During the diversity event that I attended, titled A Business Case for Diversity, I learned several valuable things via concrete evidence. In essence, the seminar was about something everyone already inherently knows, diverse groups make strong groups. Most people already know that a diverse group allows more ideas and points of view to be expressed than with a group of reruns. This is precisely why the United States government, aka congress, works. We use large groups of diverse people and diverse ideals to get great outcomes. Mr. Page however was able to articulate it in a new manner and was also able to boil it down to a mathematical formula.
    Mr. Page summed the ability of a diverse group to provide outstanding results up to a simple equation. This equation relates to people attempting to find things such as the amount of M&M's in a jar, or the weight of a calf. The individual accuracy minus the group accuracy, will be within a close percentage of the correct values. This is a little hard to understand, and requires further articulation. However, to sum it up fairly quickly and nicely, it can simply be said that as you increase the diversity of a group you increase it's effectiveness. Now, you have to make a couple of assumptions.. you have to first assume that the group is smart, and you have to secondly assume that it is possible to get a credible answer to your question. Next you have to make sure that the diversity in your group is on the inside. It doesn't matter if you have a black person, a white person, a hispanic person, and a native american person in your group if they all think alike. You need your diversity to be in the thought process, in the beliefs and ideas. If you get a bunch of people with different backgrounds and psychologies, you can create a mean think tank.
     The things that Mr. Page talked about obviously were coherent with real life situations. He found a way to turn diversity into a winning thing, not a required by law thing. And isn't it true that diverse groups make finer groups. I find that in my personal experiences, not just academic and business, a diverse group is a fine one to work with. Results and output are better, the learning curve is better, and the experience tends to be better in the end.

Twitter, a 7 day journey.. (+7 more days to this post)

     To be honest, I never liked the idea of twitter. In fact, before I begin, you should know that I rather despise most social networking sites. I find that for the most part they are just time wasters. If anyone disagrees, please, take a moment to think how many of your friends plays those terrible facebook games that make you feed fish or grow "crops. However, that is not to say that I don't recognize a use for them. I sincerely see the use of social media websites like youtube, facebook, and most of all LinkedIn. But I could never fathom the idea that twitter is useful for anything. And in reality, its not.
    Twitter serves no real practical purpose. Unless of course you are a news station, in which case you can create a newsfeed that shoots into a practical social media site, like facebook. Or if you are a celebrity or politician that wants to spread some fine propaganda and cause viewers to see you as a person rather than a far off finely made suit with political ideals.
     The irony of the preceding paragraph is that the lack of a substantial basis for practicality is what makes twitter such a beautiful tool fo rpeople to use. It has no purpose, no aims and goals, and no determination to have live your "twitter life" a certain way. You create your own practical uses for it. As in this article http://www.balkhis.com/twitter/25-reasons-why-someone-should-join-twitter/, the author states that one reason to use twitter is to learn. This may seem an odd concept, but its only because twitter wasn't necessarily built for this use. Its all about what you make of it. The author mentions of himself being a designer, and following other designers that then present links and ideas on twitter, thus giving him knowledge.
    I too have found this ironic feature of twitter. I've started following actors and writers and directors. Seeing as performing arts are one of the things that I've considered going into in my future, I thought I should try to see what they are like. Although I know that they wouldn't put anything that would get them in trouble up on twitter. (Thus masking somewhat who they really are.) But the usefulness of their posts is that they can't completely not be themselves while posting on twitter. Thus concludes my journey, as far as you know! I shall probably still have a twitter account, and shall probably still tweet and read a few of my favorite actors and directors, and possibly even add you. My profile can be found at this URL. http://twitter.com/#!/Mark_E_Hamilton
    

