Editorial

Protest around the world

To: The Seattle Times editors.

Protests seem to be prompting everywhere in the world, some of them in our own backyard. Many of these protests do get out of hand, like this one in the Olympia, WA capitol building. The Service Employees International Union is acting within their constitutional right to protest, but not in the outrageous way they behave; this type of behavior is not a good example to anybody on how to carry on civilize protest. There have been lots of budget cuts in every state across the country.

The way these protesters tried to push their way into the governor’s office and violently treated the state troopers, is not surprising that they were cited and in some cases arrested. The attitude of the Governor shows that she cares about her constituents issues, because she took the time to meet with some of the protestor, after they had try to break into her office. The Service Employees International Union protest is a legitimate one, the rising of health care benefits is something that is been happening across the country and many European countries.

This is a good editorial, because not only bring out to light the wrongful behavior by the members of The Service Employees International Union, but it also bring out to light the understanding of the protest by the governor. There are different ways that The Service Employees International Union can accomplish its objective of opposition against these budget cuts, a civilize protest is more effective than the unruly behavior shown on this event.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorials/2014724458_edit11protest.html

This editorial is a mirror image of what is happening around the world not only in the U.S, many of the problems in places like Sudan, Egypt and Libya among others, started with small protest like this. Their government shows no interest in the issues of their constituents, causing them to revolt against the government as a whole. The government officials could help the budget cuts situation, by taking a cut on their own salaries, this money can be put back towards the state and federal budgets.

Website Evaluation

Burgermaster

Dear Burgermaster

This email is in regard to your website,

The burgermaster website is nice clean and easy to navigate, offering the web-surfer the options to see the menu, locations, and the story of how the restaurant got started. The website also offer the web-surfer the option to join via social network like twitter or facebook, becoming a fan of the restaurant gives the web surfer the chance to receive coupons and special offers. The interactive map is a great tool and very useful for newcomers, tourist, as well for returning customers who may need directions to one of the other locations.

The website can be improve by adding more pictures of the food on the menu and restaurant locations, a link to the reviews received, more information on the hormone-free beef, and a link to be able to contact for suggestions. The dark-gray border surrounding the page makes it very dull and boring, this take away that eye popping view of the webpage. The actual page could be resized to a full page size eliminating the dark-gray border. The middle picture of the city of Seattle with the 1952 could be used as a button that link to the story of how the restaurant got started.

Pictures of the food, this can help the web-surfers that never been to the restaurant get an idea of how appetizing the food is. It gives the web-surfer an idea of what the food looks like, Yes, a burger can be found in any place, but a great burger, made with the right ingredients and condiments to perfection is a must see. In this case a picture is worth a thousand words. A good example is the McDonald’s website http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/full_menu/sandwiches.html. Other pictures that can also be shared with web-surfers are pictures of the restaurants and their award winning landscape for which its locations are known, this will give web surfers an idea of the restaurant physical presentation.

Review links, in order to check out the reviews you have to go to the review website and do a full search of the restaurant in order to find the reviews. By adding a link to the reviews it can be more helpful, not only for the web-surfer, but also helpful for the restaurant, because web surfers and costumers can add their own reviews automatically and directly to the page. By adding the reviews to the webpage it can promote more web-surfers to visit the website, through word of mouth or in this case networking among peers. The picture of the various reviews websites could easily be converted into a button that would open a window with a list of the various review websites or the actual reviews.

Hormone free beef, the website should offer more information or attempt to mention the hormone-free beef used by the restaurant, its source, and the determination of the restaurant chain to make a different by serving hormone-free beef. There are few restaurants that serve hormone-free meats, one that is very noticeable is “Chipotle Mexican Grill” there website http://www.chipotle.com/ educate the web-surfers about their meats, their source, the way the animals are raised and the standards that they demand the farms the purchase their meat from. The hormone-free logo used on the page can also be converted into a button linking to information about the beef product.

The overall website is very presentable and easy to navigate, providing the basic idea of the business and their “quality, Local, Love” slogan. This website is going in the right direction providing web-surfers the ability to join via social network, like Twitter and Facebook which allow web-surfers to tag their current location. This can help the Restaurant gain more business due to the peer to peer networking.

