This was again, one of the more straight forward chapters.
The main thing it talked about concerning communication was that generally IT students and workers don't have many communication skills. Basically sticking to the stereotype that computer geeks are shy or just can't handle social situations. Which I guess in a way might fit me well. But it was still a little annoying that a textbook was promoting a cliche like that.
I've actually been more social this year than I ever have before. Granted its been mainly with the same group of people but normally I wouldn't even have people to talk to in the first place. That was definitely the case in public school.
Never been called a social outcast by a textbook before though. That one was new.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Project Management Class: Human Resource Management
I was again aware of most of human resources due to my entrepreneurship course in high school.
Weirdly enough I learned about the hierarchy of needs first from a youtube video about using the bathroom.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzO1mCAVyMw)
The principal remains the same no matter what situation though. Physical needs such as food and hygiene will always need to be fulfilled before anything else can even be thought about properly. Missing breakfast or a shower because of waking up too late in the morning is the perfect way to experience this principle.
Motivating workers to, well, work follows the same rules. In fact I preferred this lecture to all others so far because of a video we saw that day.
I don't remember or have the link myself but the video was about the motivations for workers.
In the last few years, especially since the american tea-party group got so popular, I've had to deal with Libertarians a lot.
For those who have the luxury of not knowing. A libertarian is a political ideology that promotes, to an almost fanatical degree, the rights of individuals over everything else. Something that sounds good on paper, but this translates into a doctrine of extremely liberal cultural ideas combined with extremely conservative economic ones. To break it down simply: Capitalism is perfect in every way and the government hates all freedom.
That is an extreme straw man example I know, but it generally comes off this way.
The point of bringing up the topic of Libertarianism is that the video we watched talked about a study that completely debunks their train of thought economically. Basically saying that paying people more money for more complicated and knowledge intensive jobs is not enough to motivate a worker to work harder. Something else needs to reward them and drive them onwards.
Just on a personal level I liked the fact that an entire political group had just been shown as the delusional jerks I knew they were. On the other hand I was entirely surprised by this. I assumed money would be more than enough reason to work for any job. But as I thought about it, most jobs I've worked for have been mainly grunt work. Which the video actually said monetary reward worked perfectly for.
I also worked for a few call centers as well. And looking back at it now I find that I generally liked going back to that job day in and day out because of the colleagues that I worked with. Meaning I liked the job because of the social opportunities instead of the monetary value of working.
I just found that interesting to think about.
Weirdly enough I learned about the hierarchy of needs first from a youtube video about using the bathroom.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzO1mCAVyMw)
The principal remains the same no matter what situation though. Physical needs such as food and hygiene will always need to be fulfilled before anything else can even be thought about properly. Missing breakfast or a shower because of waking up too late in the morning is the perfect way to experience this principle.
Motivating workers to, well, work follows the same rules. In fact I preferred this lecture to all others so far because of a video we saw that day.
I don't remember or have the link myself but the video was about the motivations for workers.
In the last few years, especially since the american tea-party group got so popular, I've had to deal with Libertarians a lot.
For those who have the luxury of not knowing. A libertarian is a political ideology that promotes, to an almost fanatical degree, the rights of individuals over everything else. Something that sounds good on paper, but this translates into a doctrine of extremely liberal cultural ideas combined with extremely conservative economic ones. To break it down simply: Capitalism is perfect in every way and the government hates all freedom.
That is an extreme straw man example I know, but it generally comes off this way.
The point of bringing up the topic of Libertarianism is that the video we watched talked about a study that completely debunks their train of thought economically. Basically saying that paying people more money for more complicated and knowledge intensive jobs is not enough to motivate a worker to work harder. Something else needs to reward them and drive them onwards.
Just on a personal level I liked the fact that an entire political group had just been shown as the delusional jerks I knew they were. On the other hand I was entirely surprised by this. I assumed money would be more than enough reason to work for any job. But as I thought about it, most jobs I've worked for have been mainly grunt work. Which the video actually said monetary reward worked perfectly for.
