friend, which was all that he could really do. He felt no remorse for killing the boys and felt that they got what they deserved. He was able to resolve the issue with the money by accepting a "contribution" from the NAACP and a collection from his church.




Ellen Roark

Young law student who is ambitious, persistent and very rich. Needs no compensation for helping on this case and will not back down until she gets what she wants. She has a “shark” type communication style that is a well fit with the Brigance.
~Conflicts:
Wants to help with the case but was told no.
Sexual tensions with Brigance.
Has to “cheat (break and enter)” to get info on a witness.
Knowingly puts herself in danger by helping out with the case.

Also, all handled well in this movie. There was nothing that I would have done differently. Her conflict management was obviously that of a shark. She was abrupt and to the point.





Throughout the movie there were conflicts that arose from scene to scene. Most of those revolved the three previously mentioned actors. However, in the broader spectrum of the movie there was many conflicts that were race related which involved all the above: KKK, racial inequality, corrupt judges, wives facing dire times in the family, minority sheriffs as well as many other things that prevail throughout the movie. All handled well and give cause for thought.

I believe that the conflicts were handled well from the main characters in the movie. The corrupt NAACP and the bought out minister were two as wall as the rioting and the involvement of the KKK.

The instance with the NAACP, the Minister, Birgance, and Haily was a wonderful depiction of negation. The NAACP wanted to bring in different lawyers on the case and through manipulation was able to involve the Minister. Haily and Birgance were able to perceive the manipulation and willing to expose it. This worked to their advantage and got them the money they needed to continue the case as well as help out with family expenses.

The main conflict in the film leaves very little opportunity for different dispute resolution. The resolution ultimately takes place in the court room and if made by the jury. The closing argument would be the only thing that could have been done differently. It was passionate and emotional. Brigance appealed to the emotional side of the story not just the logical one. This worked out to his favor in being that it sways the jury to enter a verdict of not guilty.

Missed two days

Man...Well here is a little info on what happened on the couple of days that I missed posting. First off on Thursday I was finally able to talk to some of my group members in a chat room about our project and I think that we got quite a bit resolved. I, unfortunately, had to go before we were done to pick up my new computer. I went to the store to get it and of course it wasnt ready when they told me, so i had to wait around there for some time. I was with out Internet access most of the day yesterday and finally got my new router up and going. Talk about a pain in the rear end!! Anywhoooo I have it all taken care of and I'm writing this blog from my back yard.....god i love this. No more confinement to a dark little room upstairs away from the world....IM FREE!!!

Phone Assignment

On Tuesday evening I called Myrna to do our second phone assignment. I was the one playing the part of the person in HR and she was a concerned employ who was having issues with a colleague. The scenario was that of her, a new employ, having to take on the responsibilities of a colleague, one of who has been there for seven years. In the past, when she has brought this to her supervisors attention it was poorly handled due to the fact that her supervisor and the one who Myrna is having problems with are friends. Speaking directly to the one who she is having a conflict with wasn’t a possibility either. Myrna isn’t the only one who has a problem with this colleague. There are others in the office who also feels the same way; however, they are unwilling to step forward.

As the HR rep I asked Myrna for further detail as to the situation. The situation had been an ongoing occurrence between many of the staff and this colleague. Many had been doing this one particular girls work so things don’t fall behind. This girl has been transferred to different departments but she is still a part of the work force. Myrna’s problem is that she has had to do this other persons work far too many times and sees no resolution when speaking to her supervisor regarding it.
I suggested that she speak to the supervisor to the department and perhaps try to get those others who have the same problems involved in the going to the meeting. “Airing” out the situation with those involved may be the way to resolve the situation. This wasn’t going to happen with her alone. She needs to go to the supervisor. Hopefully this will resolve the situation, however if the same occurrences still persists, she may have to take it to the owners of the practice

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

this weeks assignments


...have me stressed. I have every thing done, and now I just need to write it all up. I think I'll do all the writeups tomorrow and take the evening off. I watched A time to kill last night, and man if the prof wants ALL the conflicts I might as well post the entire screen play. It was a great movie with a few major conflicts but a million minor ones.

















Tuesday, April 17, 2007

A time to kill

I went to the video store on my lunch break toady to pick this up. The other movies just didn't appeal to me. I figured if I had to watch a drama for an hour and a half I might as well watch one with Matthew McConaughey. ;) Why couldn't I do an analysis on Zoolander or Ferris Beulers Day off? Those would have been much more fun!