Collaborative Writing

The business chosen for our collaborative group project was "Becky's Burgers" located in Magee, MS. which it was chosen by the one and only group member within my group. My group started with four members at which 2 of them drop out of the class, causing an enormous confusion,  leaving only two of us working together in this project, and also leaving us with a lot of ground to be cover in very little time.
Working together as a group, I thought was going to be very difficult in my part due to distance, time zones, and over all schedule. The communication with my group partner was actually very easy via e-mail, cell phone and text. We stay in touch step by step throughout the entire project. Since I live in Seattle, Washington, my group partner took charge of doing the research, interviews and various leg work necessary to complete the project. Due to the distance limitations on my part, I would review the information gather by my group partner and provide my input on the project, working my part within the group.
The group project was a good assignment, it helps us, the student to understand the struggles of smalls businesses within our communities and seek out solution to various problems that many businesses run into.
In conclusion, I was very disappointed to know that many groups were having problems, especially in my position where I live thousands of miles away and a time difference that sometimes it can hurt a deadline in a group project. In the other hand many people don't like to work in group projects, due to many circumstances.
In my opinion, majority of the students that take online classes do it, because of how time consuming it can be to attend a class on campus, versus at an online class where the student is in the comfort of their home, able to work at their own time and eliminating the drive time giving the student extra time to be spend towards class work. This group project probably place many students in a hard place due to how time consuming it can be, due to the situation if a group member don't do their part or yet, just plain don't show up to a group meeting. Many students don't have the normal 9-5 Monday to Friday work schedule, some people may work at night leaving them the daytime to do their school work, others have rotating shift work and in my case where the regular work hours are from 5am to 5pm 5 days a week, also living in a Pacific time zone don't allow to meet many deadlines, it sure don't help in the situation.
With all this struggles that I had to juggle, I was not one of the students having problems with the group project, but I believe schedules should be taking into consideration when it comes to assigning the student with a group project, so they can effectively coordinate with others.

Here are the four jobs I choose:

http://careers.pepsico.com/job/Orlando-Zone-Sales-Assistant-Job-FL-32801/1152420/

http://careers.pepsico.com/job/Maitland-SALES-ASSOCIATE-Job-FL-32751/1157623/

http://jobs-boeing.com/washington/business-support-services/business-intern-jobs

https://www22.verizon.com/about/careers/openings/HJOBP000000003320546.html?sp=0

Qualification:

Customer service skills

To be enrolled in a BA program or an AA degree

Experience using Microsoft programs

Effective communication

All of the jobs, I choose would like you to have several years of customer services skills.  I have been working in position that requires excellent customer service skills and also effective communication.  I speak three different languages and this also helping in being a more effective communicator.  I also receive my AA from MGCCC last May and I am processing my BA form USM.  I also receive an AA from ITT Tech in Computer Aid Drafting and Design.  While at ITT, I receive many Microsoft certifications and became proficient in all Microsoft programs. 

The job I choose would be with Pepsi as a sales associate.  I am currently an employee with Pepsi.  Pepsi Co also has a promote from within policy that they look for open position for first before opening the position to the public.  They also would have a firsthand account of my hard work and dependability.  I also have everything and more that the wanted in the job qualification.  When writing my resume I would highlight my degrees receive and what was needed to receive them.  I would also bring forward my certification received in Microsoft programs and my master level skills.  I would also highlight my ability of speaking three languages and how this could be an asset in working with the public.  On the cover letter, I would make sure and highlight how long I have worked with the company and all of the awards that I have receive since starting my service. 

