Structures - Barry Cumbie

Type	Example	Connotation
Firm	DSP Start-Up	Because this firm was developed within a fraternity, making it a firm seems to note that there is no undue focus on any individual member.
Political Party	“Rent Is Too Damn High Party”	For a political organization, this name seems to be the only one that would provide legitimacy.
Nonprofit Organization	Boys and Girls Club of America	Seeking to help mentor, develop, and benefit children without charging their parents makes this just about the only type of organization that makes for Boys and Girls Club.
Multinational Terrorist Organization	Al-Qaeda	Al-qaeda – translated “the base,”an organization that spans multiple nations and tries to create wreak havoc
Team	Los Angeles Lakers basketball team	A group of people who join together for a common goal, usually with each member specializing in certain aspects of reaching that goal (i.e. Kobe Bryant – scorer, closer; Andrew Bynum – shot blocker, rebounder)
Comedy troupe	Holy Ghost Players	Group of individuals who work together to do impromptu comedy, playing off of one another and adding humorous content, hence their name

The One Stop Shop For Urban Wear - Barry Cumbie

NOTE: The design constraints of my blog make it difficult to see the picture. However, if you click the picture, then right click the image overlay that appears and open it in a new tab/window, you should be able to see the image as large as originally intended.

DrJays.com has been one of my favorite sites for a long time. I first came to the site because I was looking to spend money from my summer job on some "fresh threads" to wear to school.

Anyway, the site is an online urban clothing retailer, so it targets those who subscribe to the hip-hop subculture, and the many subcategories thereof: athletes, preps, skaters, dancers, etc.

The site is known for its sales, as they are typically much better than any deal one can find on the top notch brands in bricks-and-mortar stores. The sales are not for one item, but discounts typically increase or decrease depending on the amount spent (usually one percentage for under $100 and a higher percentage for over $100). By using these sales - which usually have restrictions (i.e. discounts don't apply to certain brands like Nike or Beats by Dre, which is pictured above) - DrJays can entice customers to spend more. Of course, there is also a countdown timer (although by now, most regular customers are aware that a very similar sale will be up within minutes of the deadline). I don't know how they do it, but the site continues to offer the best selection and quality of clothing/accessories for "hip hop heads" at incredibly low prices. The site also features a blog, celebrity interviews, contests, and social networking accounts including Instagram, where the site encourages customers to tag DrJays and take pictures wearing their new clothes. With great product pictures, product specs, and many different forms of "entertailment" as well as memberships, exclusive deals, newsletters, and responsive customer service, DrJays is far ahead of its competition in providing the best in urban wear.

Warm Up Activity - Barry Cumbie

In “The Myth of Monotasking,”author Cathy Davidson discusses attention spans in the new digital era. She seems to be very complimentary of the new age and ready to do away with the old way of doing things (focusing on one task until it is completed and then moving on to the next one). In fact, Davidson even says that we are more productive when we take social networking breaks and so on. I find it hard to believe that anyone takes “social networking breaks.” What may start off as a break probably becomes an all out social networking binge (which may or may not be interrupted by study breaks). I think there may have been some valid points in her argument, but she seemed a bit too yielding to a generation that, in many ways, can be very lazy and entitled. I agree that laziness can breed inventions and innovations, but I think old-school discipline (and attention) is the best way to develop leadership.

In “Social Media’s Untapped Power” a strictly-for-laughs comment by the moderator became the subject of what I think is the most promising and striking content within the entire podcast, “gamification” and the productivity of games and entertainment. Both Piskorski and Bradley point to the possibility of having great collaboration occur through games. Later, they discuss finding a way to give people what they want in a way that raises your company’s bottom line – a rather old concept, as the moderator points out. It seems that the only thing that has actually changed in business over the past several years is what customers want and the different models and methods by which this could raise a company’s bottom line.

