My Advice to You

Dear Future/Potential Second Life Students,

Spend at least a little time in Second Life before the class gets started. It is not easy to keep up with your lectures because it is basically a chat room you are trying to follow. Get used to Second Life so you can pay attention to what is going on in class instead of being distracted.

KEEP UP TO DATE with your work. I found it helpful to write down what I have to do each week on paper. This way, I could check off what I have done and see what I have left to do without going to the website. It is easy to fall behind because you get several new assignments each week.

Enjoy the blogging. Try not to see it as another assignment that has to be done. Instead look at it as a way to express your thoughts on a variety of subjects.

Don't hesitate to ask Mrs. Rogers for help or questions. She is great about responding to emails and she is always willing to help. She is a great teacher who seems to love what she does.

-Ned

Ford's Lack of Ethics

Between the years of 1971 and 1976 Ford Motor Company produced and sold the Pinto, a cheap, compact car which they knew would erupt in flames from any rear collision. Before the car was ever sold to the public, Ford watched it go up in flames in nearly every collision test they performed. The Pinto was planned and produced in under half the time it normally takes to produce a car. The reason for this was to compete with similar cars from other companies.

It would take $11 per car to fix the Pinto, but according to their calculations, this would be more cost than their profits. They chose to produce the Pinto the way it was.

I don't care how long ago it was, there is a good chance I will never buy a Ford in my lifetime. This is just one example of how people deny ethics because of selfish motivation. However big or small the decision is, I hope people learn from Ford. I don't know what the legal punishment is for lack of ethical decision making, but I think it should be steep. I have not been able to find official writing from Ford on this issue but I am curious if it acknowledges the possibilities of death. Ethics in business are essential.

-Ned

Ethical Lapses in Workers

The percentages stated in this article are really surprising to me. After spending a semester in the working world, I can see how there are ethical lapses but I did not realize it was this common. One thing that stuck out to me from this article and my experience is that an ethical lapse by one person can demotivate other people. This is especially true when a boss makes a decision unethically.

I wonder about the causes of so many ethical lapses. A few causes I would predict would be personal gain which might include doing someone a personal favor that cheats the company. Another cause that would not surprise me is because many things are easier when you ignore ethics. The company may have a set process to go through when it would be easier to skip some of those steps.

After reading this article, I want to know before I take a job that my boss abides by ethics on every decision. I will be more cautious in the workplace then I may have been before reading the article.

-Ned

Writing on the Web vs. Writing on Paper

As our society spends more and more time on computers, we have naturally moved towards all digital writing and away from books. For example, the vast majority of college students write research papers with solely digital sources. Not too long ago, books were the only thing people used to research.

Being the hands-learner that I am, I prefer to have a written document in front of me. With a printed piece of paper, I can visualize where I am on the page and I can make marks on the page to remember things. I also get distracted much easier if I am reading something on the computer screen.

A printed piece is more concrete and tangible. This means you can handle it, you can mark on it, and you can have an original piece. However, writing on paper takes longer to duplicate. It is also harder to reach as many people with a hard copy. It takes a long time to get from one place to another. Writing on the web can not be marked on, and it depends on internet connection and speed in order to get it. The good thing about writing on the web is that one copy can be viewed by an unlimited number of people at the same time. It takes no time to get from one person to the next and it can be posted instantly. The time issue has the biggest impact on its popularity. There is no time involved.

When transferring a piece of writing from paper to the web, it is important to include all of the structural characteristics as well as the text. It is easy to leave out the formatting on the internet, but that is an important part of a document. You also have to remember to document where the original source came from.

So even though I like to have a hard copy that I can mark on, I usually find myself sacrificing that for the speed and ease of reading something on the internet.

14.5 down, 1.5 to go

As much as I love the life and schedule of a college student, sometimes I wonder how much longer I can handle school work. For the last week I have been stressed about a due date and how I am going to finish a project that is due by Tuesday. My heart rate has literally been beating twice as fast as normal since last Thursday and today is Sunday. This is why I grew up saying I didn't want to go to college and why I am thankful that school is temporary. I have 14.5 years down and 1.5 to go. I'm almost there.

