Daily Prompt on Accident

Have you ever been in an automobile accident?

I was in an automobile accident a few months ago. The accident occurred in front of a shopping center (strip mall) in a fairly nice neighborhood. I was driving by the shopping center. A guy in a red vehicle was leaving the shopping center and failed to stop before making a right turn onto the street. I saw what he did so I honked my horn to get his attention. I even tried to swerve away from his vehicle. Sadly, the vehicles collided but it was not as bad as it could have been. Swerving to the right prevented a more serious accident that would have involved the body of my vehicle.

After the accident, we thought my vehicle had only minor issues. But, boy, were we wrong! After driving for several minutes, I had problems with my steering. I almost ran off the road. I blogged about the drive in a recent blog post: https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/2022/12/worse-experience-driving-to-laurel.html

Exercise

My paragraphs for the exercise on telling fact from fiction:

I like the outdoors. I like the blue sky, the trees, rivers, lakes, and relaxing on the grass. I like trees and the fruits they manufacture. I enjoy spending time by the lake even when it is filthy. I enjoy waiting for hours in a fishing boat with rod extended hoping to catch a big one. I don't enjoy the outdoors when driving because I am locked in the vehicle unable to enjoy the grass or watch the full sky.

Choosing a hotel is more difficult than you think. There are an enormous amount of options available. There are the very expensive ones, the mid-range ones, and a lot of cheaper hotels. One has to think about the benefits or satisfaction gained from the extras that come with additional dollars. Is that sauna worth the extra money? I place much value on a hotel gym. I use it all the time.

Can you tell the fictitious elements?

IKEA Paper Submitted For Publishing

I finally finished the IKEA paper and submitted it to a journal for publishing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also updated my author description:

Fahmeena Odetta Moore is currently working on publishing papers so she could graduate with a PhD from Northcentral University (ncu.edu). For courses completed thus far, she has completed papers on a variety of topics: Decision-making, Usability and Consumer Analytics, Innovation, Technology to Handle Employee Risk, Quality and Success, Videos, and Social Media. Ms. Moore's background includes master's degrees in Finance and Information Systems from US universities, a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Guyana, and success at A-Level Accounting, Pure Mathematics with Statistics and Economics examinations. Ms. Moore qualified for and attended top schools in Guyana. 

Consumer Analytics

I recently updated my research areas in my Research LinkedIn profile. The two changed areas are shown below.

Usability is now Usability and Consumer Analytics. These days, Consumer Analytics is major. I am amazed at the quantity of information collected on the consumer. For example, Google collects lots of personal data on users/consumers of its Gmail service and Maps. Data from Gmail, such as keywords in an email, is provided to Google’s search engine. Maps collects location and other data. An interesting paper on Consumer Analytics is:

Big data consumer analytics and the transformation of marketing
By: S. Erevelles, N. Fukawa, L. Swayne
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296315002842

Christmas

It is Christmas Day! Merry Christmas to one and all!

As I mentioned, this year things are a little different. It does not look a lot like Christmas around me, but I will reminisce about things I enjoy about the Christmas season. I enjoy the decorations, I enjoy the food, I enjoy exchanging presents (gifts), and so on. I have enjoyed Christmas since I was a child. I recall performing at school concerts at Christmas. At Watooka Day School, I sang 'O Holy Night' with a group of students in a white dress holding a lighted white candle. At President's College, I was a part of a choir that performed Mele Kalikimaka (the Hawaiian Christmas song). Those were fun times.

Importance Of Changes

I noticed that change is an important part of the IKEA story. The company made a lot of changes to be competitive (mostly in response to the marketplace). I will look into.

