Writing Through Life Challenges

Well I guess it’s that time... Where we have to part ways. I tried to articulate how this class made me feel. I feel like this class took me on an emotional rollercoaster. I was always at the edge of my seat. I thought an appropriate picture would be one from Set It Off. This movie started off one way, but ended in a totally unpredicted way. They had some fun, laughter, tears and it ended with hurt, pain, death and sadness. While I am grateful for this class it is also important to know that I learned so much from each of you. Even those of you who have written so much I learned that sometimes less is not more, it’s just less. When I think about how “out of the box” this class was I think of Lean on Me. There is a scene in the movie where a young lady says, “You don’t know a thing about Mr. Clark.” I would go as far as to say, “You don’t know a thing about Dr. Kyburz.” For those of you who haven’t seen this movie, I know your wondering what does this mean? Mr. Cl...

The first and second pages of the menu, which are on red paper, consist of the lunch options. The third page consisted of the specials and combos. The fourth page is yellow and consists of the dinners and royal dinners. The fifth page, which was changed to red again, consists of the soups, appetizers, and pork. The sixth page consists of the fowl and beef, the seventh page consists of seafood and vegetable options and the eighth and last page consists of noodles, chow mein or chop suey, and fried rice.     The food offerings are tasty, and they come in large portions, which is definitely a plus for Yen Ching. Each entrée we ordered came with a soup appetizer and a side of wontons. Our meals came quickly, were hot and appeared fresh, and smelled delicious. Marilyn was the only employee working the front end at the time of our meal, and she seemed to do a good job checking in on our table along with the other diners. We ordered the Princess shrimp (above top), Mongolian ...

User Interface and User Experience Space Assessment This document outlines our assessments for a proposed redesign of Yen Ching, a local Chinese restaurant located at 810 W. Lincoln Highway in DeKalb, IL. In 1986, the Yin’s started their first restaurant on Fourth Street in DeKalb, IL. The business was strong enough for the family business to move to a larger location in 1990.  The current location is close to the campus of Northern Illinois University (NIU) and they were able to sustain business due to the new location and their authentic Chinese food. Online reviews from Trip Advisor 4/5 (24 reviews) rated #15/85 restaurants in DeKalb and Yelp 4.5/5 (60 reviews) helped share insight to the this long-standing local restaurant. With only 3 total one-star and 46 five-star ratings between the two sites, the restaurant is well-received and supported by both locals and visitors to the area. The food quality is described as fresh, fantastic and a Chinese favorite but with eac...

On Monday, November 26, 2018 Northern Illinois University decided to cancel school. What does this mean? No work for me and thousands of others. What does this mean for productivity? It cost about a million dollars in productivity. Was the snow really that bad? The new me says yes. Safety is important and we need to do all that we can to keep our student s and employees safe. When I arrived to work today, Tuesday, November 27,2018. I parked my car and almost feel because there was so much ice on the ground. I thought to myself, how safe is it really. Need less to say I slowly walked to the door to get into the building, then proceeded to m office to turn on both of my heaters Just to set down and forget my laptop in my car. I am grateful that we had a snow day, but I also understand that many don't think this is fair because many workers are considered essential personnel. I remember two years ago the Rec was considered essential personnel. I could not believe it. Needless to ...

Time is something that comes and goes. It is also something you can never get back. There is a saying, "no man knows the day or the hour he or she will leave this earth." One thing that is certain is that at one point or another we will all leave this earth. As I think about time, I realize that life is so precious and if you don't take the time to spend them with the people you love, one day you will wake up and wonder 'where did all the time go.' I have four fantastic children and I love to spend time with them. As they get older I am understanding that this time is so valuable. I would do anything to get back some of the years where I thought "work" was so important or school. Well... I can't change yesterday, so all I can do is move forward with today, while its here!

It is said that “Autonomous vehicles are the equivalent of supercomputers rolling down the highway, generating and transmitting a mind-boggling volume of data – up to 4 terabytes per day, per car.” according to datacenterfrontier.com. Data is very close to becoming the new currency. Companies have never had to deal with this amount of data on a day-to-day basis and with data, comes risk. Being able to keep all of the customers personal information safe, to when they were picked up and where they were dropped off can become quite challenging.  Without the daily limitations on how much a car can drive, currently with humans there is a limit to reduce the risk of an accident.This will bring about an unprecedented amount of data. Before companies can begin building data centers, they will have to tackle the wireless connectivity issues first.  From that point they can begin to work in all on of the other elements of the cars. The development of 5G is the key to bei...

Negatives of Ridesharing While there are many advantages of Ridesharing it is important to know there are many disadvantages as well. First we have to get some of society to overlook the rules that they have been taught their entire lives, “don’t get into a car with a stranger.” Well that is exactly what ridesharing is. You do not know the person personally that will be picking you up, so this leads to credibility. One of the cons of ridesharings is that there are so many companies out in the market and it is difficult for the end user to differentiate the major difference amongst the leaders of market. After all, when you get into your car you want to make it to your planned destination. There are been a lot of negative press about ridesharing from parton's being kidnapped from Lyft drivers to a lyft drive kinnapped, zip-tied and rapped a customer. While these cases may seem extreme it is important to know that they are accurate and true. In 2016 there was an incident where a...