I try to remind myself of the bigger things in life and remember that this life is only temporary anyway, but it doesn't change the fact that I have loads of work to do before the end of the semester. Right now I am at one of those points where I am ready to get out of school and move on to greater things. I love my friends and the community here but man school is not for me. It never has been. However, I know God has a plan for my life and that is what keeps me going.

-Ned

Lying on your Resume

Currently in the process of finding a second internship, the topic of my resume is freshly on my mind. It is the real deal to read articles like this and the first thing it made me think about was to look back over my resume to MAKE SURE no dates were stretched or anything like that. I am surprised how many people it says lie on their resume. I just assume that employers will find out one way or another and nothing good can come out of lying on a resume.

Immediately after reading this article, I read the article on how to present time off from the work force on a resume. I am curious about this because I do not want to go straight from college into an office and I would like to spend a year or so traveling and working odd jobs. I have often thought about how this will be received by potential employers when they see my resume. Both of the articles were helpful in preparing an effective resume.

Maybe its wierd, but I find the job hunt almost thrilling. It reminds me of a game of texas hold 'em. You can't change the cards you have (the experience on your resume) but you have to put your game face on and be confident. You have to convince employers that you have the best hand (are the man for the job) even if another person has better cards. I like pursuing internships because there is not the pressure of having to support yourself but you still get to experience it.

-Ned

Events Business

Our business is to organize events on second life. We will go around to event locations such as skate parks, golf courses, race tracks and other activity places and talk to the owners to get their permission and cooperation. Then we will advertise by putting up posters in popular places, the place of the event, and other places where people who enjoy the sport would be. For example, if we organize a skate contest, we would advertise it at other skate parks as well. We could get sponsors from second life businesses or real businesses who might donate prizes or just have their name displayed.

We would make money off of sponsors paying to advertise and participants paying an entry fee to the event. Our events might include skate contests, golf tournaments, car races, mountain bike or dirt bike races, and other sports. There is potential for us to organize events for any sport. To attract participants, the winners would receive prizes. The more I think about it, I think this has potential in or out of second life.

-Ned

Second Life Interview

I can't compare my interview to my expectations, because I really had no idea what to expect. I signed onto second life earlier than my scheduled interview and my avatar was right in the middle of another interview going on so that was an akward start to the session. Although it was a virtual world I felt a little wierder than I would expect to be in middle of someone elses virtual interview. But really there is no way to avoid interuptions like that in second life.

One thing I did not anticipate during the interview was the typing factor. When I was asked quesitons, I would have to take some time to think about them and then I had to take more time to type them. I felt like it was taking me forever to get the answers out because of how long it took to type them. Then if I changed my mind I would have to erase what I had written and type more.

Other than typing, it surprisingly did simulate a real interview. I had to think quickly on the spot and answer the same types of questions I normally would. The one thing lacking in any second life activity is people skills. If I was hiring someone, I would want to see things like eye contact and confidence (non-verbal language). I guess there is also no way to be sure it is the person you think it is on the other end. If I wanted to I could have easily had someone sit in for me in the interview.

It simulated an actuall interview more than I expected, but it still lacked a lot of characteristics that is important for an employer to see.

-Ned

How I Made my Millions

Watching TV this week, I came across a show on CNBC called "How I Made my Millions." The show was about ordinary people with extraordinary ideas. Of the handful of people in the show, their products ranged from shredders big enough to destroy cars to a razor blade shaped to fit in your hand, making it easier to shave your head. Two more common products were the two brothers who came up with the "life is good" brand and the farmer who made the first corn maze.

Anyone who watches that show, including me, can't help but walk away from it thinking what simple thing can I invent to make my millions? I'm sure one goal of the writers is to encourage people to follow their dreams and ideas; which is a great thing.