Where In The Process

While reading a paper on innovation for continuous product development, I discovered that there are different opinions about where the generation of ideas (innovation) should occur in the product development process. One model says that the creative ideas should be generated only at the beginning (see below). Another says it should occur throughout. This issue is somewhat similar to, and maybe related to, the use of marketing staff in the product development process - the subject of the marketing paper I submitted for publishing. In the paper, I looked whether marketing staff should be used only at the end of the process. Very interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pepperpot

I mentioned pepperpot in my video update. Here is a video from Visit Guyana showing the host eating pepperpot with a friend.

 

Video Update 12/22, Next Paper

 

 

"I selected the IKEA paper to work on next...I will improve the conceptual model"

 

Worst Experience Driving To Laurel

I had the worst experience driving to Laurel after my last accident. I recall how scared I was driving on Baltimore Avenue (Route1) heading towards Laurel. Shortly after passing the MVA, my vehicle almost ran off the road. The accident caused the steering to malfunction. I started driving slowly with hazard lights on. I wanted to stop or park off to the right. I couldn’t. I needed to keep driving along that busy stretch. There are traffic cameras along that road so I am certain the cameras captured it all.

Next Paper

Now that I am finished with the organizational structure (behavior) paper, I am moving on to another paper from the Business Environment course. The first paper for the course (the week 1 paper) was on ethics/fraud. I could modify/extend the paper and then submit it to a journal for publishing. It would be my first submission to an ethics journal. The presentation on leadership theories would also make a good paper. Of course, I need to work on publishing the signature assignment for that course - the paper on IKEA. IKEA is in the furniture market. I learned a lot about the furniture market in my ECommerce course at UMBC - that was good background. I "carried over" a lot of the topics from UMBC.

A lot from papers (a course) I completed when stranded in New York.
(Link to course: https://fmoorephdbus7110.blogspot.com)

My feet....

 

Photos, Introduction To Usability

The photos above show a textbook (Interaction Design) I purchased years ago for a course at UMBC along with a page from the book. I first learned of usability during that course.

Org Paper Submitted

I submitted the org structure paper to a journal.

NCMA Magazine

I found an old issue of Contract Management magazine among my things (the magazine is from 2009 and shows an old address). It reminded me that I was a member of the National Contract Management Association (NCMA) over 10 years ago. NCMA publishes the magazine.

NCMA membership is in my background, but is not shown on my resume or LinkedIn profile. I included it on my resume when I performed financial management duties such as paying contractor invoices (based on a contract), reviewing travel expense reports, and so on. My LinkedIn profile does include some old stuff just not everything. For example, yesterday's post, which includes a screenshot of my LinkedIn course list, shows past audit training.

Job Search System

Months ago, I prepared a proposal for a job search system. The proposal includes requirements - both requirements statements and use cases - for a new system to assist job seekers to keep track of job applications. It was a project for a course offered by Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/learn/analysis-for-business-systems).

Here it is:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L8AdVTPip3l37GZw5-Pd_58aIoM8qoj-gbi5dfxmA3M/edit

The project reminds me of the proposal (deliverable) for the Structured Systems Analysis and Design course at UMBC. I led the preparation of that proposal.

Down Memory Lane Dec17

A black marble composition book….reminds me of Watooka Day School. Students at Watooka Day used these books instead of the standard Guyanese exercise book. There were other special things.

Watooka Day was created by the bauxite company (called Guymine when I was there; called Demba originally, which was owned by Alcan Aluminum). The Chinese took over bauxite mining operations in Linden. The company is called Bonsai Minerals Group Guyana Inc.

Status Dec16

I did not work on my paper today. I was “out sick.” I will work on it again on Monday. 

I am thinking of recording myself finishing the paper. I will need a camera.

Phrases

The dictionary also includes definition of phrases. An example is: the definition of "command of something" defined in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/command-of-something) as
"knowledge of something, especially a language, or ability to use something."

How does one (a person) show command of a topic? Professionals write articles, speak on the topic at conferences, explain difficult concepts on the topic to others or use other ways to show that they are experts in a particular area/topic.

 

 

 

Org Paper Status

The Venn diagram is interesting. It could be more complex since other relationships could be included/shown in the diagram. I am thinking of the options.

