Power Team

The Power Team is a group of Christian Evangelists who display their martial arts skills and strength with their preaching. In my opinion, they are giving the wrong image. I feel like they are trying to tell people that to be strong, you have to believe in God and be a Christian. I believe that people should be able to choose their own religion without it being forced on them. I feel like the Power Team is trying to make being a Christian something cool. Something that teenage boys might be especially interested in. I guess it's up to the people that want to listen to the Power Team.

Growing up, I was not in a religous family. My mom came from a very Catholic family. She wanted my sister and I to be able to make our own decision about religion and provide us with opportunities when we wanted. This has lead me to my own belief.

i wish OCD had four letters.

I found this story to be extremely interesting. David Sedaris, the author of “a plague of tics”, is about himself suffering from OCD. His mother completely ignores the fact that he has OCD and David is left with dealing with issues at school with peers and his teacher. Counting the steps to get home from school and licking and touching certain things on his way home were only a few things he did. It's not that he wanted to do this but he had to. Because the author wrote about himself, I felt that he explained the story in a way that I was able to visualize everything so easily. Although OCD is probably not interesting to the people that suffer from it, I am very intrigued by it. The only thing about this story that annoyed me was the fact that no one helped him. This just shows that perhaps when David was a child, OCD was not something that many people knew about.

Corporate Social Responsibility

The ultimate question I want to answer is whether or not corporate social responsibility has an impact on the number of consumers/customers at organization/business. Basically I want to be able to answer; when companies participate in CSR (doing something good for the society) does it increase the number of consumers or customers.

Currently my thesis statement is, participating in corporate social responsibility not only benefits the community but can have a large impact on the growth of the business or corporation.

Many people have their opinions on corporate social responsibility. Some say it’s not the job of the business to be concerned with the social issues. On the other hand, people say businesses should give back and help with social issues because after all, the community is what makes a business run. CSR has increased dramatically in the past years. Business and corporations have done things to improve their organization and have given back to charities and local organizations as well. For example, Tyson Foods has their own way of giving back. They have formed many partnerships with organizations to help fight hunger. Since the year 2000, Tyson has donated more than 76 million pounds of food to relief agencies, food banks and other organizations in need. Every year, Tyson holds 50-60 donation events to raise the issue of hunger and earn money to fight hunger. They are committed to help fight hunger by providing food to people in need.
I still need to find out whether CSR has an impact on the number of consumers. There are many debates about it and whether or not it has an impact anywhere. I need to continue researching some examples of a corporation that saw an improvement in the number of consumers by doing something good for the community. I know when I hear about a business donating or doing something socially responsible that I like, I go that that business.

Because my opinion is that participating in CSR does have many benefits, the opposing argument would be that it does not benefit. Also, that participating in CSR makes no difference on the number of consumers or customers. Just because it could have a greater impact on more consumers doesn’t mean it’s a direct correlation to making a larger profit.

So far I have used EBSCOhost (hospitality and tourism complete), current class books, the library, internet and youtube. I have found EBSCOhost to have the best information so far.

In the essay, "'Ha ha,' he said. 'Ha ha'" written by Chuck Klosterman, his biggest argument is basically that canned laughter is quite possibly the dumbest thing ever. He believes that Americans laugh at unnecessary things too much. Adding fake laughter in the background to make people laugh is pointless according to Klosterman. As much as he hates laugh tracks, I have to say I never really paid much attention to it. So, I decided to enjoy my snow day by watching a few clips for The Big Bang Theory.

Not too often do I have the time to watch tv. When I do, I love watching this show. It doesn’t take much for Sheldon’s quirky humor to make me laugh. The Big Bang Theory incorporates laugh tracks. Honestly, I think I like canned laughter. I love laughing and I tend to laugh a lot! In my opinion, canned laughter makes people feel more comfortable laughing at such weird/funny moments. I think without canned laughter, it might not be as funny.

His argument about Americans laughing at things that aren’t really funny made me think. So maybe we do add too many “haha’s” in texts or giggle when things aren’t funny, but who cares? Laughing is the best. Even if it’s not funny, people should be allowed to laugh without clerks at the grocery store looking at you weird. As long as it’s not rude or inappropriate of course.

This is an episode of The Big Bang Theory where I find Sheldon funny. You might not get all of this if you don't watch this show. It also shows the canned laughter and in my opinion how it makes you laugh.

Research Topic

I have decided on a research topic. I am planning on writing about the social responsibillity in the hospitality industry. Here is a list of some things I would like to discuss in my research paper.

• Concepts, terms and definitions related to social responsibility
• Background and possibly the general history of SR
• Principles and practices relating to SR
• Issues relating to SR
• How to implement and promote SR throughout the organization/business
• How organizations/businesses give back to the community and employees
• Advantages and disadvantages of SR
• Impact on organization/business

I have started my research and I am finding interesting articles and books that will be a good resource. I guess one question I have is how much of the topic should we discuss. The list above are just some ideas. How do I write the paper about numerous topics without going too far off topic? OR Should I narrow it down to a few things about SR and go more in depth with those?

Who Wrote What About When

Woods, Robert H. "Hospitality's History Who Wrote What About When." Cornell Hospitality Quarterly 32.2 (1991): 89-95. Web.

This article, suggested to me by Dr. Shiring, is different than most. This article talks about customers, employees and even the demographics of customers and employees. Unlike most articles, this one talks about service interaction, recruitment, training, and even benefits. I found this article very interesting because it’s not something I know about already. 

Cornell Hospitality Quarterly is a Hospitality journal and a credible source. The Hospitality department often uses this source for assignments. The author, Robert H. Woods, is also reliable. He has written many Hospitality related books and ones we use for classes here at IUP.


Dr. Shiring suggested a great article. Depending on what direction I take for my paper, I might be able to use this article. Even if I don't use this as a resource, I enjoy reading about the Hospitality industry.

technology wired.

With a 40+ work week and a full class schedule, I do a lot of multitasking to get things done. I don't think anyone can convince me to say that while multitasking, you are fully engaged in the conversation, assignment, or whatever it may be. Why do we multitask? I know I do it because there is too much to do in the time that I have. In the article "Attached to Technology and Paying a Price" they say that multitasking basically leads to not fully taking in whatever is being said or done. Although this article is not necessarily about multitasking, I had to throw my opinion in.

I will be the first to admit that I frequently check facebook and text, but I never let it get in the way of my life. As much as I love technology I really hate it. When this article said Mr. Campbell escapes to video games during tough times, this hit me. This just shows how we have lost things such as taking walks, talking, or listening to music as ways to escape and have turned to video games and technology. I am the kind of person that would much rather go hiking, snowboard, or even just have a girls night than play video games. (Although I have to admit, I love beating most guys at Madden. I rock at that game.)

Something else that seemed to bother me in this article was the fact that Lily, a second-grader, has her own laptop and other technology. Seriously? No wonder kids get into so much cyber trouble. Also, having cell phones at such a young age? Please tell me where this child is going to be, unsupervised, without an adult who can let the child use their cell phone.

To reiterate, I am not saying that technology is bad. I do believe that too much of it can be a bad thing. It's important to 'unplug' and get a way for a while. Yes, I'm pretty sure you crops in Farmville can wait to be harvested. In the end, ruining a relationship over technology is just not worth it. I don't like wasting my time wondering "what if" but I would like to know if life would be better without such state of the art technology. What if...