Friday, February 20, 2009

Technology on the move - Think Tank



Knowing is important, but predicting and anticipating can open new doors, what are your thoughts based on these opinions and facts?

Sunday, February 15, 2009

How Far Have We Come? Black and White Prejudice

I was privileged this weekend to sit in on a diversity seminar for new teachers. The program was wonderful, but I must say that it pointed out that we have not come as far as we think we have. Certainly, we have taken admirable and large steps, but the journey is far from over. This was emphasized not only by the following video, but also by the responses of the participants in the seminar. I found that several people heard and agreed with many of the issues that the speaker highlighted, another group was shocked and appalled that such behavior, opinions, and attitudes still exist, but there was another group adamantly denied that there was such an issue and that even if there were it was not a societal issue but a personal or family issue. Interestingly, I thought that the last group emphasized another part of the talk: when the dominate group is forced to view the world through the lens of a subordinate groups eyes, they may be forced to see that they themselves have perpetuated, complied with, and enforced rules/ behaviors that have cause harm to others. Such a view may be very painful and some may turn away instead of looking directly at it.

I hope that you have the strength to look and discuss the issues:




Note: This video was made by 16 year old filmmaker, Kiri Davis, in 2006 and was repeating an experiment done by Dr. Kenneth Clark in the 1940's.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Taking Proper Pictures to Sell Your House

I haven’t fallen off the planet. We’ve just been completely side tracked trying to find a home and get ours sold. On the positive side, we are finally moving in the right direction. I cannot even tell you how much value our home has lost, but at least things are finally progressing.

Having said that, obviously we have been perusing realtor.com like crazy trying to find our new home. I have become somewhat of an expert about all the listings in our target area. I am amazed at some of the crazy ways that real estate agents show off homes. I wonder if they have ever heard, “put your best foot forward”. I have come by pictures that are formatted incorrectly and appear even smaller than the thumbnail they are already allotted. While I have posted something incorrectly before too, I went back and fixed it as soon as possible. Why would an agent post a picture sideways? And leave it that way? I am also dumbfounded by the toilet pictures.



How does this improve the odds of a sale? Of course, this one also had me scratching my head.


I will try to speak up more often and let you all know what is going on.