Improving Professional Readers and Persuasion

To: T. Leoni, Manager Personnel Department
From: Donald Pryzblo, Manager, Data Processing Department
Subject: INCORRECT PAYROLL CHECKS

Leoni, to follow up on our conversation from yesterday in regarding to the incorrect payroll checks, I feel the majority of the errors rest on your clerks.  Correcting these errors will be very time consuming and I feel it is the responsibility of your staff to make the correction in a timely manner.  I will provide any assistance available from my department to help in the matter, but we are running on a very tight schedule.  I also would like to schedule a brain storming session to discuss any other suggestions you may have to keep this matter from happening again in the future.  I will also ask my staff to double check their work in the future.  I would recommend that you tell your clerks to review their work carefully before giving it to the computer operators.  Payroll is a very sensitive matter and could have a very great negative effect on our employee and their families and I expect the matter to be handled as so.  Leoni I look forward to working with you company and know that this matter will be address in a timely manner.

This email I feel is a good example of how many people communicate in the work place.  The tone of this email is very disrespectful and unprofessional.  Pryzblo was very demanding and in a disrespectful way was blaming Leoni for the errors and seem unreasonable in will to work with Leoni.  This email also gives a good representation on how people have a hard time in separating personal and business professionalism in regards to email etiquette.  If this email was between friends on a personal level it would have been ok, but when writing in a business situation you need to give a little more explanation and keep complete thoughts when writing.  Also you need to keep in mind that when writing is that you only getting one chance to explain and give solutions so the tone is very important.  If you put the person on a defensive level you may not get the end result that was expected.  Also you could go back to the rule, talk to people as you would like to be spoken too. 
Many employees are guilty of sending this type of emails, because they tend to type in the same tone of their emotions and attitude. Pryzblo shows his attitude throughout the email and his emotions towards the time his people would spend if they have to correct the errors.  He also shows his anger with the company and their steps taken to resolve the people. 
The changes that were made to the original email were to speak in a more professional manner and also not be so accusing.  In the first email, if I would have received it, I would have been on the defensive and would have been less willing to work with the other company.  Also in regards to the speech I wanted to keep it more professional and remember that you are not speaking to your friend, but you are writing a professional email in a business setting.  When sending emails, we will also say things we most likely would not say in person and this could be a problem also.  A rule of thumb that I try to use is when dealing with a heated situation is to write the email and then take a break to breath and come back to proof read the email.  Taking the break to calm down will help in preventing something being said in anger of frustration.

Blog 2

Do you have access to the Hattiesburg campus?
Unfortunately, I don't currently I live in Seattle, Washington. Making it literately impossible for me to get to any of the campuses.
Do you feel comfortable using newer forms of technology?
Yes, I do feel very comfortable with new technology, I'm always trying to see what are the new advances in technology.

My name is Sixto,
Yes it is my real name. It was the name of a Pope, which dates back to the 2nd Century. Sixtus IV is the most recognize during 15th Century, because he commissioned the Sistine Chapel and is also responsible for the formation of the Renaissance in Rome.
I'm originally from Panama, where I was born and raised. I moved to the U.S. when I was 16 years old and I lived in lots of different cool places, but the one place that I can call home is Orlando, FL. I have lived in Fort Walton Beach, FL, Memphis, TN, and currently I live in Seattle, WA. where I work for Pepsi as a merchandiser. I have traveled all over the U.S. over 40 states. I spend 4 years in the U.S. Air Force, which gave me the opportunity to lived in the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where I spend 3 years and met my now wife and mother of my two boys.
In the near future, I'm planning on moving back to Orlando, FL where I will be buying my first home. I'm planning to transferring my job and stay with Pepsi.
My educational goals are to graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in Business Administration and Entrepreneurship with a minor in Geography. Career goal is to stay with Pepsi and in a future become an executive or even maybe the CEO, my other project  is to start a small business.
One of the topics from the course is,

Is there a type of writing/kind of document that you particularly enjoy doing? Is there a type of writing/kind of document you find particularly difficult? Why?
I don't do much writing or reading, the little reading that I do, is quotations and intellectual thoughts of philosophers. This type reading helps me to have a better understanding of many different topics and situations within life. This also has push me into writing my own intellectual quotes or writing thougths that come to mind and putting it together to create a phrase or quotation that will open my horizons into a brighter way of thinking.

                                            

                                             This are my two boys Ezzar (6) and Jonah (1)

This is a picture of my wife Katie and I on our wedding day.