Happy Thanksgiving

Over Thanksgiving break I went to Chicago Illinois to see my family. When we first arrived, it was so cold that it actually started snowing! My cousins and I had a great time playing in the snow and going to hockey games. For the actuall meal, my grandmother, my aunt, and my mom all helped cook and we had an amazing meal. On friday, we went downtown Chicago and went shopping and then went ice skating in millenium park. Overall it was a great thanksgiving break and now I am anxious for christmas break to arrive.

Group Work

Group work has never been one of my favorite things to do. Usually people never pull their weight and one person ends up having to pick up all the slack. However, with my group for the Habitat for Humanity Web site, it has been quite the opposite. My group, Rethink Yo Style, has worked extremely well together. We haven't had any issues with people not doing their work or not showing up for meetings. In fact, my group even met for a cookout one night to get our work done. Even though we officially gave each other roles and parts such as leader, writer, designer... we have all taken on the role of each of these at some point or another. We know how to listen to each other and how to step up to the plate so to speak and get things done. I expect phase two of the project to go just as smoothly as phase one.

Chicago Marathon

On Sunday, October 7th, I ran the Chicago Marathon. It was the 30th anniversary LaSalle Bank run. I have been training for the race since February and was really pumped to run it. The race is known for it's ideal temperatures (high 40's- low 60's) and its flatness. However, when I ran the race on Sunday it was 90 something degrees and high humidity. It set a record for the hottest race ever in Chicago. It was miserable. When I reached the 21-mile mark, policemen came on loud speakers saying, "the race has been cancelled, we have no more paramedics, you must walk from here on out..." It was not the news anyone wanted to hear after training for so long and running so hard for. Many of the runners did stop to walk, but there were a few of us, myself included, who decided to keep on going. We were forced to walk at some points, but we did manage to keep running. The heat was so bad that people were dropping right and left, they were running out of water, and there were no more aid stations with medics to assist the runners that needed them. After a while, the spectators started dumping gallons of water on the runners to cool them off. People also brought out hoses that you could run under. The fireman even started using their huge fire hoses to drench the runners. It was quite the run.
I am proud to say I finished the race in 5:35:07 (not bad considering the heat and the forced walking). I would have liked to come in under 5 hours, but I am happy with my time. I also found out that 10,000 of the 45,000 runners dropped out due to the heat, 350ish runners ended up in the hospital, and one man died. I did see the man who died go down and that was a terrible sight, He fell about 60yds in front of me on the south side of the run. A few runners stopped to help him and take his pulse, but it was not there. I believe that it was after that incident that they cancelled the race.
I don't know if I will ever run a marathon again, but it was a great experience (minus the weather) that I would recommend for everyone. It really is amazing what the human body can be pushed to do. It also lets you know how much you can handle mentally and physically.

Interview Reflections

I was surprised to read that pulling an "all nighter" can be useful for future employment. In the article I read it mentioned how using some of the "soft" skills you learn in college can actually be very beneficial for the real world. It went on to say how being able to multi task on several different levels is very applicable now and many employers look for that in future employees. They took common things such as using facebook while typing a paper and watching TV all at the same and reworded it as being able to meet deadlines while multi tasking. The article also mentioned other skills that college students learn, such as studying abroad and spinned it so that it read as being culturally savvy. They mentioned how in the work force you will have many different assignments at once for several different clients and you might just have to pull that all nighter and work on different things at once in order to accomplish them all.
Another article that I read mentioned how body language in an interview can sometimes speak louder than words. A simple shrug can say a lot more than a verbal response sometimes. It can come off as seeming lazy and bored. Also maintaining eye contact is important. Shifty eyes can make you seem very unsure of what you are talking about and can give off the appearance of being nervous/anxious. The articles were entertaining and helpful to read so that when I go for an interview I now know of some beneficial hints to help me out.

Where I see myself in the next 10 years

I am not quite sure where I see myself in ten years. Right now I picture myself working for a company in downtown Chicago. I would love to live in an apartment on the north side of the city. Career wise, I would ideally like to promote goods and run major events. I love being given an idea or an item and then being asked to design a marketing plan to promote it for certain target markets. I would even enjoy working for the city or a company and planning their promotional events and kickoff parties.
In other areas of my life, I would like to be able to speak a few different languages or at least have a grasp on them. One of those languages would be Russian. I would also like to be settled down and get married, but if not, I will be ok with that. It's hard for me to picture where I will be because I am not sure of what all I want to do. What I think sounds interesting now might not actually be what I want to do in life. I guess only time can tell.

WEB 2.0

While watching the video "Web 2.0," I realized that I have absolutely no idea how to create a website. I have never had to learn formatting for a computer, but I feel like that would take me forever to learn how to do. I think that the title is trying to show how the internet is constantly changing and becoming much more personalized every second. More and more people in the workplace are using blogs and other web postings, even the news uses blogs on their websites. I feel as if the video is also trying to convey the message that in today's world everyone is connected somehow through the computer. I found it interesting when the video was highlighting content about how everytime you tag a photo or update website information, you are personalizing the computer more and more. You are also making connections with other people and their "machines" without even knowing it. It's amazing what we can make a machine do these days.

about me

My name is Kate Lasier and I am currently a Junior studying marketing. I am originally from Chicago, but when I was 6 I moved to Atlanta. When I turned 16, I moved again. This time I moved to Salem, South Carolina. I have lived on the lake for the past 5 years and love it. I am an avid waterskiier and competed on the Clemson Waterski Team last year. I also love adventures and am pretty much an adrenaline junkie. My most recent "adventure" has been training for a marathon in Chicago in October. I have never been much of a runner before, so I am really getting the full experience now. I am the only girl in my family, with brothers on both sides of me. I also love to watch movies and cook when I have time. I run a coffee shop located in Clemson's new Art Center and occaisonaly put in time at Tiger Lily Flower's and Gifts. Stop by The Arts Center sometime for coffee and treats if you would like.

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This is a practice blog