The Golden Lily Chapter 8

GOING OUT AGAIN didn't really happen until the weekend. Brayden and I were both overachieving enough to manage weeknight outings and still finish homework – but neither of us liked to do it if we could avoid it. Besides, my weeknights usually had some other conflict with the gang, be it a feeding or the experiments. Eddie had given his blood this week, and I'd made a point to not be around when it happened, lest Sonya try to pitch to me again. Brayden had wanted to go out Saturday, but that was the day I'd promised to drive Adrian to San Diego. Brayden compromised on breakfast, catching me before I hit the road, and we went out to a restaurant adjacent to one of Palm Springs' many lush golf resorts. Although I had long since offered to pull my share, Brayden continued picking up the bills and doing all the driving. As he pulled up in front of my dorm to drop me off afterward, I saw a surprising and not entirely welcome sight awaiting me: Adrian sitting outside on a bench, looking bored. â€Å"Oh geez,† I said. â€Å"What?† asked Brayden. â€Å"That's my brother.† I knew there was no avoiding this. The inevitable had happened. Adrian would probably cling to Brayden's bumper until he got an introduction. â€Å"Come on, you can meet him.† Brayden left the car idling and stepped out, casting an anxious glance at the NO PARKING sign. Adrian jumped up from his seat, a look of supreme satisfaction on his face. â€Å"Wasn't I supposed to pick you up?† I asked. â€Å"Sonya had some errands to run and offered to drop me here while she was out,† he explained. â€Å"Figured we'd save you some trouble.† Adrian had known what I was doing this morning, so I wasn't entirely sure his motives had been all that selfless. â€Å"This is Brayden,† I told him. â€Å"Brayden, Adrian.† Adrian shook his hand. â€Å"I've heard so much about you.† I didn't doubt that but wondered who exactly he'd heard it from. Brayden gave a friendly smile back. â€Å"I've actually never heard of you. I didn't even know Sydney had another brother.† â€Å"You never mentioned me?† Adrian shot me a look of mock hurt. â€Å"It never came up,† I said. â€Å"You're still in high school, right?† asked Adrian. He nodded toward the Mustang. â€Å"You must have a side job to make those car payments, though. Unless you're one of those slackers who just tries to get money off of their parents.† Brayden looked indignant. â€Å"Of course not. I work almost every day at a coffee shop.† â€Å"A coffee shop,† repeated Adrian, managing to convey a million shades of disapproval in his tone. â€Å"I see.† He glanced over at me. â€Å"I suppose it could be worse.† â€Å"Adrian – â€Å" â€Å"Well, it's not like I'm going to work there forever,† protested Brayden. â€Å"I've already been accepted to USC, Stanford, and Dartmouth.† Adrian nodded thoughtfully. â€Å"I guess that's respectable. Although, I've always thought of Dartmouth as the kind of school people go to when they can't get into Yale or Harv – â€Å" â€Å"We really need to go,† I interrupted, grabbing hold of Adrian's arm. I attempted to tug him toward the student parking lot and failed. â€Å"We don't want to get caught in traffic.† Brayden glanced at his cell phone. â€Å"Traffic patterns should be relatively light going west this time of the day, but being a weekend, you never know how tourists might alter things, especially with the various attractions in San Diego. If you look at traffic models applying the Chaos Theory – â€Å" â€Å"Exactly,† I said. â€Å"Better safe than sorry. I'll text you when I get back, okay? We'll figure out the rest of this week.† For once, I didn't have to stress about handshaking or kissing or anything like that. I was too fixated on dragging Adrian away before he could open his mouth and say something inflammatory. Brayden, while passionate about academic topics and me disagreeing with him, tended to otherwise be pretty mild-mannered. He hadn't exactly been upset just now, but that was certainly the most agitated I'd ever seen him. Leave it to Adrian to work up even the most easygoing people. â€Å"Really?† I asked, once we were safely inside Latte. â€Å"You couldn't have just said ‘nice to meet you,' and let it go?† Adrian pushed back the passenger seat, managing the most lounging position possible while still wearing a seatbelt. â€Å"Just looking out for you, sis. Don't want you ending up with some deadbeat. Believe me, I'm an expert on that kind of thing.† â€Å"Well, I appreciate your insider knowledge, but I'll manage this on my own, thanks just the same.† â€Å"Come on, a barista? Why not some business intern?† â€Å"I like that he's a barista. He always smells like coffee.† Adrian rolled down a window, letting the breeze ruffle his hair. â€Å"I'm surprised you let him drive you around, especially considering the way you freak out if anyone touches the controls in your car.