So here we are....

This semester has been a pretty busy one for me. Taking 18 credit hours, being involved in a student organization and having a social life is a lot to juggle. But that mix gets even more crazy when group meetings and projects are going on. I really don't think that I have had so many group activities to juggle ever! But now being apart of 3 groups, I have room to compare them. My first group is the group that I worked with over the weekend, I guess my temporary group for this class on the Family Mart crisis. We worked really well together, brainstormed efficiently and did the powerpoint together and got it done in about a hour and a half. I was actually impressed by how well we worked together. Well I guess we all have had practice, after all the class is small group communication and we all have other small groups we have worked with. But something was lacking from my temporary group, we worked well but I don't know if I would say that we bonded well together. We didn't really participate in any "small talk" and I still don't really know anything about those guys, except that we worked well together and I know their first names. But thats about it. I've heard about the fantasy chain reaction theory before in other com classes but it's really cool to reflect about it in regards to the groups that I am apart of. In terms of my Japan Crisis group, we didn't really have time to share stories about ourselves and really relate to each other on any level.

Another group that I am apart of is for my com 303 Intercultural Communication class. In that class, it was mandatory that we go out to dinner with our group first before beginning work on our final project. I thought that this was a great idea to break the ice and be forced to know a little bit about each other on a somewhat personal level. Though I like the people in my group, we haven't really started to meet consistently which really disrupts the flow of getting familiar with the people in the group. We have our first group meeting tomorrow so hopefully it will be organized and hopefully we will get to know each other better and become more relaxed with each other. But I really liked the idea of getting to go out socially first to establish some information about who we were as a group and it just makes the dynamics more comfortable. 

But it does take time for groups to form and establish a type of culture in a group. And now I come to this group, the Faithful Hodgepodge. First off, I feel like having a group name has some how helped us to identify with each other as being apart of something. In a way we are branded with our title and stand behind it. I thought that it was really interesting when Jasmine pointed out in class that while we got put into completely different groups last Friday, we came to class today and sat in our usual spots in our original groups. I never knew how comfortable I was sitting with my group. Even if I came to class late and had to sit somewhere else, even a row behind them I would feel out of place. It's strange how I have bonded with these guys. 

During our group meeting Sunday it was really relaxed and we are able to speak our opinions and give each other honest feedback. This is in contrast to my other com 320 group, where we didn't really talk about anything else other than the task at hand. Its really cool to see the change in dynamics. I am trying to think to the beginning of class, before I got placed into this group what I thought of these guys if anything. And I honestly can't really remember. Like Jason and I go to the same church and I knew Andrew before this class but even then we were just acquaintances. It's kind of funny how much influence a group can have in attracting you to the idea of getting to know the people that comprise it. Because it could really be all business, like it was for my Family Mart group but then again it isn't all play either like it is with my close friends. It's definitely different, and even special. We will always be the Faithful Hodgepodge, we all probably won't have any classes together again, or maybe talk to each other as frequently or if even at all in the future. But regardless of that, we still made the effort to make this group work. We have brainstormed, we are going through the process of completing a task, have shared fantasies (or stories for a better word) about ourselves and trust each other to put effort into making this group work. I've learned that through this process, it is important to have some what of a level of self-disclosure present when working with a group for a period of time. It just relaxes the environment and having some vulnerability helps us to be able to be honest with each other when it comes to discussing things regarding this service learning project. The Faithful Hodgepodge is as affective as we are because we are comfortable and have confidence in each other.

Peace. Love. Boiler up!

Dayna

Team Unity

No one would say that Kelsey Barlow is Purdue's best basketball player; probably not even in the top 5 from this year's team. Yet it is in my opinion that the suspension of Kelsey is one factor in us losing to VCU; other than VCU being a great team that is beating everyone this year. Whenever a team is formed everyone bonds, and there is a certain chemistry between all of the players. Even though Kelsey was prone to turning the ball over, he was a great defender. With the news of his suspension, at this point in the season, everyone was shocked. I feel that during the VCU game the team was just showing signs of the outside "drama" affecting their performance.

I feel that if anyone in the Faithful Hodgepodge was no longer a member of our group, or replaced with someone we would not be the same group that we are now. We have bonded and all understand one another and work well together. If we were to lose anyone from our group we'd have the same result as the Purdue vs VCU game: utter breakdown.


-Jason Miller

Roommates

Concerning the events of the weekend, I will have to save the details for the paper we will be writing, but I can definitely say it gave me a different way to look at the group I have been in consistently. I began to notice a lot of different habits had changed, even if they were very subtle changes within our group. Anyways, I will be saving that for the paper.