Monday, April 16, 2007

ahhhh

Well I just e-mailed the prof about my grade in the class. I'm typically an A student, but there has been a time or two when I settled for a B, well I cant even say that about this class. I'm getting a big fat D! I only got a 14/20 on my blogs and a 0/5 on one of the discussion threads! I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong..I know , well at least i believe, that the reason for the 0 was because I did it on Sunday. I hope someone actually reads this and can back me on Sunday typically being the due day for national online classes, but honestly I'm not holding my breath on it. Did anyone see if it was posted anywhere that the due day was sat and not sun? I honestly feel like I have worked my rear end off and got a punch in the gut for my efforts. :(

Disappointing

Well, here I am at midnight and I was reading through everyones blogs. There is so much to know about one another and so much that has been said, but it seems to only be in their own blogs. There is hardly any interaction....very little posting on others blogs. I guess Im kinda a nerd in a way. I'm a total forum (kinda like discussions boards) junkie. I'll post on just about anything. I just find it kinda sad that we spent all the time we did to set this up and not have anyone acknowledge whats being said on here.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Emotional Intelligence

Snapshot Report
Self-report ComponentSubscale IQ score = 129Subscale percentile = 97
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IQ score = 129 (Percentile = 97)-->
129-->
According to your self-report answers, your emotional intelligence is good. People who score like you do feel that they have little trouble understanding and dealing with their own emotions and those of others. They generally are able to overcome difficulties in their lives and they are able to control their moods in all but the most trying of times. It’s easy for them to motivate themselves to overcome obstacles and reach their goals. In addition, they find social interactions to be quite easy and fulfilling, for several reasons. They are comfortable allowing themselves to get close with others, and feel comfortable being vulnerable enough to establish intimacy. They also report having an easy time offering support to others; this is likely due to an empathetic nature and a clear mind when it comes to offering good advice.

Phone Assignment

For the phone assignment I was able to chat with Rebecca for quite some time. Though our conversation didn’t start out on solid ground it went exceptionally well. We arranged to speak on Saturday at 4pm. Leave it up to me to lost track of time and forget about the phone call that I was expecting. When she called I thought she was some sort of telemarketer calling me on my cell phone so I wasn’t too happy. Once I realized who it was I things went much better.

We were actually able to share two entirely different experiences. One was very personal and the other was work related. Though neither one of us could truly empathize with the other, there was definitely compassion, consideration and a willingness to help one another.

The problem solving aspect was quite difficult being that neither one of us could relate with the situation that the other was in. However, through many questions and gaining a better understanding ideas were formulated and I know that I, at least, was able to walk away with another possible solution and reassured that I should not back down.

Despite the fact that we did have a good conversation, we both were faced with barriers that may have inhibited the communication process a bit. When Rebecca called me I was out with my Mom at a store. The reception my phone got was horrible and I had to call he back once I got outside. Once outside I called her back and we started off the conversation while I was driving home. (About a 3-5 minute drive). Though I was engaged in the conversation I didn’t give it all my attention at that time due to traffic. Once I got home I felt that I had no boundaries to overcome. I was able to give her my full-undivided attention.

When looking at the communication style that was mainly used its hard to lump it into one category. Between the two of us I would have to say that it was more collaborating than anything else. However, when addressing the problems and how they should possible be handled one is at the point where a more aggressive/assertive stance may need to be taken and the other a more collaborating one. According to the conflict management style my communication style is more avoiding and compromising, but in this conversation I didn’t see that as being the case. If had to determine Rebecca’s communication style I would say that it would be more of a compromising or collaborating style.

All in all our conversation went great and I look forward to talking to her again. At the end of the conversation we did realize that we do have one common problem. We both are stumped on the final project. Maybe we should have tried to resolve that issue.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Compromising Fox and Avoiding Turtle

Yup thats me. I forget to post about it in my last blog so here it is now. Give a little and take a little....bur when things get too heated I clam up and hide in my shell ;) On the opposite side of the spectrum my husband also got the compromising fox, but he also got the competing shark...lol. In almost all of the assessments we have been total opposites! I guess there is something to the saying opposites attract.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Handouts

I had jury duty today and what a good time to do some schoolwork ;) anyways, I got the handouts done and I'll post on them tomorrow, but I was suprised at how accurate they were!!! OMG! I'm having my husband take them as i write this....muahahaha

All gone!

I spent all morning getting everyones names and links on this page only to end up with two people under classmates... /sigh I guess Ill go at it again!

Monday, April 9, 2007

well im here

and im clueless atm.