Original 4/20/10 - LeaderSHIP

Whenever I hear the word leadership, I think of literal leaders in a ship. That's just a side note. See that guy--he's a leader in a ship. So corny.

The Four Principles of Life and Business are the foundation of what we talked about today. They sound so huge and essential, and I thought they were actually pretty valid. Leaders aren't necessarily the people who take huge leaps or bounds. They tend to be the ones who have servant hearts and can lay their own interests down. When we went over the list of characteristics of a servant leader, I thought I want to be that person. Who doesn't want to be more servant hearted? The characteristics listed were: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. I want these!!!

We also talked about the golden leadership triangle: 1. talent fanatic, 2. creator-visionary, 3. inspired profit mechanic. Cool stuff!! Basically the whole lecture was that leaders are willing to make educated steps of faith. They're always moving forward, are willing to fail, and learn from their mistakes. If they fall, they fall forward. Talent. Passion. Enthusiasm. Respect. Curiosity. Performance. Legacy of Excellence. Those are things that make leaders!

Original 4/1/10 - Singularity

Today we took the earth's timeline and smushed it into only 365 days. I was SHOCKED at how small my life is compared to all of time! If all of time was a year, my life would only be 2/3 of a second. What?! And yet in 20 years of life, I have countless stories. It's so fascinating how it was designed to be so grand and complex, even in the smallest of things such as a life. We truly have a cool creator.

I'm amazed at how much has changed over the past few years! I remember when we had dial up internet in my house, and I could go make a sandwich while the computer page loaded. I have an 11-year-old sister, and when I told her to make the "dial up noise", she had no idea what I was talking about. She's grown up in a world where Google is the library and Wikipedia is her source of information. The amount of information she knows astounds me because she is curious and googles things like "Marie Antoinette" and "How a vacuum cleaner works." My 8-year-old brother learned to type a year after he could write.

In class we talked about all the crazy inventions that will come out in the next ten years, and I am SO excited for them. It scares me though... what will we be dealing with in 50 years? What about 100 years? If I came back to earth in 100 years, I don't know that it would even be recognizable. This just fascinates me.

What I hope most is that I can keep up. It drives me CRAZY that my grandmother doesn't have an email account because I have to write her letters or call her when I want to tell her something. While that seems silly, half the time she doesn't pick up her cell phone because she doesn't realize it's ringing. If I want to send her an article, I have to print it off and mail it to her. If 50 years ago, snail mail was the only option, what will happen in the next 50 years? Will we have computers in our brains and phones in our mouths? That stuff sounds cool, but I don't know if I really want a phone in my mouth.

I am just so curious to see what happens!

Original 3/23/20 - Creative Design Process

So for these past two weeks we've been talking about the Creative Design Process in class. As I've looked over the slides again, I realize that there is so much more to the process than just a few steps. I love that creativity can and must be organized!

Creativity changes people and things.

I love that there were 10 practical steps listed to foster a creative environment. That was VERY helpful for my other group projects. The steps are:

1. Remove fear from your organization

2. Make innovation part of the performance review system for everyone

3. Document the innovation process and make sure everyone understands it

4. Build looseness into the system so people can explore possibilities

5. Make sure everyone understands the corporate strategy and the innovation that aligns with it

6. Teach people to scan the environment for new trends, technologies, and changes in customer mindsets

7. Teach people the critical importance of diversity of thinking styles, experience, perspectives, and expertise

8. Spend the time necessary to develop market and success-related parameters

9. Provide coaching and training

10. Buy or develop and effective idea management system

We also talked about the ten faces of innovation. Out of all of these roles, I think I most often take on the caregiver role. I really want to make sure that everyone is okay and taken care of in all of my activities! I laughed when I read it because I thought of how many times I've wanted to make people feel appreciated. My second role is probably the anthropologist. I've now learned how to LEARN, LOOK, ASK, and TRY in the right way and order. This stuff is exciting! I am enjoying learning how to organize my creativity!

Internet

The campus WiFi is not working, and it frustrates me!!! I am desperately trying to connect, and it refuses. But it got me thinking: we rely SO much on the internet and technology. Today in class we talked about the future and what it holds in new inventions and technology. Some of the stuff we have just amazes me--but what if we didn't have all of the stuff?

I try to imagine what it would be like living without internet or power or instant access to all of the things that I take for granted. What would it be like typing papers on a typewriter and getting points off for errors? I don't know, but my mom tells stories about it all the time. If we've advanced this much in 25 years, then how much more will we advance in the next 25? It makes me excited, but it also scares me.