I like to observe what is happening around me, not so much what happens in class, but amongst my friends. When I do, I can’t help but to notice patterns that fit or do not fit for our particular group, and I did this when I was in my OLS 252 class last semester as well. My roommates and I are a pretty tight-knit group and despite our differing backgrounds we have somehow managed to get along. Just as a brief overview of the parts of our lives that have affected us the most, one roommate was in the past a bit far into drugs and alcohol, another has always been extremely hardcore into his Catholic faith, and my third roommate was almost entirely non-social during high school and grew up with very few friends. The behavioral patterns of each of my roommates vary so widely that I can’t help but be incredibly interested in just watching them. For example, when the first roommate (drugs) talks to my third roommate (non-social) it is clear that #1 is very comfortable in his social interaction with others, whereas #3 almost seems as if he has only learned how to interact with others through video games, and what he has seen or read. Needless to say, this produces the occasional frustrated argument and people get their feelings hurt, but at the end of the day everyone somehow just lets everything go and forgive one another.

I say all of this, is because our backgrounds and family cultures are so different, we very rarely actually fall under any of the patterns described in class. I see it amongst my family and friends back home. However, Purdue, has seen fit to provide me with a group that I don’t think anyone else could predict. I’ll be honest; it’s why I enjoy my roommates so much. Even when things seem boring, you can almost never predict what is going to actually happen next. If you could, then they would be boring.

I know this is late, but I felt like writing something regardless.

John Heritage

Casting your line

I usually allude to the point of my post at the end of my writing. Today, I'll just be blut from the start. I think it's vital to step out of your comfort zone if you ever want to learn anything about yourself. I was trying to think of a metaphor for stepping outside your comfort zone and for some reason fishing popped in my mind.

Here's how it goes: if someone wants to go fishing, but they don't know how to, they have a few options to start learning how. They could blindly go into it and learn as they go; they could observe others fishing but not ask questions; or they could ask someone to personally give them guidance on possibly where to fish, what equipment to use, and helpful techniques. I believe the third option would be the best decision: it gives you a push in the right direction and gives you a bit of confidence going into it. In the same way when trying something out of your comfort zone, it's always beneficial to ask someone with experience. One you are prepared though, you still have to take the bold next step: actually doing it. You can begin to start fishing by casting a line out on a dock. Maybe the first day you catch nothing which is disappointing, but you at least learned how to put bait on the hook. The next day you might catch a fish and that gets you excited, so it spurs you to keep doing it. Within weeks you begin to try your own creative techniques and are finding new fishing spots. A year passes, and you are fishing from a boat and fishing has become your favorite pastime. Now think about your comfort zone: when you first step out, it will be rough at first, and you won't always know what you're doing and probably will feel disappointed. But with perseverance, you begin to develop skill in what you're doing. With that skill you push the boundaries even more, and before you know it, you find yourself learning new things about yourself. As with the fishing metaphor, it might become a new passion. Thus we are left with a lesson: if you are willing to take the first step of boldness, it can pay off huge dividends in the long run with the experience you gain and knowledge you acquire about yourself.

So let's start getting out of our comfort bubble and pushing the limits. You never know what could come of it, and that's the most exciting part about it!

Peace,
Andrew Battiato

Past Differences

Well, It's been a while since I've blogged but that's because I have had such a relaxing spring break! It was so awesome just chilling at home! I've never realized how much of a home body I really am until I started school away from home. At home, I've been watching this new series on BBC called Downton Abbey. Well, something about me is that I really enjoy period films and tv shows, shows that take place in a different time period. This show occurs in the early 1900's in England. The show is about the Crawley family that live in the great house called Downton Abbey. The house is filled with servants as well as the family. One reason why I mention this show is the difference I've seen in their communication patterns from the way we communicate today. Besides the fact that they are British, the one factor that makes their patterns of communication different from ours is the time period of the early 1900's.  The element of propriety is very important not only outside of their home but with in their house as well. In that period "real" gentlemen did not work however they looked after their estate. The main concerns of the characters are the next heir of the estate and the marriage between that heir and their oldest daughter. To us today, it is just so different from what families talk about in respect to their homes and children. Today the main concerns are more so education and putting money towards the future. It was just interesting to observe how the shift in topics and concerns can really change the communication patterns between the parents and their children.

It's cool to see what 100 years can do to the way we communicate.

Until next time,

Dayna Appiah

dissapointment

i am writing this post from the  united center in chicago illinois. i was able to get tickets from bubba day; his parents were unable to go due to his father becoming ill in there trip to mexico last week. after we ran away with the game last week i was fully expecting this game against vcu to be a close win; this was e'twaun moore and jajuan johnson's last tournament as Purdue Boilermakers. Wwhat happened instead was utter shock and horror.