However, after watching the show I came to one conclusion. In most cases, I don't think it was the product that earned these guys their millions. Instead, it was their pursuit of their ideas. For example, the 'HeadBlade' or the razor specifically designed to shave your head. Todd Greene, the inventor, started his quest by trying to sell his product to big name companies in the razor industry. None of them had any interest in buying the HeadBlade. It would have been easy for him to be discouraged and give up on his product. On the contrary, he changed his game plan and marketed the product on his own. He set up a website and sold HeadBlades to the retail stores themselves. This is a perfect example of using marketing to sell the product. When it didn't sell itself, he put some effort into marketing it and convinced people that it was a quality product. As a result of his marketing efforts, the product has gained popularity and he has made millions of it.

The vast majority of the stories told on the show had similar circumstances. I think this goes to show the power of marketing. People can be convinced of the quality of a product or idea whether it sells itself or not. I take this as encouragement and I am on a quest to come up with an idea or product that I can pursue. I think people come up with ideas all the time that they just figure has already been invented or isn't good enough to make it big. It does not take a genius idea to succeed. I hope to follow Todd Greene's lead and pursue my own dream to make a living. I encourage you to do the same.

-Ned

Resume Cover Letter

Do I agree with the advice given here? Absolutely. This advice is from an experienced employer who has looked over thousands of resumes and tells it like it is. It does not seem written from a textbook point of view, but rather from someone with experience who genuinely wants to help entry level employees. All of the information about cover letters makes sense, but is not stuff I would think about on my own. I thought it was interesting that most cover letters are never read. It is a 'cover' letter so I would think it would be the first thing read.

There was not anything in here that I do not agree with because it all seemed to be useful, knowledgeable information. I will refer back to this when I am writing my cover letter.

The section that is most useful to me is 'The Best Use of a Cover Letter' section. It says to know what you are selling to the customer. In this case I am selling what makes me stand out from the rest. Right now I am not sure what differentiates me from the rest of the market, so I need to find out. As it says, the resume explains your features; your cover letter explains your benefits.

To be honest, I knew nothing about a cover letter. I thought it was normal to send a resume to speak for itself. The more I read, it sounds like a lot of people to send a resume alone, but it is important to send a cover letter. This was pretty much all new to me.

-Ned

Second Life Interviews

An interview is usually the make or break point for an employee looking for a job. By the time an interview has been scheduled, it is most likely that the resume has already been exchanged and the employer wants to know more about the personality of the employee. This is what the interview is for. So what do interviews on second life accomplish? Well of course they are more convenient, but I do not think they can show the employer the same things about the employee.

For some jobs it could be effective. One example is the software engineers that were talked about in the article. For employers who are looking for skills on computers, it could be effective. They want to know how skilled their potential employees are with software and second life can show them just that. However, for your average job, the employee's personality matters. For any employer that wants to know about the true personality of their employees, second life is not an efficient way to interview them. It is true I am less nervous on second life speaking through my avatar, but that is not how I would actually act at work. An employer needs to see non-verbal communication that is left out in second life.

Overall, unless it is for a software writing job, I think second life is a terrible way to replace face to face interviews.

Letter from Birmingham Jail Comparison

I chose to compare the letter with a piece of writing trying to convince anyone in the real estate market to use Prudential Carolina Real Estate. My reason for choosing Prudential was because I worked for them last semester and I knew they use their website to convince customers to use them.

Comparing the Letter from Birmingham Jail to anything was a challenge because it was in response to the writing from the clergymen. Most of what Dr. King said directly addressed an issue in the letter from the clergymen.

The writing from Prudential is addressed to anyone who may come across their website. With a much broader audience, they had to be more vague in their persuasion.

One difference in the two writings was the use of facts vs personal views and opinion. Dr. King used his opinion and his own definitions of just and unjust to try and win other people to his side. Prudential uses mostly facts that support them compared to other real estate companies in the area. Both strategies seem to be effective, they are just used for different purposes.

