Month: December 2018

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Endangered species are a subject close to my heart. I believe that a human is a stewards of the earth and with intelligence comes responsibility. After reading the first article: “After long wait, 11 new names added to Canada’s list of species at risk“I was upset at the reality that we don’t take this responsibility seriously enough. I am frustrated how profit and ego gets in the way of progress. I feel like deep down people know what is right and wrong, but for some reasons humans are compelled to the dark side. I feel that the corporate model that is so prevalent in our society plays a large role. Since we are operating within the corporate structure so often, it is hard to take off the blinders and see the big picture. We tend to think of performance in quarters and three to five year chunks. To contrast that the Indigenous people of this land would practise thinking seven generations ahead.

I feel the same frustrations when reading the second article:”60% of World’s Wildlife has been Wiped Out Since 1970“because, although some steps are being taken our perspective is wrong and the motivation of the policy makers isn’t there. The earth is a living breathing being. We grew from the earth and it provides us with everything we need to survive. People in the West get caught up in politics and economics, forgetting the responsibilities we have to those who were before us and those that will come after. We need to take care of our Mother Earth like it is all we’ve got,because it is!

My greatest strengths usually are the things I enjoy and when writing that means, having an obsession with being creative. Creative writing has always been a passion of mine, I clearly remember being exposed to it for the first time through poetry. Invigorated with how it felt to; Put my thoughts into words, creatively into lines and having them tell a story. Use an artistic flow to have words come to life and dance on the page. Heighten senses and evoking emotions through a thoughtful reveal of ideas, was and still is an exhilarating experience. I feel inspired every time I can translate simple words into art and express myself in any creative way. A key that gives me this strength is a tendency towards abstract thinking, helping me find different perspectives and consistently creating unique vantage points onto experiences.

Creativity has a flow and waves like the ocean, with its own climates and weather. In order to make the best of it, I have found that creativity needs nurturing. This means caring for the health of your brain and body is fundamental. Proper rest and nutrition to keeps me sharp. Another strategy is reducing stress by all means with, better time management and choosing an environment where I can focus. The third strategy for me is practicing mindfulness. I feel it necessary to allow myself to be completely immersed in the experience and encourage ideas to flow naturally. An added trick up my sleeve is keeping a sense of humor. Finding something funny has a way of sparking my creativity and usually my go to, when I catching a case of writer’s block.

With a creative writing style and tendency, writing scientific research papers can be difficult for me. The upcoming Species Profile assignment will be a challenge. On My This I Believe assignment (not a research paper) I received a mark of 71%. Setting myself a goal of reaching a higher mark on my Species Profile assignment means I will have improved upon my skills in this area.

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 “Ethics, and not profit, are the most important thing for business.”

I would have to agree with this statement because I believe business needs to be healthy. Money and business is such a vast topic that I must claim that this is solely my view and I do not have expectations of others to agree with me. A saying comes to mind when discussing this topic and that is: If you love your job, you’ll never work a day in your life!

Business is simply what you do and money is in the equation in order to represent value. If what you do is who you are, then there is a close relation between your work environments and perspective that affect your personality. I believe one of our needs as a human is to feel fulfilled and it is usually through our work where we can accomplish this. People need to  needs to be happy and therefore should take every opportunity to fill as many as possible through work to have a fulfilling career. The way to get this in a society is to encourage people to follow their passions and develop their creativity. Working in this way becomes an expression of one’s self as opposed to fitting into a position in a ridged structure. This is what I mean when I say business needs to be healthy, it is very possible and even more profitable when a business supports the mental and physical health of its employees through creating opportunities of free expression.

A couple other points that I will leave with you to ponder are; profit breeds greed and money is supposed to represent well-being. What kind of world are we creating if Ethics are not at the forefront of business?

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Researching can be a tedious task, but it is important to do if you want your work to be credible. It is always good to practice on your weak points and conducting researching while providing references is a skill I need to brush up on. Taking this communications class has been a crash course and I am grateful for the experience gained.

For my species profile I have selected the American Mink. Not knowing a lot about this animal I am going to have to conduct thorough research! The first step to conducting my research is selecting sources. We learned in class that sources should be run through and pass the CRAAP Test. CRAAP is an abbreviation that stands for; Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose.

After browsing the internet and library for several hours, I finalized my selection with five sources; two books, two websites and a YouTube video by a guy that calls himself “The Mink Man” (Carter, 2017).It was by running all the sources I found through the CRAAP Test that allowed these five to emerge as the best.  

The following is an example of a reference list:

Alaska Department of Fish and Game (2018). Species Profile. Retrieved from          http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=americanmink.main

Allen, A.W. (1986). Habitat and Sustainability Index Models: Mink. Fish Wildl. Serv. Biol. Rep.82(10.127)

Carter, J. (2017, May 03). What is a Mink. Retrieved from       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQB-htbQgsE

Elbroch, M., & Rinehart, K. (2011). Behavior of North American mammals. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

National Geographic. (Nov. 29, 2013). Secret Life of Predators. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZdAeXDlnQ4&t=626s