Every game this season we could count on those two to show up and do well. The few games we lost this season were due to lack of lack of contribution from our bench. this sad game was the opposite; our bench stepped up and played well while twaun and JJ looked like they were asleep.  My seat was in the fourth row right behind the Purdue bench so i was sitting by akk of the player's parents. Even they felt like JJ and E were dogging it and just all around not aware. This game directly impacted me because i would have traveled with the team to San Antonio had they made it to the Sweet 16. At least this way i will have time to get all of mr projects done while Im in Laffayette

-Jason Miller

Comfort Zones

Well, I’ll be honest, I’m not really sure where to start this blog post but we’ll see what happens. I have not been very good about posting these; in fact, I have missed the past 2 or 3 of them. However, better late than never so I’ll talk about what I discovered over spring break.

I remember during our presentation of small group communication we went over the different comfort zones that you have when you are talking to different people. For example, you may be comfortable talking in a very short distance with your very close family or even friends. Over spring break I helped put together a party for my brother’s 23’rd birthday and I noticed that the comfort zones were really happening. I watched as different family members stood at varying distances from each other, based mostly on how long they had been a part of the family. A situation where two family members were standing far apart was when my non-blood related uncles, one of whom only married my aunt a year ago, stood a fair distance away actually having to lean in to shake hands. I then watched as the Aunt I grew up closest with came and sat so close to my brother that their shoulders were constantly in contact and neither of them seemed in the least bit fazed. I just thought that it was really interesting to see the different distances that people stood from each other and from myself.

John Heritage

The Table

As with last time, I talked about something I am passionate about--dancing--and ultimately how it connected with what I'm learning in the great class of COM 320. Thus, I would like to continue that trend and talk on something that I am SO much more passionate about. This is something I mentioned on my video resume and something that affects my daily life: my faith in Jesus Christ.

I want to talk on it because, yes, I see it as personally important, but it also connects beautifully to how a productive and hardworking team should work. We can use the metaphor of being invited to eat with a group of people around a large table. I come to God's table with my own dish--my God-given gifts, talents, expieriences, wisdom, and passions to follow out His calling for me.  However, I am just one person; so many others come to His table with their individual dishes. To come to the table involves a lot of vulnerability: we must bring everything we are and share it. In this way, God uses all the people that come to His table for His greater plan. We come to share our God-given dishes as a community, thus revealing God's character because the collective dishes or gifts reveal the nature of the gifter. The Christian life certianly is not lived out individually: God brings us together to rely on each other and "feed" off of what we have as a community. Ultimately this is what church is. Church is not a building we go to on Sunday; it is a group of people that are sharing and using their "dishes" to show the greatness of the one who invited them to the table in the first place.

Thus, we can look at how a team should perform. They all come to a common place to unite and pursue a common goal. They come to the table with their gifts, experiences, etc. to work for something greater than themselves.

Until next time...

With Jesus' love,
Andrew Battiato

Dancing the dance

I figured I should write about something I'm passionate about: dancing. Now, I can't tell you that I'm into any of that organized dancing, like Tango, Swing, or whatever. I mean I've tried those, but they just don't suit me. I'm more into freestyle dancing. That's kind of my personality: I don't like structure, I'm poorly organized, and I take delight in spontaneity and creativity. Thus, with freestyle, I'm not limited to a certain style of dance. Depending on the music and my mood, I dance in accordance to whatever feels right in the moment; this makes way for a wide range of dance moves.

I don't let any previous dance moves or styles guide my dance, but I instead make it up as I go. Sometimes it looks super ridiculous, sometimes it is graceful, but all the time it is an expression of myself. This is similar to the way brainstorming works. In working towards finding an idea for a project, you must just let the ideas flow and not hinder them with preconceptions or a fear of being too "out there." My dancing is basically taking the mental aspect of brainstorming and applying it to a physical activity. It's beautiful to let your body just flow and see what you can come up with. It's amazing the amount of coordination it takes to dance: at one time I can have an arm waving, a leg shaking, a head bobbing, and a torso moving around all at once. Despite all this action, it comes together for dance routine this is unique, I, daresay, attractive. I venture to call it attractive because I find it incredible that a bunch of seemingly random actions of my body can come together to create a work of art. This is like Systems Theory: when we bring together people with different skill sets and experiences and coordinate them, we can function smoothly and effectively like a body does when its individual parts all work.

Well, that's my thought about dancing and its connection to some cool stuff we've learned in COM 320. I probably should be getting to bed: I'm off to Tennessee to go camping and hiking for a week. Everyone enjoy your spring break and use it as a time to reflect on how blessed you are!

Love,
Andrew Battiato

PS: Thought I would leave a video of me dancing back when I had bigger hair, blonde hair, and I lived in the 80s.

this is soooo late!

Greetings everyone!