Despite my argumentative tone on the first paragraph, I think the two ideas presented in these podcasts go quite well together. People work better when there are distractions or multiple things happening at once, refreshing the brain and inspiring creativity. Using the info from the second paragraph, it seems that one could inspire a great deal of productivity from making work into a game or distraction itself. The next big break in business may indeed be finding a way to embed learning or working into fun instead of separating the two. As much as people enjoy and find ways to entertain themselves (or at least procrastinate) these days, turning such practice on its ear and giving it an actual purpose would undoubtedly revolutionize business as we know it.

YOU LIE!

There's no way you didn't hear about this one. No real explanation necessary for what you are about to see. Just watch it.

So, Republican Congressman (Representative) Jim Wilson from South Carolina - yup, South Carolina again, the same state that brought you Jim DeMint and Mark Sanford - yelled "You lie" to the President during his speech on health care. Right in the middle of the speech. That was childish and disrespectful. What makes matters worse is that Wilson called the President a liar when he said that illegal immigrants would not be receiving free health care under the new plan. The proposed legislation prohibits free health care for illegal immigrants and may instead require them to purchase health care although they are not American citizens. So by calling President Obama a liar, Wilson proved a liar himself. Wow. In fairness, many conservatives do argue that illegal immigrants may receive sizable government subsidies which will make it quite easy for them to purchase the health care. That's different from free health care for those without citizenship, and any national politician should be more dedicated to drafting and compromising on proposed legislation than he is to making outbursts in the middle of prepared speeches.
I would stop there, but I cannot. Wilson made one of those apologies that politicians are becoming so known for. In my opinion, these types of apologies are worse than the offenses that make them necessary as they are an insult to the intelligence of the American people. He knew that he believed what he said and meant every word of it. So why apologize? Either stand by your actions or shut up and control yourself. There's nothing I find quite as stupid as after-the-fact restraint. He went even further than that, however. He tried to defend himself. Those who are truly repentant for what they have done do not try to defend their actions. Instead, they accept responsibility for them and dedicate themselves to learning and growing and refusing to ever make such actions again. Nevertheless, here's Ol' Joe.

First of all, did anyone else notice that he said he got a call from the leadership asking him to apologize to the President? If that's his only reason for apologizing (and it is certainly the only reason he cited), it's nowhere near good enough and further proves my point that these types of apologies are insincere and insulting. He got shaky at the end when asked about the fact that his Twitter account seemed to indicate that this was a premeditated outburst, as well. He then says that his response was spontaneous and was triggered by President Obama's remark that illegal immigrants would not be covered under the new health care plan. Wilson suggests that this angered him because of two bills that had been proposed where illegal immigrants would receive coverage. He said just before that, though, that both of these bills were voted down. Wouldn't that fact suggest that there was no need for his outburst because the bills that caused it were no longer on the table? Seriously, after all the credit that President Obama gave to Republicans (especially John McCan) and the proposals, ideas, and issues that they had contributed to this - wouldn't you think that if HE (assuming that he was responsible for including the provision about illegal immigrants, which he may not have been and probably was not) had at one time planned to cover illegal immigrants, he had received the message from the GOP and changed his mind?
To sum things up, I will say what I said to a friend of mine earlier this week. If I had been president at the time, I more than likely would have challenged Wilson to a charity boxing match on the front lawn of the White House so that I could get my retaliatory jabs in with no guilt. I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, too. Freedom of speech - when exercised in the middle of my speech - comes at the steep cost of a few fists to the face. Otherwise, wait your turn.

The Significance Of Obama's Education Speech to Young People

I'M BAAAACK!

I know it's been awhile, but I've had a whole lot going on lately and even more that will be going down in the near future. I have to make the time to do this because it's important to me even though very few actually read this blog at all. No honor without sacrifice. Here we go.