 

 

 

 

Update Dec14

Enjoying peanuts…a little at a time until gone. I will complete the organizational structure paper soon. 

Update Dec12

I am hard at work....

I just re-submitted my manuscript to Information Systems Research. The journal notified me that I needed to make a correction to my selected reviewers.

I am currently editing the paper on organizational structure. I will use a Venn diagram to show inter-relationships - similar to the Venn diagram shown here: https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/2022/06/writing-online-reviews.html

Org Structure paper Fahmeena Odetta Moore

Journal Articles For Publication Update

I received a few more updates from journals/publishers. I am excited about the update from Health Technology. I also submitted two articles for publication today - one is the completed article on involving marketing professionals early in the new product development process (the paper that started as a paper to use theories to create a marketing plan).

An excerpt from the marketing paper:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I submitted it to the Journal of Marketing Management.

Updates from the journals:

After the rejection (directly above), I submitted the paper as a research commentary...

LinkedIn Comments

I learned through LinkedIn that a former coworker won a Hackathon Award at Microsoft. I congratulated her and left a comment on how I benefited from the questions she asked on-the-job. (It is related to my featured post). A few days prior, I also congratulated a classmate from GWU who got a new job. I reminded him of a conversation we had in the MSF computer lab.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Throwback

Remembering the Structured Systems Analysis and Design course at UMBC. The course required team work on an actual project. I had trouble finding a project to work on. I considered several options. I thought of a website for a family member's pastry business. I even contacted several companies to inquire about projects I might work on. Those options did not work out. I ended up dropping the course the first time I was supposed to take it.

The second time around, I joined a team formed by two brothers. The brothers had a project to work on because they were employed at a company that allowed them to use the project/problem for school. It was an interesting topic too - it dealt with security incidents, an example is the incident reported and recorded when an employee loses a laptop. The team was called Team Maryland.

Responses From Journals

I received feedback from a few journals/publishers.

I received a courteous ("nice") letter from Health Technology Journal. The team there will discuss my submission and get back to me.

I received a rejection letter from another journal. It provided good feedback.
I think the editor was expecting a more extensive or thorough literature review. That organizational structure paper is based on only three articles not 20 or 30 articles like other papers. I think I need to identify/raise an issue or think of a way to make a more substantial contribution to the literature.

I am still working on the marketing paper. I am reviewing market research.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foot Update Dec7

The wrapping is pretty much off. My foot needs to be wrapped again….

Update Dec6

I am still working on the marketing paper. I like what I have so far.

So far, I have submitted about 5-6 papers for publishing. I used papers from 3-4 courses for those manuscripts. One of the courses was Business Environment - the course I was taking when stranded in New York. I actually started with that course because one of the assignments was to prepare a paper for publishing. As you may expect, another course was the Literature Review course. My topic was online reviews.

I could have started with the signature assignments since all my signature assignments were major papers. I will get to the signature assignments later. Those need to be published.

The review of papers in a course to determine which should be published worked well. I noticed themes. For example, I noticed that I focused on innovation during a part of the Business Environment course. That could be one of my research areas.

On the subject of themes, I am thinking of the theme in the 'Inside Fahmeena Odetta's Head' blogs. The webpages look different but they "belong together". Only the main blog - Blogspot - has a featured post right now. I would like to add a featured post to each blog. I will work on that sometime in the future. I tried to use the standard, out-of-the-box options for each blog.

Foot Update

My foot is better. The emergency room doctor at Doctors Community Hospital recommended that I see a specialist (podiatrist or orthopedic). I hope to do so soon.

Marketing Paper

The marketing paper turned into a paper that argues for something. Drawing from my experience, I came up with the idea that marketing professionals should be involved earlier in the process.

I will submit the paper for publishing soon. I am working, working, working....