The Ethic of Expediency In Steven B. Katz,  1992 publication, “The Ethic of Expediency: Classical Rhetoric, Technology and the Holocaust” he informs us of the dangers of ethical problems in rhetoric. The  document is written during a neo-nazism time period that gives directions on how to carry out executions by the firing squad (Shirer 1248-49). He looks at several documents with three different lenses to see the  technical communication, argumentation, and style view of the documentation. From a technical writing standpoint the document is near perfection. It explains all the needed information. The document covers the who, what, when, where and how of getting  the executions done. There is no confusion because everything that is needed to carry out such acts is answered in the memo. The writing is clear and concise. The writer of the memo takes the human side out of the memo by writing,  "97,000 have been processed" (Katz 257), instead of writing; 97...

Branding Guidelines and Constraints When I think of the branding, I think less is more.  There are many different ways one can look at branding. They can consider it to be the companies Logo or the quality of an item. Branding can go as far as a company’s reputation in society. While companies have to be careful  that they stay within their core business, many companies are branching out so much that there original core business is getting lost in translation. Companies like Burger King and KFC had to learn how to use constraints. Burger King went from being known for burgers to sales, hot dogs, tacos, bean burgers, turkey burgers, mac and cheese bites, Cheetos chicken fries and sliders( www.Burgerking.com ). While KFC went from being known for fried chicken to think thin, marketing their grilled chicken. They use to sale a fried chicken pizza that did not go over well with consumers.  Currently they are in the process of discontinuing their grilled chicken. I th...

I was honored to be able to attend this years Council of councils meeting in Champaign Urbana, IL. I was elected to be one of  ten members of the Universities Operating Staff Council. At these places the who's who of the University are present in hearing information before it is presented to each university. While I was at this meeting I learned so much information that I felt like more people would know what is going on with the state. They talked about buy outs, furloughs and lay offs. While I don't have as many years as some, I felt like people who have worked 18+ years, should be receiving this information firsthand. Often times our University talks about the lack of diversity for employees at our university, but many times I can count the amount of diverse people at the events on one hand. I wish that we would incorporate some form of equity to ensure that we are hiring some diverse staff, if the opportunity arise. Otherwise, I would prefer that we stop talking about ...

Well                                                                  All Aboard  I plan to take a cruise for Spring Break with  my daughter as my gift to her as a senior trip. I have to make a decision on who's Spring break will we take it on. The universities  schedule or her High school schedule. You would think this was an easy decision. I started by looking at NCL and guess what.. All cruises are not created equal. There is so much information out there. Where do you want to go, how are we going to get there, what is included in the price etc... I decided that we will go on either a Carnival cruise because there prices are fantastic and they seem to have longer days at places that seem to be interesting to my daughter. The other option is to go on NCL as I know several people who take a crui...

BOX-LOGIC Geoffrey Sirc begins his essay "Box-Logic" by expressing his frustrations with the typical learning in writing while society is ever-changing. He says, “The rapid advance of technology has meant a pedagogical dilemma for me: just what do I do in the classroom, what do I teach?”(113) He battles with the traditional  way of writing and creating some other style of writing that the world seems to going towards. He uses several pieces of works by different writers and poets to argue his points. Geoffrey has some questions that he has to ask himself and anyone who is in the teaching profession. Essentially he is saying, what do you do, when everything you have been taught seems to be changing? He looks at a writing from Marcel Duchamp’s Green Box (1934) to help him find some unconventional ways to view writing. From taking notes, to rearranging post-its to playing with the way you present the words, in an art form . He also looks at Joseph Cornell, Walter Benj...

CAMPUS SIGNAGE PROJECT As I begin to write about this Campus Signage Project (CSP) I realise that this may not be as easy as I first anticipated. As I go through my day-to-day life at Northern Illinois University (NIU), I am beginning to understand that I rarely have time to “smell the roses.” I spend most of my time in the Student Recreation Center (SRC), as that is the location where my office is. When thinking of what poster or signage will I pick, as there are an insurmountable amount of posters and signage all over NIU. As I stated that I am often very busy, I actually found a sign within my own location. Two signs to be exact. Now the question is, which will I choose? Picture of Wellness At first I walked through the long cold hallways of the SRC and stopped to see the signage locate d above. At first glance it looks as though they are a way for you to be well, and they are, but as I look closer, I realise it is more than just information about wellness ...

DOCUMENTARY PROJECT REFLECTION- AFTER TILLER I chose to do my Guided Reflection on After Tiller . Dr. George Tiller is one of four doctors in the world that perform abortions during the third- trimester of a pregnancy in 2009. This is during a time when bombings are known to happen at any abortion location at any time. Society is very out spoken on their views and the Dr. had received an insurmountable amount of death threats. He has gone through many lows in like due to the nature of his work. He has not only been divorced because of his job, but also feels alienated for the rest of the world. I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness, when I hear the secretary trying to explain how the procedure will work to a potential client over the phone. She is very detailed in her description and make sure the client knows that this is a labor and delivery, not a surgery. I can’t help thinking,” how does she feel? She looks like she may be under a lot of stress. She says, “You need to be...