Inspirational blogs

I really enjoy reading the posts of my classmates. It's like I get to spend more that just 4 days a month with them! There is such a rich diversity of ideas, passions, and voices and there is always a new tidbit of information to glean from them. I've compiled a few of my favorite and quotes I've come across. I have not read every post of every student and I'm sure that this can be said for all of us. So I will share with you what I've found and perhaps give you reason to discover a new blog post.

From HipHop Namaste:

"In the mean time I am thirsty, in transition mode and stumbling around in the dark. And have happened upon a body of water with a beam of light shining from up above. I never thought to look up. Following the spiral of my soul levitation, finally I have risen to the surface to meet the reflection of myself diving into a long deep abyss into the shadows. I suppose we could call this my cyber blogosphere coming out party."

From Shibumi.net:

"We as a species have to start asking ourselves the question “how would nature solve _________?” before we start to create anything. All the answers to live in harmony with the biosphere are there – we just have to develop the capacity to observe deeply."

From Julie's Learning Journal:

"I entered this class curious how our society will reconcile the social networking phenomena with the social disconnect that pervades our streets - wondering whether we can take these opposing forces and align them toward a greater good. Whatever our personal opinion of the trends, there is no denying them nor the opportunities they present. This is much more than entertainment. And like everything else in life, if you want to make a difference, you have to take a chance."

I may make it a habit of doing posts like this because not only can it help readers discover something new and exciting it also serves as a collection of brilliant quotes.

The power of You Tube

Watching the work of Franklin Lopez was incredibly inspiring me. It's creative, it's catchy and it has a great message. There is a great deal of power that is available to us with the right amount of knowledge of the system.

I'm curious though, while those clips were brilliant, I'd never seen them. You can be sure that I'll pass them on so their reach is even further but in the case of the voting clip, it's too late for this election. So how long does it take to get a message across the internet? What are the keys for a message going widespread in the matter of days? I suppose that this is a big part of what we're learning in this class. If we're going to change the world with social media we need to learn how to get our message across quickly.

I know it sounds conspiracy theorist but all of this social media stuff has had me thinking about the power of the government over all of this. If they truly decided to take control over the internet, how much control would they really have? Could someone still send an unapproved message to the world? How are they using it to sway our opinions on certain issues? Just curious...

Finding the balance

I've been trying to find the balance in my beat between not losing my job (by disclosing information I'm not supposed to) and feeling like I'm able to combine a school project and a work project. Eventually I plan on having a Sustainable Fort Lewis blog but Public Affairs has yet to approve this. I was hoping to be able to feed two birds with one seed and I think I've been able to figure out how.

My beat is "GreenGov" and I think I'll be able to focus on the government's role in sustainability and not specifically discuss the things I do at work. However, if something has already been published in the newspaper (therefore approved by PAO) I will be able to share it.

My initial plan of keeping my beat private did not seem as appealing after speaking with my professor, Christopher. The added benefit of having outside community see my post and comment on it seemed a valuable tool to measure the usefulness of my blog.

On a different topic, I think I'm getting a bit more used to juggling my different social networks. I know that I need to work on commenting on others' postings and linking my blog to theirs. In the next week I will be focusing on improving in both of these areas.

Quiet tenacity

This Sunday, we did a tagging exercise where we first tagged ourselves by answering questions and then went around the room anonymously tagging each other. This was a very powerful and fun exercise.

My Tags
Three phrases to introduce myself (I tend to hold my cards close so introduction tend to be pretty surface level for me):

• I live in Olympia
• I'm a sustainable MBA candidate
• I work in the sustainability program at Fort Lewis

Three things I'm most passionate about:

• My family
• Sustainability
• Justice and Equity (I'm one of those whose always saying "That's not fair!")

Three unique things about myself:

• I hug trees for the Army
• I used to be a missionary
• I'm a birth mother in an open adoption

Other people's tags

• fresh
• listener
• dedication
• authentic
• quiet tenacity
  
• beautiful soul
• neat financials (I'm guessing that came from an accounting teammate!)
• sweet
• real
• love

My final tags

• Quiet tenacity
• Patient listener
• Authentic dedication

I was moved by these tags and really felt that the people who "tagged" me really knew me. I greatly appreciated the beautiful things that were said about me. I have to say though, "quiet tenacity" was my favorite. Way to peg me!

At first I was a little hesitant about finding my personal brand, it sounded almost shallow. I've come realize that it's completely the opposite. Your personal brand has to be your authentic self or people won't buy into it. Finding your personal brand is just another way of delving deeper into who I am. I am excited about all of the ways I am able to explore who I am this quarter