As most should already know, President Obama made a speech to schoolchildren this week about the importance of education. Before he was able to make the speech, a minor political firestorm ensued. You had right-wing conservatives claiming that the speech would be a political one, an attempt to brainstorm the children and indoctrinate them. People like Senator Steve Russell from the great state of Oklahoma.

"As far as I'm concerned, this is not civics education - it gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality. This is something you'd expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein's Iraq."

Oh, really? That's wbat you think of when you think of Saddam Hussein? TELLING KIDS TO STAY IN SCHOOL!!!!??? Russell certainly deserves to help draft legislation that affects the entire country with a rationale like that. Cer-tain-ly.
Now someone who would like to attempt to defend this garbage of the brain might say something to the effect of, " Hey, this was before the speech. He didn't really know what would be said, take it easy!
That person would be right about one thing: At the time when this and many other severely partisan comments were made, no one knew what was contained in the speech. My common sense tells me that this is all the more reason for a person to shut the you-know-what up. Obviously, as an electorate, we don't truly value common sense anymore. That brings me to my overarching theory: We are to blame for politicians who disappoint because we lack the foresight or correct criteria to put the right people in office (more on that at a later date). A person who will say things like this and believe them should not be elected in the first place. If you'll put the cart before the horse in criticizing the President, who knows what you will do in the actual drafting of legislation?
Of course, he wasn't the only one to criticize the President. One PTA president said that the President is cutting out the parent by airing the speech during the day, suggesting that instead he should have waited until the evening when the children would be home so that they could watch the speech with their parents. Read the full story here.

Riiiight. So the timing was wrong, that's it. That's why you're against

it? Did it ever occur to anyone that President Obama may have wanted to speak directly to schoolchildren so that he could get the point across that education is really serious? As in, "Wow, the president is talking to us about getting educated and how important it is to this country. I think I'm going to take my education more seriously."

This particular PTA president said that the timing should be considered because most parents agree with this message and could be right there to echo the president's sentiments. If it's what they already say, why wouldn't they want someone else to reiterate the positive message to their kids?

Plus, Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer accused the President of trying to spread his "socialist ideology." I'm still waiting on someone to define socialism and make a clear argument about why the President fits that definition.

Once again, all these remarks and decisions were made before the release of the transcript.

After the speech was delivered, Greer took back his statements about the President.

Why am I talking about this?

I'm glad you asked. I think that President Obama's speech is indicative of what his presidency will be. There was a political firestorm in the days leading up to it, but the actual speech quieted the critics and turned out to be just what we needed. The people who made these inflammatory statements looked utterly stupid afterwards. Similarly, there are people who still participate in partisan bickering as well as fear and hate-mongering in speculation about what decisions our President will make. These people will continue to participate in these things and try to create fear and panic in the days leading up to the enaction of certain policies and legislative attempts. After MOST of the actual plans, legislation, and policies are carried out - people will realize that things did not turn out to be as bad as they seemingly wanted them to be. In fact, they will most likely find out that there was no basis for their fear or rhetoric at all and that MOST of the plans that he has are just what the country needs. Let it be known that any individual that is willing to put his mind, body, family, and friends through the overwhelming stress of running this country in the midst of several crises and problems should not have his patriotism and intentions for this country challenged and questioned on the basis that our current president does. There didn't seem to be such distrust of the president's intentions (maybe his actions, but not his intentions) during the last presidency. What makes this president so different from any other (don't answer that)? Oh, and where was all of this criticism when Ronald Reagan spoke directly to schoolchildren back in 1988 (the year I was born)? Hmm...

This was truly partisanship at its worst. Yes, partisanship was hard at work here - which explains why a certain school district chose not to air President Obama's speech but instead bused students to hear a speech by President Bush. Stay in school, pursue an education instead of an entertainment career. Don't bank on the fast road to riches. Instead, be willing to work and study hard to reach a successful point in your life.

Quite a controversial message, indeed.

It turns out that those who thought they were protecting their children were the main ones who actually have quite a bit of growing up to do.