We will see what happens...

Original 3/3/10 - Intellectual Property, woo!

Yesterday we talked about Intellectual Property in ENDS. It reminded me of my MGMT 211 class so much... I remember studying patent and trademark law for hours. What I didn't realize was how much of a difference this stuff actually does make in the 'real world'. We're learning about branding in my other marketing classes, and the power that certain brands have is truly incredible. Think about McDonald's or Nike--EVERYONE knows what those brands are.

I preferred hearing about intellectual property in my ENDS class though because I got to see the creative application of the laws. While it wasn't the most interesting lecture of all time, the explanation of the entire process made more sense than memorizing the laws themselves. Almost anything can be patented if it's novel, not obvious, and actually does something. That just amazes me! There's also differences between international and US patents that are pretty crazy too. I thought this stuff was very useful!!

Anyway, I've been feeling in a coffeehouse mood. It's kind of that mid-semester, spring break is almost here, I'm lazy mood. I just want to read books and not do much school. I will have the opportunity on spring break, YES! Hopefully I'll get to go to the lakehouse with friends. Anyway, I have to run!

Original 2/18/10 - Humor in creativity

2/18/10

The best work-the most satisfying work and the most productive work is fun.

Thomas Edison

Today we talked about humor in creativity, and I think this quote is SO true. Who wants creativity that's boring or lame? It's so much more important to enjoy the gifts we've been given! I love that God made stuff like this FUN instead of just a duty or even a meaningless part of life. Here's another quote:

When you grow old, you don’t stop playing-
It’s when you stop playing that you
grow old.

I love this quote! I always laugh because my dad is 47 and still plays with my younger siblings all the time. My 94-year-old great grandmother goes line dancing for fun! I think creative people have FUN. This was my favorite lecture so far!!

Original 2/9/10 - Intelligences

2/9/10

Today in class we looked at a lot of optical illusions. Those always amaze me!! It's interesting that eyes fill in the missing spaces. How tricky!

We also talked about Gardner's Seven Intelligences. I thought this was fascinating because people normally think of intelligence as something that can only be measured by an SAT or test scores. While I have friends that aren't the best at math or science, they can decorate rooms like nobody's business. The seven categories are:

1. Word Smart
2. Math Smart
3. Picture Smart
4. Music Smart
5. Body Smart
6. People Smart
7. Self Smart

I know I'm word, picture, and people smart. I'm definitely NOT math smart, but it doesn't mean I'm lacking in intelligence. I really liked this part of lecture because I'm in the business school, and business professors like to tell the students that the Professional Program in Accounting is the best thing for ALL business students. Then the Accounting majors tell the Marketing majors that they're jealous because we don't have to work as hard. BUT, it's a different type of smart. And that's a GOOD thing!!

"Creative people feed off the energy of others; they excel when challenged and forced to confront and incorporate other perspectives and approaches."

Original 2/5/10 - Personal Space

2/5/10

Who thought personal space would affect creativity so much? We talked in class today about playing hug tag, where you hug instead of tagging. What a funny thought! Everyone hears that and wants to just RUN AWAY. Why do we feel the need to have an eight foot radius? Why is that something that is just so built into being a human? I know that cultures differ, but everyone does have some sort of invisible boundary to their personal space. Interesting.

"Personal space is nonverbal communication. It may be eye contact, facial gestures and the intimacy of the topic under discussion. Tactile communication occurs only at close proximity."

My sister always gets mad at me because her 'bubble' is bigger than mine, and it drives me INSANE. I guess I'm kind of touchy feely. This personal space thing not only affects our talking when standing, but also when sitting on furniture. I always laugh because the middle spot on the couch is always the last one to get filled at family parties! We only have love seats at my house in College Station, and there's this one chair that no one sits in because you have to step over the people's legs on the love seat to avoid the coffee table and get to the chair. Very, very interesting. Round or square dinner table? I vote round because that's what I grew up with. I always feel awkward being the head of the table as well. But what about for conversations? I think round is better here too because no one is cut off by corners.

Here is a sweet picture of an A&M library in the 1980's. The lady on the left looks EXACTLY like my advertising professor, who graduated from A&M. Maybe it's her! Notice the personal space between these studious people. Looks like it's finals time:

Side note: There is a bird chirping outside my window. It's late at night... strange.