 

 

 

 

 

Paper Edited And Ready For Publishing

I made minor changes to the paper that includes the proposal for a study on technology solutions for hand hygiene compliance (I prepared the proposal for the Research Methods course - "under the hood" information for the course shown here: https://fmooresignatureassignment3.blogspot.com/). The paper is now ready for publishing again.

I had trouble finding journals that accept "proposal" papers so I decided to submit a question about acceptance of this "different" paper to a journal. I mentioned that the paper uses a new theory for explaining employee performance in the hand hygiene area - the habit-forming theory. One of the main hypotheses in the paper is that technology solutions for hand hygiene compliance will improve employee performance in the short term in a manner that follows an asymptotic curve, i.e. there a steady increase in performance that peaks at a certain level. This is in line with the habit-forming theory.

I hope to hear from the editor soon.

 

 

 

 

 

Bus Rides In Gainesville

Today I am remembering my regular bus rides to get around Gainesville, Florida. I took the bus to buy groceries, to get to my volunteer position, and so on.

Here are some posts on my bus rides.

I took the bus to Walmart:
I transferred to the bus to Butler Plaza at this RTS bus stop -
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ-s615Dpxm/
(Waiting for the 1 (bus) to get to #ButlerPlazaWalmart here in Gainesville...buses running on holiday schedule)
And here is a photo of the bus -
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ-tUJojZwf/
(And I am off...bus is here)

I took the bus to McDonald's on Newberry Rd:
Here is a photo of the McDonald's restaurant. It was new -
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCJNMIpCyBP/
(#McDonalds on Newberry Rd near #OaksMall)

I took the bus to return the textbook I rented for one of my Statistics courses at Northcentral:
It took two bus rides to get there. I transferred at Oaks Mall.
I took this Instagram photo on the bus - https://www.instagram.com/p/BFmiPiNiyIz/
(Busy day...on my way to return textbook rental #phd #phdlife)

This blog showed that photo of my textbook in the past in a post about signature assignments and statistics - https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/2022/06/signature-assignments-statistics.html

I took the bus to restaurants on Archer Road:
The bus stopped a short walk away from Sonny's BBQ. Here is an Instagram post showing food from Sonny's -
https://www.instagram.com/p/-wlhwziyN0/
(Working on my #literaturereview paper....#school #phd #phdlife

This blog included a link to that Instagram post in a post about my food journal - https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/2022/10/work-and-food.html

I stopped at the Rosa Parks Bus Station quite frequently:
Here is an Instagram photo of the bus station. I frequently transferred to other buses from this station -
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJQPzdwDiJ9/
(Just arrived at #RosaParksBusStation...now need to take another bus (not a long distance bus such as #Megabus)...could do with some food right now)
And here is a photo of the interior of the bus -
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJQK0pGDs-Y/
(On the bus in #Gainesville #FL)

Running In The Morning

I was introduced to running first thing in the morning at President’s College. We woke up at 6:00am and got dressed to go running. We ran together - in formation. At first, it was very difficult to run and keep up with the pack. I was very fat and was not used to running. I gradually got better. 

Another Paper Submitted

I submitted another paper for publication today. The journal is: MIS Quarterly. The paper is on online reviews. I prepared a new version of my first signature assignment for publication.

I wanted to submit the paper to Cornell for publication since it is related to the paper I mentioned yesterday on responding to online reviews (I prepared the papers for the same course). I decided to submit it to another journal that does not focus on hotels or the hospitality industry. This paper discusses issues that are pertinent to all companies/industries. I hope the journal accepts it. The paper summarizes a lot of issues related to online reviews.

It was a busy day. I looked up the articles I selected, the categories and subcategories I used in the Literature Review outline, and so on. During the literature review course, I saved my selections in Refworks and Endnotes. A video I prepared on transferring data from Refworks to Endnote is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8FT1WyHKOc

Online Review Paper Excerpt by Fahmeena Odetta Moore

Elevator Pitch

You may have heard that I was stranded in New York a few years ago (see posts on my
experience at this link: https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/search/label/strandedinnewyork). At first, I was horrified because I had lost important items and could not retrieve them. Afterwards, I calmed down and started thinking about strategies to retrieve my important items.

