Diversity

Last week we had an ice cream social with a speaker about diversity. I enjoyed having the change of the way things normally run. I had never heard her talk but she presented with a practiced degree of proficiency.

One thing I took out of the class was that not everyone responds to "jokes" in the same way. As, what I would describe, a normal white, middle class American from the Midwest, I figured my response of memes and jokes would be normal. I tend to let things bounce off. A joke is a joke. There has to be either a true degree of blatantly hurtful words or actions to really get a rise out of me. Only other time would be if someone close to me issues offenses that I find hurtful. Those people should know the boundaries between right and wrong and if they don't, they will hear about it. I guess it's more of a assume good will from others type of perspective.

I learned from this lecture that not everyone feels this way. One thing I was not expecting was her take on the Daily incident. I know there was something printed which was (hopefully) unintentionally offensive. What I didn't realize happened was the disregard for the victim's feelings. The Daily most definitely should have been better proofread and after the incident, published articles that helped students see the hurt it caused those ISU students.

One thing that really bothered me about this lecture was student's responses to the picture of the woman and the man. Excuse me, but I thought the extremely negative submissions were absolutely uncalled for. The question asked "How would this person describe themselves" and people were posting statements that, had the photo been of myself, I would probably have left the room crying. It was hurtful to see those things posted. It's an interesting psychological question that should be asked, what makes individuals respond in such a way?  That social experiment makes me wonder, what responses would people post of me (if no one knew me like no one knew her.)

Ethics

Last week's presentation went very well. Great job Alex and Easton! The idea of ethics is one that plays a large role in our everyday lives. Everyone has their own background, values and experiences guiding the decisions they make and the people they are. Ethics helps keep everyone's character in check by providing a universal idea of what is right and wrong in normal society.

When asked the question in class "What does ethics look like or feel like to you?" my response was that ethics is the application of integrity. Integrity to me is honesty in every aspect of life. Not taking advantage of a situation where someone else may be hurt. Making sure that other's opportunities are equal to, if not greater than, the opportunities I have. Being a sales person, I don't think ethics is applied enough. I do my best to make sure to never lie to get a larger sale or take advantage of a customer for my own gain. I make sure that I treat every customer how I would want another sales person to treat my mother or sister. Hopefully that sales strategy (although it has been known to lose me sales and commission) will pay off in the future.

DST workday

This last week we spent most of the time discussing what was done and what still needed to be done for this Digital Story telling project. Sebastian tried to get me to do a cameo type thing where I just talk into the camera... I really really didn't want to do it. Me, on film... scary. So he took someone else. Sorry Lauren :)

Anyway it looks like we have a lot, if not all of the filming done and just need to work on editing and music. I feel my greatest contribution so far was the climbing of a tree, and screaming no in the middle of Central campus 3-4 times. :) We also found some great music to add to the background. This DST is going to be awesome! :D