I also worked for a few call centers as well. And looking back at it now I find that I generally liked going back to that job day in and day out because of the colleagues that I worked with. Meaning I liked the job because of the social opportunities instead of the monetary value of working.
I just found that interesting to think about.
Project Management Class: Quality
Quality management was a bit of a weird one for me.
The only real way I could relate it to anything was to how I write. Which has been noted to me several times but I never really took it to heart.
I've been told I'm really hyper critical of myself sometimes, which causes me to almost constantly edit and correct everything I do. The same goes for when I write stories or essays. I've read and heard that a lot of writers and reporters including my own dad tend to just write out what they think is correct at the time and later edit and revise. I can't do that.
For me, if I don't think something works at a given time I always go back and correct it. In fact there has been a story idea that has been in my head since the end of Jr High, but I've edited and restarted it so many times I've barely gotten past one chapter. Not to say its completely a bad thing. The reason I've edited and restarted that story has been because it really wasn't any good that way. In fact this iteration (I think the 8th one) feels and reads much better than the previous attempts.
I guess one could interpret this as planning quality, assuring the consistency and quality of a product as it is developed. The only problem is that I've never really submitted anything for review or to be edited by anyone beyond school work. So it works as an example only slightly.
The only real way I could relate it to anything was to how I write. Which has been noted to me several times but I never really took it to heart.
I've been told I'm really hyper critical of myself sometimes, which causes me to almost constantly edit and correct everything I do. The same goes for when I write stories or essays. I've read and heard that a lot of writers and reporters including my own dad tend to just write out what they think is correct at the time and later edit and revise. I can't do that.
For me, if I don't think something works at a given time I always go back and correct it. In fact there has been a story idea that has been in my head since the end of Jr High, but I've edited and restarted it so many times I've barely gotten past one chapter. Not to say its completely a bad thing. The reason I've edited and restarted that story has been because it really wasn't any good that way. In fact this iteration (I think the 8th one) feels and reads much better than the previous attempts.
I guess one could interpret this as planning quality, assuring the consistency and quality of a product as it is developed. The only problem is that I've never really submitted anything for review or to be edited by anyone beyond school work. So it works as an example only slightly.
Project Management Class: Cost
Unlike the time management section, cost is definitely something I can relate to better.
I've taken classes in high school where the profit and measuring cost were high priority. Granted they were more geared towards business than an IT project, but the info is the same here as it was there.
Estimating cost and potential profits over the course of a business venture was something I did experience however. The principals are the same. The cost of production, the resources needed, what and who our market base was. What it came down to was that we needed to find out what the resources we needed were and how much it would cost to purchase and use them.
This was again in high school, during an entrepreneurship course. So we were only allowed to create a business on school grounds and sell only to students and staff. Naturally of course this took place during lunch hour so it became obvious to us that having some sort of food would be a good idea. We played around with a few ideas but after we saw that we had to fund the entire thing ourselves any and all of our grand ideas were thrown out.
Eventually we settled on making pretzels as we knew how to make them and the ingredients were relatively inexpensive. Once we settled on that we tried calculating how expensive each pretzel would be and what our expected gains would be. That took a while and its been so long that I forget the exact amount we came to. But using that info we estimated what our profit would be, and after we went and looked at it from a more realistic perspective we found that we could break even.
That second estimation turned out to be correct. We did break even, which was a lot better than a few other groups that were with us. Though a few actually made around $50 in profit, which we thought was really impressive.
All in all the cost management and estimation for a project was pretty similar to how it worked the last time.
I've taken classes in high school where the profit and measuring cost were high priority. Granted they were more geared towards business than an IT project, but the info is the same here as it was there.
Estimating cost and potential profits over the course of a business venture was something I did experience however. The principals are the same. The cost of production, the resources needed, what and who our market base was. What it came down to was that we needed to find out what the resources we needed were and how much it would cost to purchase and use them.
This was again in high school, during an entrepreneurship course. So we were only allowed to create a business on school grounds and sell only to students and staff. Naturally of course this took place during lunch hour so it became obvious to us that having some sort of food would be a good idea. We played around with a few ideas but after we saw that we had to fund the entire thing ourselves any and all of our grand ideas were thrown out.