After a while, I started enjoying New York. I enjoyed Bryant Park. I enjoyed walking around Times Square. I found quite a few tea shops and went in to look at their offerings. I even pitched my pickled meat business idea at a bank. I wasn't totally prepared but I did a good job.

It is important to sell your ideas and even "sell yourself" especially when seeking a job. In the past, I practiced an elevator pitch in case I needed to pitch an idea (here is an article on perfecting your elevator pitch: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4034-elevator-pitch-tips.html).

This reminds me of my 7 Ps of success. One of the Ps is for Persuasion.

Partial LinkedIn profile of Fahmeena Odetta Moore

New York Experience by Fahmeena Odetta Moore

Update Nov28

I submitted another paper for publishing. I called it "A Critical Analysis of Three Papers On Responding To Online Reviews." I submitted it to Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. Years ago, when I was working on the paper, I actually requested one of the three articles reviewed from Cornell University through the NCU (ncu.edu) library because it could not be opened/viewed from the NCU library - see related post https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/2022/07/responses.html).

If you are interested in my posts on online reviews, visit https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/search/label/onlinereviews.

I am in pain again. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food at PC

I am thinking of food during my high school years. My high school was a boarding school so I was away from home, living in a dorm with other girls. The school (dining) staff prepared meals for us - three meals a day served at 7:00am (give and take a half an hour), 12 noon, and 6:00pm. I don't recall the time for breakfast probably because I missed breakfast a lot. We ate regular Guyanese food. We ate a lot of rice, which is a staple in Guyana. The dining staff served the rice in the shape of a bowl - much like the shape shown in the photo below. Each student ate with a knife and fork. I recall being trained to eat with a knife and fork in home economics class.

Serving of rice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strong Background Needed

There is a lot of economics in my papers. "Where does the economics come from?" some may ask. I actually have a bachelor's degree in economics. And, I was studying economics long before then. I studied economics in high school. I passed economics at GCE O-level in 1991 (the certificates I posted about a month ago show this - see https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/2022/10/pc-certificates.html). Back then, economics was not offered at CXC so I wrote it through the London external examinations.

Having a strong background in an area/subject is important. My MS degree in Information Systems at UMBC (see https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/2022/07/commencement-documents.html) provided a strong background for website creation/development, among other areas. I took the basic IS course that taught me how to build websites, including coding/developing a shopping cart and creating an application that writes to a database. It started with a basic website that included a picture and a description of myself. Before long, I was creating more complex websites with tables and scrolling banners. I still remember the "mock" magazine e-commerce website I created for the course. I designed the website to allow the purchase of subscriptions to a variety of magazines.

I am familiar with the basics.

Fahmeena Odetta Moore UMBC Education

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sprained Foot

My foot wrapped.......
I wrapped it again today. Thanks to the hospital, I got wrapping and special shoes.

(Photo smaller than actual)

 

 

More Papers For Publishing

I submitted the organizational structure paper to another journal.

I am thinking of submitting the paper I prepared on Website Design and Customer Complaints for publication. It falls under the topic Usability and User/Customer Experience. I may need to make it longer.

Still Applying For Jobs

I spent some time searching for and submitting applications for jobs. It is such a tiring process.

Taking Care Of Business

I am taking care of business.....

I recently paid tolls sent by mail (for tolls in PA, NY and a few other Northeastern states). It reminded me of my vacation a few months ago. I enjoyed driving to Canada from Maryland.

Just a few days ago, I received the renewal notice for my car registration. I need to pay the fee soon. I am still waiting for information on my issue with Allstate.

 

 

 

 

I also need to complete a few applications I started. I don't want people to think I lost interest.