The Best of Times

     Well, yet another blog post for you to read. But this one might be important if you think about it. Because maybe you can relate to something in this blog post to yourself. The topic that has been assigned is essentially, "You at your best!", which at it's basis means a moment or short period of time when you did the best you could or your best work. Frankly, I can think of a lot of times I did the best I could, and worked my rear end off for it. I'm sure that everyone that looks at this blog can think of many times that they have done the same. And thats awesome, because in reality, its the moments that you do your best that you become your best.
      The specific time and moments I've picked to talk about are from my senior year of high school. These moments that are in my senior year of high school are great to talk about, because everyone that reads this blog has experienced the senior year of high school. All of you know what its like to have climbed the ropes and gotten to the top of whatever activities (including academic activities) that you participated in.
       Anyway, lets get on to the story. At my high school, the drama department is a big deal. In fact, it is almost as popular as any of the sports, (yes, including football), at my school. From day one of a play at Lewis Central High School the kids are hard at work. I remember being amazed when I was a freshman first starting out at the monumental and enormous task of a play at LC. We created all of our own sets by hand (two story buildings made of 2x4's and plywood and masonite and all sorts of materials. The actors met for three hours a day every day during the week, at least, and we had 14 hour long "tech days" that we spent making our set and bonding as a group.. and come to think of it I really miss it. Anyway, that is just setting up the stage for the story. (Yes, that was indeed a clever and amusing pun!)
         Anyway, on to my senior year. (I mean it this time, I swear.) My senior year, we decided to do a play by Shakespeare, known as "A Midsummer Night's Dream". This is actually somewhat ironic, since it was the first Shakespeare play that my director had done since he started directing twenty years ago, mostly because his college degree was in Shakespearian literature. I had acquired the role of Demetrius. (The sexy stud, yeah, typecasting, I know.) By my side I had a friend that played Lysander, and two females that played Hermia and Helena. Now, being a senior that had been in the program for four years, I was really excited to finally have one of the lead roles and to be doing such a comedic play. Little did I realize what a rough road it was going to be.
        During this play, I was terribly ill. Personally I was having just a rough time due to my hiatal hernia. (My stomach is pushed partially into my chest cavity) and dealing with H1N1 flu virus. But I wasn't so worried about myself as I was worried about all of my commitments. (I was also writing a script for speech, and was head drum major of the band program) Most of all though, I was worried about the play. When we were about four weeks in I realized that it was going to be a disaster. You see, a lot of the seniors from last year had graduated, and a lot of seniors from my grade had decided not to do the play. Because of this, a lot of people in the program were new people that didn't know how to commit to their roles. Our carpentry team (although the entire cast and crew builds the set, we do have some specialized people that do only building) was new and didn't work very hard to build the set, and they had a hard time following instructions and directions correctly. The seniors had to spend a lot of time getting after them and sometimes making sure that things got done by doing it themselves. The set was being finished up to the last minute. And this I mean quite literally. I still remember vividly being at the top of a two foot ladder painting trees overhead, putting off getting into make up and costume. (I mostly remember this because I really hate painting, and I doubly hate that ladder.)
      The set wasn't the hard part though, it was the acting team. If you don't know this play, let me tell you one quick think about it. Actors are separated up. There are definite sects within the cast of it that never directly interact with one another and have long drawn out scenes within themselves rather than with the other sects of the cast. This did a real number on the dynamics of the teamwork and making the play feel like we were a team of students working to make an awesome show. Some of the sects like the "rustics" were composed entirely of underclassmen with little to no acting experience. The royals were composed of people so involved in other activities that they couldn't always make practice. This coupled with them being kind of lazy people, didn't help out the situation, as they wouldn't practice outside of rehearsal. The "fairies" group was composed of several upper classmen with a  lot of acting experience, so for the most part they were pretty well off. As for my group, the lovers, we weren't too bad. The two male lead roles had a hard time since we couldn't get into a roles very well, mostly due to problems with one the of the lead females. This girl simply would not learn her lines or put in the effort to learn her lines. She would go around the stage and repeatedly have to call out "Line!" to get her lines. This kept up to the bitter end. It really screwed up the flow and humor of the rest of the actors when we had to wait for her to call out line.
      These sort of things went on up until the final dress rehearsal. This dress rehearsal was one of the worst things our director had ever seen. It was absolutely terrible, and we all knew it. It still bothers me to even think about it. Once we got back into the dressing rooms, I gave a very long winded speech... it probably seemed more like yelling to some people. I don't know if I have ever been that upset, and I started to tear up during it. A lot of kids didn't like what they heard, but it didn't much matter, because the ones that got the most upset were the leaders that failed to take a stance and say something to the others. The ones that really got the message were the ones that needed it. I don't really wanna say that that was me at my best, because I was really upset and mean at that time. But the next day was amazing.
     The one that that I will never forget about the first day of the production, didn't happen during the production, it was during the school day. One of the actors that had been really slacking off sat in front of me in my math class. This was first play, and before class started he turned around to me and said, "Now I understand why this drama program means so much to you guys. Don't worry, we're going to put on a good show for you, Mark." It was so amazing right then that someone had actually listened to what I was saying, that had paid attention and had decided to make a change to work his best to do better. The day went on, and it was still a hard rush, my buddy that played Lysander and I worked together before practice to find  a way to make the show more exciting and funny. We eventually got it ready and it was a fantastic plan. During the performance, the energy in the air was just difference. The hard work that we put into planning the show paid off. During the scenes between Lysander and Demetrius, there was nonstop laughter and intrigue. People really cared and loved those characters and the show. After the show, the director gave his speech that he usually gives before the show begins. He talked about how incredible the show was compared to the last dress rehearsal. After his speech he pulled Blake (Lysander) and I off to the side and told us that it was the most impressive thing he had seen since he had been doing acting and directing. It was a really powerful thing to hear from him, since he is one of the meanest most reserved people I know, and he also doesn't give many compliments. We worked harder the next day, spiffed up parts of the show and the set, and had an amazing show on Saturday, that blew the audience away.
     I think I can honestly say that doing that show was one of the hardest things I had ever done. But I can also say that it was one of the times that i worked the hardest I ever have. Thats why I think it is one of the best of times for me. Sorry, that this blog post was a tad bit long. Sometimes I go off and don't think about stopping. Sorry for those of you that have to read it all and comment.
    Anyway, it is important to work your hardest and do your very best, because that is when you are your very best. And why would you want to be anything else?
    