Updates

I have done a very poor job updating on here! I keep a daily journal, so I am going to copy and paste some of my entries on here with their original dates. I wish I could just scan it in, but that would take too long! Sorry if they are at all confusing:

1/19/10

Man, I'm TIRED! First day of class... test tomorrow. Just exhausted. Class today was boring. Required INFO 364 is yuck. No room for anything creative, just number crunching. I'm officially getting all of my required classes DONE next semester because I am sick of requirements. UGH. The good thing is I've got 12-hour semesters from here on out. WHOOP! I'm taking an advertising competition class, marketing research, tumbling, and ENDS 101 as well. It'll be an adventure as always!

I'm scared about the advertising class because it will definitely be a challenge. Real worldish, and that makes me nervous. I am overloaded in a good way. WHEW. I got to paint some fun things over Christmas break! My favorite is "book paintings". Maybe I can put a picture of one in here later. Basically you paint over a book, but highlight certain words that you want to stand out. I painted one for a friend who is in love with all things red, white, black, and Audrey Hepburnish. The pages were from an old copy of Gone With the Wind that I found at Half Price Books.

Anyway, I'm out!

My book painting for a friend:

It reads: "She was pretty, bright, and beautiful! She was a sister or a friend, a lifelong friend."

Back to reality

"To be creative, people need to be able to take risksandfail confidently...

To do this they need to enjoy learning, know how to seekout relevant information,apply knowledge and skills in new and imaginative ways, and try out ideas in real world situations where they can observe real outcomes and receive generative critical feedback."

Back to school after Spring Break... sigh. Life isn't all that bad, but in my little college world going back to school isn't fun at all. This week was a blast though! I spent the first half at a lake house, the middle part at a ranch, and the last part with my family. I feel so privileged that I got to do all those things, seeing as they are pretty rare for me. I read a 500 page book, and am halfway through another one. I interviewed with two companies for internships. I feel like the break was fairly successful.

I love that breaks give me the opportunity to think creatively and have time to make things up in my head. I have a little story to tell... my little brother is eight years old right now, so this might embarrass him later. We went on our family outings, and he had a really upset stomach. He kept on making awful smells in the back of the car, so our family stopped at Central Market to get him some stomach medicine. Because Central Market is all natural, the only pills they had were these herb gas and bloating pills made up of some sort of carbon that absorbs the odors. This got me and my sister to thinking--why don't we have underwear that has carbon inside of it? Then it will absorb the smells and make everyone much happier! So that's our invention of the week.

On creativity lectures from the past few weeks: my memory is a bit foggy, but I do remember one thing loud and clear. Dr. Vanegas always tells us that creativity is not an excuse to be haphazard or sloppy. I love that saying, because when people hear about my Creative Studies minor, they always think that it's an easy A or a cop-out. While most people do make A's, it's because they put in a lot of effort and time! I think about the most world renowned artists, and they were rarely sloppy with their work. Michelangelo's David took three years to create. Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man was drawn to the ideal human proportions. Both of these require a level of accuracy to look realistic. While they aren't my favorite pieces of art, they aren't messy.

Favorite pieces of art:

Anthropologie Bedspread

The Hostess

Jennifer Turnbull Watercolor

Etsy Art

Etsy Art

Etsy Art

That is all for today! Off to my three hour journey to College Station.

♥ all my love.

Bloooogggg

I am so bad at this blog thing. HI MOM! Hope all is well.

All I want to do right now is cut out cool shapes of paper and make them into a HUGE collage of prettiness. MMMMmm. Just like that sunset collage picture I love. I'll post it on here eventually. Anyway, I just wanted to test out the bloggety blog. Adios!

First!

Welcome to my bloggety blog. I don't really know what people use these for, but there is a first time for everything! (I only read blogs about cute jewelry, clothes, or decorations) I guess I made this blog partly for a creativity class, and partly for my study abroad trip. I don't know anyone that is dying to read this other than my precious mom, so most of these posts will probably be written like letters to her.

I'm really proud of my website I made recently on Wix. All of these posts go through an RSS feed and are posted on that website as well. We will see how well that works! I also studied for a test, vacuumed and mopped the floors, watched pairs ice skating on the olympics, went to an interview informational, and watched the bachelor. Today was productive.

In class the other day we talked about the how way people and things are arranged around us creates different reactions. For example, if you try to make eye contact long enough with a stranger, it will really freak them out. Interesting! I wonder why God made us this way... we are such funny creatures.

Well, I'm tired and it's way past my bedtime. I hope that this thing is registered in the wrong time zone so I don't get in trouble when my mom sees what time I was up until. Until next time!