Paper Airplane Contest

Sometimes it pays to think outside the box.  If we all had the same thoughts or went about solving problems the same way this world would not grow the way that it does.  Make sure to listen to everyone and use different perspectives when solving problems.  Sometimes the best solutions and ideas come from the places we least expect.

Success from what perspective

A success too many may not be success to everyone.  Our viewpoints sometimes must change in order for us to truly understand life and what is really important.  We should always try to be optimistic and look at things from a positive perspective.  If we don’t, no matter what we do or accomplish this will be a miserable life.  Optimism – pass it 

In a hurry

Sometimes we role through life and everything seems to be going so well and easy.  In this vast field there are very few trees, but if you are not paying attention or you are in too big of a hurry you will hit it.  Even when things seem really good, make sure to pay attention to the small things, they can sure ruin your day.

The Knack

We are all blessed with different talents and gifts.  I can definitely relate to Dilbert.  As a kid I loved taking things apart, putting them back together, and seeing how they work.  The older I get the more I appreciate the difference in the way that we all think.

Success

When I think of Michael Jordan, I think of the greatest basketball player of all time.  I don’t think of the Michael Jordan that was cut from his high school basketball team (Wow, can you imagine being that coach), or all of the other times that he failed.  Sometimes we need to look at failures as a driving force that enables us to both do great things and be great people not as a deterrent or sad thing.   

I love Lucy

Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where we just can’t seem to get anything right and keep getting farther and farther behind.  Whether it is fear of embarrassment, trying to dig through and catch up, or that they just don’t care, students have a hard time asking questions or asking the instructor to slow down.   In my class or any other program you are a part of, please take my advice, don’t be like Lucy… You can get yourself in a hole that is very difficult to get out of.  If the instructor thinks that you are doing fine with the material they will just speed up and leave you farther and farther behind.  If it is like my program, once you are so far behind, you will never catch up.

Stuck on an Escalator

We all laugh at this man and woman and how silly they are for not just walking up the escalator.  I think that this is where a lot of us are today though.  Years ago, before spell check, calculators, and computers with high end CAD software, everyone had to learn to spell, calculate math problems, and even hand draw engineering drawings.  Well guess what, if your calculators batteries died during a math test, you would be right there stuck on the escalator.

National Anthem Help

There are several things that I feel are important in this video.  We are all very quick to judge others, and maybe even laugh at them, before putting ourselves in their position.  This girl, probably 12-14 years old, is suddenly realizes that she is not only directly singing in front of probably 50-60,000 people but that there are also millions watching at home on TV.  She can suddenly only think of is all those people and not the words.

More important than the girl singing, I can’t help but think of the coach.  This man has had only one thing on his mind for an entire season, a championship.  How to get there, who to play, strategy both during the game and preparation, pretty much he has probably let this goal become his life. At a time when this goal is about to possibly happen and he is thinking of all that is about to happen, he sees the same thing we saw, this girl struggling to remember the lyrics. He, at that moment, had nothing to gain from this but dropped all his thoughts of basketball and helped this girl.  When everyone else saw this, they also stopped laughing and began to help as well.

True character is seen in how you react and help others when you have absolutely nothing to gain.

German Coast Gaurd

We all view language as very important.  In some cases it is very easy for us to hear something incorrectly or to take things the wrong way.  In Engineering Graphics we are learning a language that is meant to be understood in America and around the world.  Symbols, arrangement, dimensions notation, alignment of views and/or and visualization are all important to how we convey our ideas to others and can be very important as to how they are seen and interpreted.