Saturday, January 31, 2009

Random Blog: "Crash"

The topic for this week was "random blog." I'm not very good at writing without direction, so I started to think about my past week to find a topic to blog about...

I decided to write about the movie Crash - I have seen this movie multiple times, but just recently watched it this past week. Personally, I think that it is one of the best movies to come from Hollywood in a while. It integrates a number of cultures and social classes to illustrate how their various interactions/conflicts impact other's lives.
This message always makes me reflect on my life. I start to think about how our actions can influence someone else's life - and how we often do so without even knowing.
Being in college is a great example. We interact with hundreds of students during our college years - many of whom we may never see again - but those brief interactions may stay with us for the rest of our lives. These exchanges involve simple conversations with other students, certain lectures that professors give, various projects we have to complete – the list goes on.
Additionally, while attending Clemson, I've participated in a number of volunteer activities such as Habitat for Humanity, visiting the elderly at nursing homes, and a program called "Christmas Commandos," which provides Christmas gifts to underprivileged kids. While those people may not remember me personally, I know that they will remember the house we provided them with or the time I spent with them playing bingo or the joy those kids felt on Christmas morning when they found a pile of gifts left anomalously on their front doorstep.
I’ve discovered that, for the most part, it's the feeling of knowing that someone else cares about you that makes the greatest impact. As humans, I think that one of our greatest needs is to be wanted by someone else - to know that someone else loves you and cares about you.

I could discuss this topic for another couple of paragraphs, but I think the best way to summarize both this movie and the main message I take from it is this quote from the movie: "It's the sense of touch...I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something" (Crash, 2004).

Thursday, January 22, 2009

10 years from now

This topic is always difficult for me to write about. Thinking about the future brings both feelings of excitement and uncertainty.

Oh well, here I go:

Personal Life:

In 1o years, I hope to be happily married to a brilliant, supportive, and loving husband. I hope to have at least one child - with more to come! During those 10 years, I hope to have the opportunity to travel the world. I desperately want to experience cultures/lifestyles other than that of America. Additionally, I hope to have a strong group of friends that I can count on. I know that I will remain close with my immediate family, because my family has always been a key component of my life. I also want to be an active member of a church, because my faith is also a major part of who I am.

Professional Life:

By this point in my professional life, I hope to be working toward opening my own practice. I am currently seeking a Nurse Practitioner degree, and hope to gain a lot of experience within this field directly out of college. My short term goals are to learn the medicine and develop my skills. My long term goal is to open my own practice.

"Home"

Currently, I have NO idea where I would like to live! I was born in raised in Charleston and, I admit, part of me will always be in love with that city. I could easily see myself living there; however, I will have the opportunity with my job to travel the country - and that's what I intend to do. I know that I want to remain in the south, because I detest the cold. I also know that I want to live near the coast - I'm drawn to the ocean.

Lifestyle

This area of my life causes me the greatest concern. While I hope to have all that I mentioned above, I also hope to have created a balance between all of those things. Currently now in college, I am having difficulties learning how to balance my school life, my personal life, and my social life - I tend to focus more on the schooling aspect and neglect the social part. Therefore, ten years from now, I hope to have a good balance between the amount of time I dedicate to my work, the time I dedicate to my family, and the time I dedicate to myself.

My main hope/prayer is "Lord, give me the courage to change what I can, the wisdom to accept that which I cannot change, and the knowledge to know the difference" -Humphrey
In other words, let me not only recognize that God is the one in command, but to trust Him in all that I do!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Web 2.0

I have to admit - videos like this tend to scare me a little bit... While the advancement and spreading of technology is fascinating, it is also overwhelming.
I think this video was titled "The Machine is Us/ing Us" to convey to the audience how technology is learning from its users. Just like the video showed - every time that we (as users) enter new information on the computer or create links between documents, we are teaching the computer that certain items are related to other items. It then recognizes these patterns in future applications. An example is that your web browser keeps a list of frequently visited web sites, so that you can navigate to them by simply selecting from a drop-down list. Therefore, the machine is "using us" - we are providing the computer with the information of which documents/website/information is related to other documents/websites/information.
Because of all the "knowledge" that the computers are acquiring, we must rethink how and the amount we create these links. For someone just entering the workforce, the internet can be his worst enemy. Anything that was ever linked to that person's name remains in cyberspace - simply removing the link from one computer does not remove it from every computer. These connections can be extremely detrimental when interviewing with a potential employer. Almost all companies now do an online search of possible employees prior to hiring them (often through a Facebook or Myspace) - so if questionable pictures/stories are linked with their name, they are not hired.
These searches may occur even after a client is hired. Anything sent or passed through cyberspace (email, websites, blogs, etc.) remains there forever, and can be retrieved quickly through a simple search. While it may be speculation to say that "an elephant never forgets," it is truthful to say that the internet never forgets. Be knowledgeable of this and remember the next time you tag yourself in a photo album, or negatively criticize a co-worker/boss through an email - it may come back to haunt you!

Friday, January 9, 2009

A little about me!


Hey everyone! My name is Erin Reifeis. I am currently a sophmore Nursing student here at Clemson University. I am also a member of the Chi Omega sorority.
I was born and raised in Charleston, S.C.; however, my parents are originally from Ohio. I have 3 brothers - 2 older and one younger - and 3 dogs. I've played soccer my whole life - and still do on intramural teams. Since I grew up with three brothers, I'm a very athletic person - I love being outdoors and doing anything that keeps me active (sports, swimming, hiking, etc). I've never traveled outside of the United States, but I really want to go backpacking across Europe.

That's about all I can think of right now to tell y'all!