Week 3 - Response to Nicholas Oaster

Jorge L Rodriguez

@ Nicholas Oaster
Topic 1

"...teeth pulling and hard work, everyone in the choir could read musical notes. Onward to reading music intervals...
Thursday, March 18, 2010 - 07:40 PM

I've always wanted to learn how to read music! I took up music in HS but never went beyond that. The teacher I had was somewhat short with the students causing much of the resistance you spoke of. However, once we got instructor who wanted to be there, his passion for music became a lighting rod for those who secretly wanted to learn as much as he wanted to teach. You sound just like him - Keep up the good work!

Friday, March 19, 2010 - 03:10 PM

Week 4 Post on - THE MEANING OF LIFE! and other picture post cards..

I was listening to Steve Jobs' graduation speech at one of his events.

I was really blown away with this one statement he made, and I paraphrase: "Death is the best invention ever made" because it drives home the limitations and time that one has in their lives to make a mark and to contribute those things that are of importance. He go on to tell the reason why we should do what we feel is right regardless of the mistakes that will be made through those actions as it is through these mistakes that valuable lessons evolve.

Hmmm? Sounds like the type of advise my parents and grand-parents gave to me?!

I often wondered what the meaning of life was and have come to the conclusion that the it means nothing to others.. It has no value until it is cashed in at the end of it's use. Have you ever noticed that at funerals, a eulogy is given to add credence and value to the deceased past life? This is despite the fact the he or she may have been the biggest, decrepit, annoying, over the hill, grouchy person you've ever met, they still meant something to someone so much, they have to sum it up in a departing speech?

My point is, I want to be able to do those things that I get a kick out of. Not to leave anything to the imagination and to provide a life style for others to enjoy. The type of things that when I do leave, there is no regret and no sorrow. That when they finally plant me my tum stone will simply say: HE IS, HE WAS, BUT, HE AIN'T NO MORE! - Nuff Said..

Week 4 - Comments on Bianca Woods - Dream Job!

I can empathize with you in having a dream so close enough and just as so, having it blown away by the reality of economics, demographics or even the pure fact that there are many who'd you have to compete with sharing the same dream.

This is a good time to reflect on the following:

Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish, then, he'll learn to survive! BUT - If you help him buy a fishing trawler - well then, now you've gone beyond the world of teaching and into the world of thinking. Thinking beyond the traditional limitations is what makes a dreamer more valuable than a teacher. A dreamer provides an out to what is considered the mundane and unchallenged.

Helping this man buy a fishing trawler, you then encourage the local economy to partake in the activity. That fisherman employs others, others supply the change of demand, and then.... Well, you get the idea.. Perhaps overly simplified in theory but something to consider when the challenge seems far fetched.

@ Bianca Woods

What I thought was my dream job, teaching, has a lot standing in my way. First, where I live there's just way more teachers than teaching positions, and the unfortunate reality is that because my degrees are from the US rather than Canada it's harder for me to even get considered for interviews. But even if I could get back into the classroom, the world in there isn't my dream environment. I want small class sizes and an environment where students can explore their passions, and most schools have huge classes and strict curricula. There's also a huge gap in what technology is out there for education and what is actually used in schools, which just drives me nuts. Funding for education is completely undervalued these days, which is unfortunate to put it lightly. These days I'm out of the classroom and working as an instructional designer. It's not my dream job, but it's pretty close. The work is interesting and I think my boss is great. I admit, though, that I miss being in front of a classroom actually teaching. I'm hoping I'll have some opportunities in the future to actually teach the material I'm writing, but it's not for sure yet. In a world where everything was perfect I'd likely be teaching at a school like Full Sail. I love that many of the assignments we've been given are pretty open-ended and let us follow what we're deeply interested in, and that's the kind of environment I'd love to work in.

Week 4 reading - "The Board" I don't agree with this!

I read the chapter on "The Board" - Lewis Carol's Alice in Wonderland and I came out feeling a little biased (well, actually madder than a tornado in a trailer park) as to what he's telling us. That in no way are we "EVER" or should "EVER" feel like it is someone else's responsibility for what happens to us? This is so obscured that some one can think that through the mere power of suggestions, I should have known that my woes in my life were totally under my own control and that others who may have contributed to it were solely "egged-on" to do so?