Eventually we settled on making pretzels as we knew how to make them and the ingredients were relatively inexpensive. Once we settled on that we tried calculating how expensive each pretzel would be and what our expected gains would be. That took a while and its been so long that I forget the exact amount we came to. But using that info we estimated what our profit would be, and after we went and looked at it from a more realistic perspective we found that we could break even.
That second estimation turned out to be correct. We did break even, which was a lot better than a few other groups that were with us. Though a few actually made around $50 in profit, which we thought was really impressive.
All in all the cost management and estimation for a project was pretty similar to how it worked the last time.
Project Management Class: Time
Managing time was pretty straight forward.
Basically it came down to the fact that projects need deadlines and to meet those deadlines the time worked on the project needs to be managed.
Like I said, straight forward.
I personally have a hard time managing time for projects or pretty much anything really. I guess you could say the stress of something being last minute is what makes me work harder. But I'd like to hope this isn't the only way I could do things.
This chapter mentioned a few things such as milestones. I've been aware of what they are but never exactly applied them in my own life. This might be due to my lack of knowing what the end goal really is at a given time. It makes it hard to really determine milestones when you don't know the end goal yet. I guess the perfect example is what I want to do as a career for the rest of my life. When I left high school everyone I knew in my grade already knew what they were going to aspire to. A couple guys wanted to be doctors, entrepreneurs, a girl I had a crush on wanted to be a librarian of all things. Point is they knew what initial goal they had when they left, even if they found something else along the way.
I never had that. In fact I still don't think I do. Having a goal like that probably would have made me a bit more confident, or maybe its a lack of confidence that prevented me from figuring out some sort of career path. Either way, whatever milestones I may have achieved right now seem more like random daily accomplishments than working towards a final product.
Time management for me, though straightforward, has always eluded me in some way.
It was a little depressing as a result
Basically it came down to the fact that projects need deadlines and to meet those deadlines the time worked on the project needs to be managed.
Like I said, straight forward.
I personally have a hard time managing time for projects or pretty much anything really. I guess you could say the stress of something being last minute is what makes me work harder. But I'd like to hope this isn't the only way I could do things.
This chapter mentioned a few things such as milestones. I've been aware of what they are but never exactly applied them in my own life. This might be due to my lack of knowing what the end goal really is at a given time. It makes it hard to really determine milestones when you don't know the end goal yet. I guess the perfect example is what I want to do as a career for the rest of my life. When I left high school everyone I knew in my grade already knew what they were going to aspire to. A couple guys wanted to be doctors, entrepreneurs, a girl I had a crush on wanted to be a librarian of all things. Point is they knew what initial goal they had when they left, even if they found something else along the way.
I never had that. In fact I still don't think I do. Having a goal like that probably would have made me a bit more confident, or maybe its a lack of confidence that prevented me from figuring out some sort of career path. Either way, whatever milestones I may have achieved right now seem more like random daily accomplishments than working towards a final product.
Time management for me, though straightforward, has always eluded me in some way.
It was a little depressing as a result
Sunday, March 27, 2011
I am Surprised, This is my Surprised Face 0_0
So I guess subscribers already know this. But yesterday I tried watching some anime called Hellsing for the first time. I heard mixed opinions so I felt that if it sucked I could at least get some minor laughs from it by recording my reactions.
So I did, and bam! One hour and a half later I have a video on youtube mainly for my own reasons. And not even 20 minutes after I find out that people actually liked it. Well...great...I guess.
So because I'm really bad at dealing with peer pressure I now have to continue this on the side. Really, did not expect that one. If I can manage to make funny comments I guess I'll do a new episode for whatever people want me to watch. It should be something that can actually be made fun of though.
(Also, the 1.1 thing means the next will be 1.2 since the series isn't over yet. Just in case anyone was wondering about that)
So I did, and bam! One hour and a half later I have a video on youtube mainly for my own reasons. And not even 20 minutes after I find out that people actually liked it. Well...great...I guess.
