Blog Topic #7 (my haiku on management)

Needs Hierarchy:

Food, health, love, and the respect

Venture for the crest.

Blog Topic #6

Blogging is similar to facebook, where you can add your friends and leave comments. The blog allows you to meet and exchange thoughts with people in your class, whom you normally wouldn't talk to. This is especially useful for large classes, where people normally don't give a second thought, let alone anyone who's not sitting next to them.

The blog have indeed allow me to share my thoughts on what goes on in class with others. It's nice to see that fellow classmates have similar thoughts as mine. It just feels good to have people agree with you. However, the same can be said about people with different opinions; it's without doubt very interesting to see different points of view, to think of something in a different way, which is similar to the idea that the professor have been advocating (thinking out of the box).

I found the professors blog to be helpful, to be able to get management and life tips from someone who has been through it is definitely a bonus. I like the fact that it's not completely unrelated to our class topics, but has a lot of the things that we've learn, which means what we've learning in class is authentic :].

I'm usually on the computer, so blogging was a breeze. And having it worth 20% of our grade is definitely a plus! Since I haven't done so good on the exams, it's a peace a mind to know that the blog is a grade booster :]

Overall I think the blog is a great idea, and it really allows us to exchange our ideas and meet new people. I believe that the blog should continue to be a component in this course because it will provide that 'thinking out of the box' idea! (of course the kicka55 class experiments help with that as well ;]). I will definitely continue to blog about anything that comes up!

Not your average Burger and Fries!

It was just an average Saturday when I decided to head into an unsuspecting McDonalds. As I was waiting in line for the two people ahead of me, I quickly went over what I was going to say to the cashier when my turn comes. I first analyzed the cashiers behind the registers, even though I don't typically judge people by appearances, I wanted to check/know if the cashiers are going to give me a hassle or spit in my food or just anything of that nature. I believe that they will in fact give me a hassle but, 'oh wells' I really need this extra credit! I also checked my surrounding to see if there were a lot of people, because I don't really want to cause a scene or hold up the line. By looking around I realize that there aren't too many people in this McDonalds, either way I was determine to get this unique order no matter what. Although the incentive is the extra credit, I am also very curious to see what might transpire. Soon enough, I'm in front of the cashier and here's what happened:

McDonalds employee: "Hi, can I take your order?".

Me: "Yes, can I get a regular hamburger, with 4 pickles and fries with no salt, to stay".

McDonalds employee: "Okay" (input some data, and then goes to do my order)

I was quite surprise that this played out so perfectly. I thought that the employee would've had to call the manager and do some special management process to fulfill this special order. What simply happened was that the employee walked to the deep fryer and lift the fries out of the fryer and basically got the fries out from there (usually they would put the fries out on the platter and sprinkle salt on it). And after that, they gave me a burger with a receipt attached to it that said, "extra pickles". Finally, I asked for my receipt but it did not have 'no salt' next to the fries order. I asked that I wanted the receipt to say 'no salt', the employee looked at me weird for a while and said, "hold on". I wasn't expecting anything special to happen because the order played out so perfectly. So to my expectation, she simply went to the back of the McDonalds to get a pen (taking about 10 seconds) and wrote, "no salt" on the receipt. I took my order and sat down for a quick bite, and to examine if everything is correct. Lifted the top bun off the hamburger and there was four pickles. Tried the fries and it tasted plain, perfect.
The burger tasted exactly like how a McDonalds hamburger should taste even with the two extra pickles. I personally like salt on my fries, but I'm willing to take one for my grade. I was surprise that no one looked at me funny, from the employees to the other customers next to me. I was expecting to hold up the line and cause a big commotion, well that turn out to be a big failure. I will definitely try to do this in a few more McDonalds to see if the outcome will be different, of course not to set my expectations to high because I was really anxious to see what might've happen with today's order.

Blog Topic #4

According to the Personal Profile test, I am a C with high D. I think that this diagnostic test describe me pretty well. I am definitely a conscientious type, I like to know the rules and directions before I attempt on doing something. The reason for this is rather rudimentary, I simply don't like to get things wrong, I would prefer to get it right the first time around! Again, this test was able to capture a part of me, however nothing is really set in stone; depending on the situation, I believe I can be any of the 'DISC'. I definitely think that it's helpful to determine people's management 'type' but, just for just starting out in a job. I believe that depending on the person's progress in the company, that individual should not be just limited to that original test result. Again, depending on the situation of the company, an individual can end up being a different part of the 'DISC'. As far as using this Personal Profile test for personal interaction, I believe it would be a great idea, quoting what Professor Kurpis said in class, before dating someone, have them take this test and if they are a D, run the other way! This test can certainly allow one to know if they should be starting a relationship with someone else, or even being friends or business partners, etc. with someone.

Blog Topic #3

The class on 10/14/09 was crazy as hell. There were people screaming across the room, various people standing up and even more people just completely dazed and confuse. I was definitely one of those people (dazed and confused). I was in the "avoidance" state at first because I feel that the class will be able to make a decision, of which I would then agree with them because it's what the majority would want. However, when it seemed like no progress was being made and with the time running out, I'd joined in the frenzy. From the 5 ways of behavior slide, I don't think there were any "compete to win" behavior, the tone of the whole process was pretty much "compromise" and "collaborating", where the plan was to split up into smaller groups and then combine our ideas, this of course didn't worked out as planned. Even though it was unrealistic, to have 100% of the class to agree on a decision, it did show how difficult it is to make a decision with a large scale of people. The professor was very cynical by purposely trying to make individuals turn against the class, by saying, "you don't have to agree..." This made thing extremely difficult. It sucked that the class ended without deciding on the formatting of the test, due to few individuals, but at least we were able to get some changes out of it =/ Better something than nothing.

Blog Topic #2

DAMN!! Can't believe my group fail in the egg project. We did use most of the steps in the planning process. Such as defining our goals, determining our resources, and making a tactical plan. What we should've done was making alternate strategies as well. We had a few plans at first, but they got shut down because the engineering of it will probably lead to disaster. Eventually we had one plan, of which everyone agreed on. We had a pretty good design for our egg protection, but it could've definitely been improved (because the egg still cracked =/).
The idea of this assignment was to 'think outside of the box'. We didn't even go up to the table where the egg and tape was to examine the sizes. We simply gave an estimate of the sizes for our design. The group that used the tape as a rope for the egg, thus reducing the length of the fall was rather clever. It's thinking in that nature that will make the difference. Overall the best and most memorable class I've ever had. Definitely looking forward to future classes (can't believe I just said that, but hey, it was FUN :]).

Blog Topic #1

My classes are pretty hectic this semester because I am finally taking my 3000 and 4000 level courses. On top of that, I am planning on getting an internship this semester as well, which will probably make my life more difficult than it should be. To add to this, all my classes end rather late so I don't know if I will have the energy after class to doing anything else (homework, study, etc). I also work out twice a week with some friends, so that is going to be an issue as well. I'm currently managing my time with my Smartphone. So far it's been pretty effective because I'm able to check off objectives on my 'to do' list. Aside from school, I also want to make time to hang out with my friends, which is more than just saying 'hi' to them on facebook (of which I've been doing lately -_-). These are the management problems that I will be facing this semester.