Why College is so Good.

I complain a lot about college and all the money it costs and whatever, but seriously, in the long run, it rocks. A couple of weeks ago I had an Accounting professor talk to us about how much we should study per credit hour. Now, my major is accounting and it really clicks with me, so I might put in about one to two extra hours a week in studying for that class. I have a 99.9%. He stated that we should be studying at least nine extra hours for his class. I'm sorry, there is no way I could study that much for that class even if I wanted to. As he stated it, my tuition was a sunk cost because I wasn't getting out what I was paying for it. In my opinion, I pay to learn the material, and when I know it so well, I'm not going to study it again. Learning it more in depth is an option, but then I'll just do that in the next class. I don't know your opinion on this, but do feel free to express it. I would love to learn more about what other students think about this. Thanks everyone!

How to increase your name awareness

I work at a store in downtown Logan named the Kater Shop. We sell men's clothing including suits, dress shirts, ties, slacks, ties, etc. We also rent men's tuxedo's for proms and weddings. My boss, who is a little uneducated and outdated in the business aspect of things, asked me how he could increase awareness of the stores name. I told him there are the usual ways of advertising in the newspaper and radio. Then we brainstormed ways that we could target certain groups. High school kids, we can get banners up at the football and basketball stadiums. College kids we can put advertisements in the Statesman and donate to causes that would get our name out. We recently got into a program that we are able to send post cards to new customers and regular customers reminding them about sales that we have going on. We are in the beginning stages of these ideas, so we are hoping that it goes well!

China High Speed Rail

This post is in regards to an article posted in the New York Times on April 7. California is looking to get in a deal with General Electric and China to build a high speed railway that goes from San Fransisco to Los Angeles to Anaheim, a total of over 400 miles. The train goes 215 miles per hour and is all electric. Yes, it would be very expensive, but China is willing to pay part of it and supply much of the materials and laborers. I think this would be a good idea for the economy of California and eventually for the United States.

Five Skills

In my opinion, there are certain skills that are a must in a future employee. Number one, they must be honest in all their dealings. They must be ethical in their work. Number two, they must be diligent all the time. Number three, they must be a people person. They must be able to get along with most people and be able to be friendly. Number four, they must be able to learn quickly and on the run. Last but not least, number five, they must be able to be a critical thinker and independent and not need their supervisor to tell them everything they need to do all the time.

Importance of Communication

What is the use of a conversation if you don’t listen? If you are the one talking all whole time, you are lecturing, not involved in a conversation. If you aren’t willing to listen to the person you are talking to with, you are basically telling them a couple of things: “What I want to say is a lot more important that what you want to say,” “I don’t respect you enough to listen to what you are saying,” or even “You are too stupid to tell me anything I don’t already know.” It is up to you if you want to send these signals to others, but I’m warning you, if you choose not to listen, you’ll end up not having very many people who are willing to talk to you.

Human Flesh Search Engine

This blog is written after reading the article "China's Cyperposse" (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Human-t.html?pagewanted=4)in the New York Times. This is absolutely amazing! The problem here is it may be used for the wrong reasons. As the article states, there are thousands of search engine calls a day, but very few actually get that much attention. Those people who are searched have their lives ruined. If these people deserve it (but who can really say if they deserve it if not put in front of a civil judge or God Himself), then it may be a good thing. In China, where the people have no say on the government, it could be a good thing for the people to be able to stand up to government officials ruling by unrighteous dominion.

China's Massive Governement

My blog today comes from the article titled 'Politicians, Lobbyists and Complainers Descend on Beijing' that was written by Michael Wines and featured in the New York Times yesterday. This month is a big month for Chinese politics. They have two major meetings with thousands of politicians. This first set of meetings is with elected officials (2,252 members) that meet with the governing body to discuss what they can do different. The governing body usually does not change anything. The second set of meetings is with an unelected, 3,000 member legislature. These members range from actors, athletes, and real politicians. This second set of meetings last about two weeks and consists of night parties and much shopping in the city of BeiJing. This time is a huge boost in the cities economy. This doesn't sound so much as an actual meeting as it does a huge party with thousands of famous and arrogant people getting together.

China's Angry

This article (address at the bottom) is a very good one. It discusses China's reaction to the U.S. selling F-16's to Taiwan. China is very against it, stating that it threatens the safety of China's people. Since when has China cared about it's people? They throw them in jail for the simplest of crimes, they promise certain groups twenty years in a village to only go under the table and force them out (both of those stories can be found in the New York Times newspaper). China has been nothing buy empty threats since the U.S. sold $6.4 Billion in arms to Taiwan and President Obama met with the Dali Lama. This is only my opinion, but with my experience with Chinese and Taiwanese people, I think it is a pretty good hypothesis.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/world/asia/26china.html?ref=world

Security Costs

I was astounded by the numbers in this article. The Vancouver Olympic Games Committee had originally budgeted 175 Million Canadian Dollars (About 167.5 Million US Dollars) for security. I thought that that was a lot of money. Well, they will in all actuality, spend about 1 Billion Canadian Dollars on security for these games. On what do you ask? About 20% of Canada's entire police force is in Vancouver. Over 11,800 members of Canadian police and air forces are patrolling Vancouver and surrounding areas. This does not include the American forces who protect all American athletes and their living quarters. Is this too much? In my personal opinion, no. It is better to be safe than sorry. If something would happen, then Canada would be blamed for having not enough security, now there is no way this can be said. They have done everything in their power to protect the athletes and spectators. Some may ask if they used too much money for security. My response is, there is no price on a human life.

Works Cited:

Freedom?

My blog post today is about an article I've read in the New York Times recently. It is named, "Chinese Court Denies Appeal by Jailed Activist." For those who don't know, China's official name is the People's Republic of China, and is a Communist government. Wait, is that an oxymoron? After reading this article, you will think so. Liu XiaoBo, a Beijing scholar (funny thing is, China usually prizes their scholars; at least until they become too smart), wrote a document stating that China was in need of political and legal reforms. He has been sentenced to eleven years in prison, and the government is not even considering changing the sentence. Tan ZuoRen was sentenced to five years in prison after sending e-mails with information about the military crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. Does this sound like a "People's Republic?" We should be grateful for the freedom we have here in America. While living in Taiwan (Taiwan is located about 50 miles of the coast of southeast China) for two years, I had a lot of contact with Mainland Chinese. It was funny that when you asked them how the government was, they would almost always respond that it was a great government, then in hushed tones as if they were afraid to be overheard, they would state how things really were. These people were in a different country and they were swill afraid to say anything about the government. Like I stated before, let us be grateful for the wonderful country that we live in and all the freedoms we enjoy.

What can professional blogs do for businesses and organizations?

If a business or organization puts out their blog on websites and other such sites, then it will bring customers to their site and eventual be able to serve them. When my wife and I was looking for someone to make our wedding cake, we found numerous blogs about cake making businesses. I thought this a very effective way to get a business' name out. This is also an effective way for people to ask questions about a business and get personal feedback. I have also spoken with some small business owners and they are very satisfied with the help their blog gives them.