I am also looking into fingerprinting for travel. In the past, I had fingerprints taken for employment background investigations (government agencies such as the VA and FAA required them). Fingerprinting for travel is new and I want to look into it.

Primarily A Consultant

My resume/ LinkedIn profile shows a lot of titles, but my role/job is really Consultant. Here is a short summary:

Over her career, Fahmeena Odetta Moore has worked primarily as a Consultant. She has significant experience working as a Consultant for consulting companies such as ICF International and Grant Thornton on consulting assignments at US Government agencies. In recent positions, she has worked from home.

She has been working on various projects to help fund her PhD.

Music Band

At both Watooka Day School and President's College, I was a member of the band. At Watooka Day, joining the band was restricted to high performers.

At President's College, I became aware of the school band after a performance at an open floor talent show. The talent shows were open to any student. One night, I volunteered to play my flutophone (from Watooka Day School). It was after a performance by Dion who sang Animal Crackers In My Soup.

 

Music

"Music moves me to laugh or sing or cry,
Music moves me to reach right to the sky.
Music can do what you want it to,
No matter who you are,
So keep on moving, moving, moving along,
And someday soon you'll be a star."

When I was a child, I had very good music teachers. Mr. Wyatt and Rosemary Henry taught me music during high school (at President's College). At Watooka Day School, Mr. Smart taught me music.

I also had private piano lessons with Mr. Smart in Linden. He prepared me for the first level of an English music theory exam (available from the UK). I achieved a high passing grade. Because of those results, he was not surprised that I performed well at the Common Entrance exam (or Secondary School Entrance Exam) a few years later.  

Foot Problems

My foot is much better. I am leaving the hospital today. Bye bye foot problems.

Many, many years ago, I had problems with my foot during a marathon walk along the Soesdyke Linden Highway in Guyana. I was one of several students from President’s College who signed up to walk from Soesdyke to Linden (by foot). My foot problems began after about 40 hours of walking. My knee got stiff (pretty much seized up) and hurt really bad. I could not walk after that so I was transported home shortly after. I was dissappointed that I didn’t finish the walk.

Care

I am still in the hospital under the care of doctors. Today, I am remembering my short stay in the area reserved for sick students at President’s College (the “sick bay”). I think I was a challenge for the school nurse. She decided to bathe me in ice water - water made cold by ice.

Medical Treatment

For some time now, I have had foot pain, swelling of my legs, and so on. I wrote about it recently in the blog. I am happy to report that I finally got the (health)care I needed. I am currently at a hospital receiving treatment. My foot is better. 

Article Publication Status

I received another publishing failure letter yesterday. I will submit to other journals.

Resolving Issues

My ordeal with Allstate insurance company (involving conflicting information on who is at fault for the accident) made me think of work/processes on a particular government contract. Sometimes there were misunderstandings or conflicting information, but those issues were resolved quickly. People raised issues quickly (voiced their concerns) and involved the right people to develop solutions.

I remember the discussions I had with other team members. If there was a question about requirements I had prepared, for example, a tester would show up at my desk for answers/explanations. I had to explain what I had done, any issues, and so on. Once, a guy made me explain a diagram I had prepared in detail. I am sure we disturbed the team members sitting in the quad and beyond. I am happy that I had just completed my MS degree in Information Systems so I was armed with a lot of knowledge.

Still Waiting For Response On Insurance Issue

Good morning. It is a beautiful morning. I am still waiting for an update on my insurance issue from PG County officials and/or Allstate. I wanted to ask more questions in the Allstate system (for guests) but was unable to do so. I wonder what Allstate told their policyholder who was at fault for the accident.

Notable Guyanese Writers

The previous post on outstanding Guyanese actress Letitia Wright made me think of notable Guyanese writers. Yes, Guyana produced some outstanding writers (who wrote/write in English).

Source: https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/1222168

Guyanese

Congratulations Letitia!

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