Timely Manners

     Early is on time, on time is late, late is left behind. That was my first band director's motto. It turns out that some of those lessons people teach you when you are young to scare you (since no one wants to be left behind, or have the boogie man get them because they didn't clean under the bed) actually pertain to real life. The fact is that 90% of life is being on time. (Another motto... from my most recent band director.) If you don't show up, you can't do anything very well, now can you? In the case of being on time to class, you can't very well learn when you're not there. But the other thing is that its not just troubling to you, but its troubling to the other students that are already in class. Whether or not you're in a small class that waits for everyone to arrive, or a huge one that moves full speed ahead with or without you, you WILL make a big difference in the flow of the class. My drama director made a big deal out of this, if you're going to show up late, don't show up all, because it screws up the mojo of the group. So to sum it all up, there are three reasons to show up on time and/or early.

A. You can't do stuff if you don't show up.

B. Its an important life skill.

C. You're hurting yourself and those around you when you show up late.

Sincerely,
Mark Hamilton

First Post

     The Beloit College Mindset for the class of 2014 is kind of a silly thing. A lot of the topics and things listed on their list are kinda silly to be on any list in the first place. Being a 2014 graduate, I feel that a lot of the things stated are inaccurate. Though I must say that some of them might seem accurate.
    Lets be sensible and start at the top of the list, then work down randomly jumping around and see how far we get before my fingers start to get tired of this game. Number one, states very simply that very few students in the classroom know how to write in cursive. Honestly, I kind of take that as an insult. Everyone in my high school knows how to write in cursive, including myself. And frankly, if you ever saw my handwriting in print, you'd think it was cursive, and even though that sounds like a joke about my terrible handwriting, which is rather terrible, its actually due to my mixing the faster and clearer parts of cursive with my print, because I learned them both.
     As for number four, I simply do not know what to say to that. I don't think that I have ever seen Al Gore animated in my life. Maybe I missed out on something. That is probably because, contradictory to number sixty-two, I never had cable or satellite television. I had the good five channel setup, along with IPTV.
     I must admit though, some of these I have no idea about. Like toothpaste tubes that stand up on their caps! When did this happen? And when did a pizza jockey from Dominos die while getting a pizza to a destination in under thirty minutes. And Buffy at Hemery High? Why put such a terrible movie on that list? The TV show was the cult hit that people know. The movie, not so much, I doubt that many of the people that were of the right age group for it when it came out remember it, and many people have probably repressed it.
     In conclusion to this commentary on this list, I must say that despite my many comments about how silly it is, I must say that it probably is fairly accurate. This idea occurred to me when I realized that some of the things they were saying in here I haven't even thought of as things from any generation in particular. They are all just historical facts or things that I've done but never thought about. I can't imagine many of the class of 2014 feel that caramel macchiato has, or ever will be for that matter, a form of "street corner lingo." And I doubt that anyone in my age group has ever been confused as to what pointing a their wrist (in the sense of time) means. (And as for the introductory paragraph, I wear a wristwatch everyday.) Overall I can honestly say that although some of the things on this list are possibly slightly accurate, I am somewhat offended by this list. Its like people expect my age group to be uniformed and illogical. The thing is, not all people are like that, chances are that there are just as many people in your age group that don't know those things as mine.