Another more obvious difference is the length of the writings. This is also in direct relation to their purposes. Dr. King's letter is very lengthy although it is all necessary to make his point. Prudential has to appeal to an internet audience who does not want to spend much time on any one website, so they must persuade quickly. Their writing is much shorter than Dr. King's.

Very few common elements exist between these two pieces. I had a hard time finding anything to compare to Dr. King's letter. One reason is because most of my time on the internet is spent trying to avoid persuasion. I try to go where I want to go and not be redirected by people trying to sell me things. Because of this, I had no idea where to start searching for a persuasive document. When I found it, I realized how different these two writings are, however they both serve the purpose of persuading people. 

30 Year Old Ned

Where would I like to be in ten years you ask? To be honest, there is not much certainty in where I would like to be in ten years. I enjoy not knowing what will come of my life. So I will give you one of many examples of where I would like to be in ten years. I would like to have a wife. Recently I have come to see that I could be happy with others, but since I have been here, I have told myself I wanted to marry a Clemson girl. But I know other schools have some pretty awesome girls as well. As for kids, I could go either way. I think three kids would be the ideal number; I am partial because I am one of three; but whether or not they come in ten years I don't care.

I would like to be well traveled by the time ten years comes around. I have always said I would take at least a year after college and travel. Ideally, I would find a way to make a living on the road so I could still be traveling in ten years. Rather than move from place to place, I would like to stay in places long enough to experience the culture. A strong influence on where I want to travel is places I can go to surf and snow ski. One of the first places I would like to hit is New Zealand. I would also like to spend at least a couple months living in a ski town, Colorado or Utah preferably.

I would also like to have a stronger developed faith in ten years. What I mean by that is to have more knowledge of the Bible and be more dependent on God in my daily life. So in ten years, I would like to have been married for a couple of years to a girl who loves to travel as well. We would have decided on a place to settle down and will have started our life in the city where we will raise our kids. It will be interesting to look back on this in ten years.

iGen and our Addiction to the Internet

Digital ethnology brings up the constant issue facing Generation Y, also referred to as iGen. I think the title of the video, Digital ethnology, is an interesting, but perfect description for the topic. Ethnology is defined as dealing with the scientific description of individual cultures. What I get out of this video is that Web 2.0 could define Generation Y.

Web 2.0 has more of an effect on someone entering the workforce than is initially apparent. The most significant thing is how much information is on the internet about anyone looking for a job. For example, an empolyer can look at facebook and see a side of a potential employee that probably would not show in an interview. They could also see blogs such as this one, or a personal webpage. Because of the easy access to the internet, Generation Y specifically, has posted more inforation on the internet. This is the exact point of the video, the fact that our generation can edit the internet and as a result put more personal information on it. So I would say Web 2.0 is beneficial to empoyers more so than employees. To people already in the workforce, they have to be careful of how much personal information gets out that their bosses could see. Facebook picutures can be put up and tagged of you and you have no control over your friends tagging pictures. This is where employees have to be careful.

At the end of the video, it listed a few things we "need to rethink." The last three were love, family, and ourselves. Thats messed up. If we change the way we define love, family, and ourselves. The internet and our relationship with it has gone too far. Yes there are online dating services and everything, but if our generation is defined by those, I might have to remove myself from it (yes its possible?). Anyway this video addresses real issues but my opinion is that it sucks how dependent our generation is on the internet.

Who am I?

Well my name is Ned and I'm a junior Graphic Communications major. I am from the town of Burlington, North Carolina where I have lived my whole life.

I enjoy traveling and extreme sports. I grew up traveling around the United States, and in the last few years I have started to travel more internationally. Not to say I'm great at them, but I love any sport on the water; and I take every chance I get to go snow skiing.

My last semester was spent doing an internship in Charleston, so I am excited about being back at school. Clemson has been the perfect school for me so far and I hope to make the most out of my last year and a half.

So that's me summed up, I look forward to getting to know you all in this whole Second Life thing.

Ned