So because I'm really bad at dealing with peer pressure I now have to continue this on the side. Really, did not expect that one. If I can manage to make funny comments I guess I'll do a new episode for whatever people want me to watch. It should be something that can actually be made fun of though.
(Also, the 1.1 thing means the next will be 1.2 since the series isn't over yet. Just in case anyone was wondering about that)
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Oh Yeah...
So quite a bit has happened since I last updated here.
I'm completely over my fever, completely fine now. The antibiotics worked for my sinus and chest infection but I also developed an ear infection which didn't go away after I ran out of drugs. Sleep took care of that luckily.
I got back into developing that little 2D thing I mentioned before. Its coming along pretty well but there are a few obstacles in the way. This is still ages away however, probably half way through the game which is waaay further than I am right now. Which means I still have plenty of time to perfect this.
This project I'm talking about is one of these 1/2 episode things. I'm thinking something along the lines of leaving the question of it being canon up to the viewer. Whether or not anyone feels like asking that question after seeing it is a whole nother thing all together.
As for the real show.
Episode 13 is almost done. I've got the footage and the audio and most of the editing done, just waiting on Krimsin's dialogue. This episode marks the beginning of A. Shephard being a recurring character outside of the game's forced radio chatter. I'm hoping to get a sort of discussion going to work out what he and the point man will talk about and what the relationship will be later in the game. Until then however 13 will have to wait a bit longer.
13 seems to be unlucky after all. Sorry about that.
Some other random things going on.
I got Minecraft.
I know I know, jumping on the bandwagon and all that. Only $20 bucks or so though, figured why the hell not. I'm more interested in building with other people though, the game seems to be much more fun that way. Obviously the multiplayer is very limiting right now. So singleplayer is where I'll have to stay.
Homefront was released.
Its exactly what I expected. White hats vs Black hats mentality. Typical NRA political bullshit, only thing that makes it worse is how bland the gameplay looks. I did not expect that part.
I got a really weird and girly JRPG!
I might make a video about my reactions to it one day soon. Beleive me, its weird...and girly....girly weird...and its from Japan soo....its really weird by North American standards.
Thats all for right now. I'll post the video once its finished off and I'll update you guys later.
I'm completely over my fever, completely fine now. The antibiotics worked for my sinus and chest infection but I also developed an ear infection which didn't go away after I ran out of drugs. Sleep took care of that luckily.
I got back into developing that little 2D thing I mentioned before. Its coming along pretty well but there are a few obstacles in the way. This is still ages away however, probably half way through the game which is waaay further than I am right now. Which means I still have plenty of time to perfect this.
This project I'm talking about is one of these 1/2 episode things. I'm thinking something along the lines of leaving the question of it being canon up to the viewer. Whether or not anyone feels like asking that question after seeing it is a whole nother thing all together.
As for the real show.
Episode 13 is almost done. I've got the footage and the audio and most of the editing done, just waiting on Krimsin's dialogue. This episode marks the beginning of A. Shephard being a recurring character outside of the game's forced radio chatter. I'm hoping to get a sort of discussion going to work out what he and the point man will talk about and what the relationship will be later in the game. Until then however 13 will have to wait a bit longer.
13 seems to be unlucky after all. Sorry about that.
Some other random things going on.
I got Minecraft.
I know I know, jumping on the bandwagon and all that. Only $20 bucks or so though, figured why the hell not. I'm more interested in building with other people though, the game seems to be much more fun that way. Obviously the multiplayer is very limiting right now. So singleplayer is where I'll have to stay.
Homefront was released.
Its exactly what I expected. White hats vs Black hats mentality. Typical NRA political bullshit, only thing that makes it worse is how bland the gameplay looks. I did not expect that part.
I got a really weird and girly JRPG!
I might make a video about my reactions to it one day soon. Beleive me, its weird...and girly....girly weird...and its from Japan soo....its really weird by North American standards.
Thats all for right now. I'll post the video once its finished off and I'll update you guys later.
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