I really feel like I don't have anything exciting to write about here, so I'll just talk about how busy I have been this past week/weekend! So this week I have not 2, not 3 but 4 MIDTERMS! And a paper and a quiz this week! So needless to say this weekend has been a lot of me forcing myself out of my room and into the 3rd floor of HSSE library- my prime study spot. So I've spent my past few days in and out of the library and in and out of seeing glimpses of my friends. This whole academic discipline is hard, I never really have more than 1 or 2 exams at a time so studying is usually more enjoyable, let me tell you- it's not when you have 4 different subjects to juggle. But it's a good thing- I guess multitasking and stress builds character.

So anyway back to my weekend, Friday night, I went to CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ), came back and studied. Saturday I woke up early (which is extra painful on Saturdays), went to Greyhouse to study, got a yummy crepe, studied some more and then went to a powderpuff football practice which nearly killed me. Well I guess I should explain that. See, all of the girls inolved in the dorms in CRU are having a powderpuff tourney on April 3rd. It'll be fun! I'm playing center for the McCutcheon girls. My team and I are pretty much planning on dominating. So anyhoo, after practice I passed out on my futon, went to dinner and then found a dark, social-less corner to study in again until I went to bed. On Sunday, I went to church (my favorite part of the week) which was awesome, saw some cool people then I went to lunch with some other cool people and then I found my self in my spot on the 3rd floor of HSSE. I ate dinner, went back to my room and studied some more.

I can't wait to turn my brain OFF when all of these LAME exams are over! Then..... Spring Break!

So Much Love,
Dayna

How I Almost Forfeited Purdue Basketball's Best

A few months ago I created a few t-shirt designs featuring some of Purdue Mens Basketball's top players; E'twaun Moore, JaJuan Johnson, Lewis Jackson, and Robbie Hummel. A lot of my friends liked the images once I showed them, as well as those individual basketball players liked the designs. Friends of mine pushed me to create shirts with this design; they all wanted them.

Along with a friend from Boiler Brass, I contacted University Spirit's custom apparel shop. I use to work there so I knew the inner workings, as well as the people that still work there. I showed them the designs and asked them if there was anything I needed to change. Nothing was wrong with them so I set up a facebook event. At the end of the first week we had over 700 people invited, close to 200 confirmed members, and over 100 maybes. I set up a survey on the site so we could get a general idea of numbers. After one week we were averaging 3 shirts per person, with around 70 people taking part in the survey.

I was really excited, until the second week rolled around. I was sitting at work checking my email, when I received an urgent message from Purdue Athletics. In short, I was told to stop selling these shirts, and that I would be receiving a cease and desist letter from the office of Morgen Burk; Purdue's athletic director. According to NCAA bylaw 12, you cannot sell any item with the name, image, or likeness of a Student Athlete. Any violation of this could result in making those student athletes ineligible to compete. And that is how I almost ruined the dreams of thousands of Purdue fans.

Jason Miller

A Clash of Cultures

First let met say this: Purdue is awesome. The endless opportunities to learn about cultures from around the world are invaluable. People are missing out if they don't take the chance of meeting students from different countries and taking fresh perspectives. I personally can say I've learned more here at Purdue about life in 2 years than I had my previous 18 years of living. And this isn't the result of sitting in classes but rather everything I do outside of classes. This includes meeting new students, trying different activities, being open to radical ideas, and absorbing insights from anything/anyone different from what I've known in the past.

I realized that I probably have more international friends than American friends. I have been and continue to be that kid who constantly asks questions about why cultures do this, think that, eat this, wear that, and whatever else comes to mind. Anything different seems to be interesting. Well, though I'm often the one asking questions, recently I have been on the receiving end of such questions in regards to American culture. And it's been a real learning challenge to evaluate and explain why Americans do what Americans do, especially college students.

Here are some of the questions that I've been asked by two of my Chinese friends: Why are American college students so obsessed with getting drunk? Why do American girls just seem to like guys that play football with strong muscles and a mean attitude? Why is it so hard to be good friends with Americans? Why is it considered "cool" to use curse words? Why don't American college students think about their career or their long-term future?

Now some of these might be a little critical and biased due to the situations my friends have experienced. Nonetheless, there is some truth to them. For example, when compared to Chinese culture, college students in America tend to abuse alcohol to a greater extent. In China, alcohol is used more as a casual social drink, not something you consume at party until you're falling-over drunk and spend the rest of the night puking it all up. Well that description was maybe too graphic, but the point I'm making is that alcohol is viewed in pretty different ways according to a Chinese vs. American college student perspective. Thus, my friends asking these questions has spurred on some really healthy and informative conversation. And what I've learned is that more contact with other cultures allows me to learn more about my own culture.

I look forward to our group's service learning project because it's focused on engaging with students of different cultures. I'm excited to not only learn about their culture and specifically sports they play but also get a clearer picture of my own culture.

With love,
Andrew Battiato