In the board, an example is given of a driver that through no fault of his own, was rear ended at a stop light. It continues to say that because he knew of the risks he was taking on a daily bases when driving, this should have been an expected event?

If that's the case, I'm inclined to believe that this was written by the same people who took this country for a ride with the lending institutions wiped our country of it's life savings and that it was our fault for believing in a system that promised fairness and honest communication in the safeguarding of our well being and so forth. Well, it just goes to prove that, this country is really a great one! They allow even the most ridiculous authors to make statements and try to impress others with ideas and theories that by far, should be considered "WORDS TO THE UN-WISE"

By the way, I have a bridge to sell you - REALLY CHEAP!

Week 4 Project - My UDUTU-LIST of activities

The following is link for my UDUTU project. ENJOY!

The Color Challenge

I am simply at a point in my educational career where I may have finally felt a sense of accomplishment. This comes after having my project "work-properly" after much debugging and perhaps expanding on some profane linguistic vocabulary of my own choosing.

I look back on this project and have realized that the most aggravating part of the project was not thinking about being able to get it done but that once is was completed, the barricades I had before were attributed to careless rushing and, well - as we engineers say: "If at first you don't succeed, read the instructions". This brings me to a point which I believe many of you "FATHERS" (not to discount the mothers but you'll see what I'm getting at in a few lines...) have experienced and are faithfully entrenched in the belief that if you can save some time, bypass the logical, and go with the natural instincts of brute force and explicit words to impose your will on getting that tricycle assembled.

That being said, there is an apology to be given to all those women whom through their kind nature and logical sense of being have softly whispered in our ears: "HONEY, PERHAPS ASKING THAT KIND ATTENDANT IN THE GARAGE FOR DIRECTIONS WOULD GET US THERE SOONER".

Within that long silence after these words and actually finding the place after listening to her, she remained un-assuming, humble and bubbly through out!. SO MEN, DO YOUR SELF A FAVOR, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS or face the consequences of hearing those dreaded words that were create by WOMAN GOD - "You should have listened to me - SEE- I TOLD YOU SO!"

Wk3 Reading: Art of Possibility, Chapters 7- 9

WAKE UP! It's time to take your sleeping pill.

I get a kick out of reading Zander's view on life in general. He reminds us of the fragile and short time remaining in life that we as a human race fail to realize. That the self is not about the "self" but a part of the self that is called a society. Putting an exclamation point on the actions we take when performing (that being any activity that's worth doing right) makes all the difference in how we are perceived as well as how others react to us.

In his book, he uses Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata as an example how behavior, tone and even body language can change perception:

What does this means to me? Well, for one, I'll start driving slower and perhaps let people pass me without getting upset. I'll change my radio station from demonic head banging to NPR Classical music... OR NOT!

Wk3-1 Difficulties starting new programs/breaking the norm

Having been an industrial and manufacturing engineer for close to 30 years, part of my function was to introduce new processes, methodologies and train on innovative skill sets required to having one accomplish ones job.

The resistance to adapt to these learning's came in the form of two distinct characteristics in the mainstream workforce here in the United States.

The first was 'complacency' where there are those who have been used to doing thing in one fashion and ONLY ONE FASHION felt too comfortable with that environment. And changes to that environment threatened their ability to scathe through life similar to the cattle grazing out in the fields.

The second was lack of confidence in one's self. Too often, our labor force are faced with little to no choices in what their form of employment is to be comprised of. When this exists, it becomes destructive in their physique and perpetuates the feeling of uselessness leading to questioning their own ability to do better.

Of all the techniques I've used to motivate individuals or teams to adapt to new programs, none has been as effective as when I look at the individual and asked them to 'Become the designer' of that program. And I would only facilitate that process. In doing so, they now take ownership and pride of that process. This in turn would create the need to use it because it became internalized to their way of being, thinking and doing.