† â€Å"Like the window?† I asked pointedly. â€Å"When the air conditioning's on?† Adrian took the hint and raised the window back up. â€Å"He wants to drive. So I let him. Besides, I like that car.† â€Å"That is a nice car,† Adrian admitted. â€Å"Though I never took you for the type to go for status symbols.† â€Å"I don't. I like it because it's an interesting car with a long history.† â€Å"Translation: status symbol.† â€Å"Adrian.† I sighed. â€Å"This is going to be a long ride.† In actuality, we made pretty good time. Despite Brayden's speculations, traffic moved easily, enough that I felt I deserved a coffee break halfway through. Adrian got a mocha – â€Å"Can you spot me this one time, Sage?† – and maintained his usual breezy conversation style throughout most of the trip. I couldn't help but notice, when we were about thirty minutes out, he grew more withdrawn and thoughtful. His banter dropped off, and he spent a lot of time gazing out the window. I could only assume the reality of his seeing his dad was setting in. It was certainly something I could relate to. I'd be just as anxious if I was about to see mine. I didn't really think Adrian would appreciate a shared psychotherapy session, though, so I groped for a safer topic to draw him out of his blue mood. â€Å"Have you guys learned anything from Eddie and Dimitri's blood?† I asked. Adrian glanced at me in surprise. â€Å"Didn't expect you to bring that up.† â€Å"Hey, I'm curious about the science of it. I just didn't want to participate.† He accepted this. â€Å"Not much to tell so soon. They sent the samples off to a lab – one of your labs, I think – to see if there's anything physically different between the two. Sonya and I did pick up a†¦ oh, I don't know how to describe it. Like, a ‘hum' of spirit in Belikov's blood. Not that him having magic blood should surprise anyone. Most people seem to think everything he does is magic.† â€Å"Oh, come on,† I said. â€Å"That's unfair.† â€Å"Is it? You've seen the way Castile worships him. He wants to be just like Belikov when he grows up. And even though Sonya's usually the spokesperson for our research, she won't breathe without checking with him beforehand. ‘What do you think, Dimitri?' ‘Is this a good idea, Dimitri?' ‘Please give us your blessing so that we can fall down and worship you, Dimitri.'† I shook my head in exasperation. â€Å"Again – unfair. They're research partners. Of course she's going to consult him.† â€Å"She consults him more than me.† Probably because Adrian always looked bored during their research, but I figured it wouldn't help to bring that up. â€Å"They've both been Strigoi. They've kind of got a unique insight to this.† He didn't respond for several moments. â€Å"Okay. I'll give you points for that. But you can't argue that there was any competition between me and him when it came to Rose. You saw them together. I never had a chance. I can't compare.† â€Å"Well, why do you have to?† Part of me also wanted to ask what Rose had to do with this, but Jill had told me numerous times that for Adrian, everything came back to Rose. â€Å"Because I wanted her,† Adrian said. â€Å"Do you still want her?† No answer. Rose was a dangerous topic; one I wished we hadn't weirdly stumbled into. â€Å"Look,† I said. â€Å"You and Dimitri are two different people. You shouldn't compare yourself to him. You shouldn't try to be like him. I mean, I'm not going to sit here and rip him apart or anything. I like Dimitri. He's smart and dedicated, insanely brave and ferocious. Good in a fight. And he's just a nice guy.† Adrian scoffed. â€Å"You left out dreamy and ruggedly handsome.† â€Å"Hey, you're pretty easy on the eyes too,† I teased, quoting something he'd told me a while ago. He didn't smile. â€Å"And don't underestimate yourself. You're smart too, and you can talk yourself out of – and into – anything. You don't even need magical charisma.† â€Å"So far I'm not seeing a lot of difference between me and a carnival con-man.† â€Å"Oh, stop,† I said. He could make me laugh even with the most serious of topics. â€Å"You know what I mean. And you're also one of the most fiercely loyal people I know – and caring, no matter how much you pretend otherwise. I see the way you look after Jill. Not many people would've traveled across the country to help her. And almost no one would have done what you did to save her life.† Again, Adrian took a while to respond. â€Å"But what are loyal and caring really worth?† â€Å"To me? Everything.† There was no hesitation in my answer. I'd seen too much backstabbing and calculation in my life. My own father judged people not by who they were but by what they could do for him. Adrian did care passionately about others underneath all of his bravado and flippancy. I'd seen him risk his life to prove it. Considering I'd had someone's eye cut out to avenge my sister†¦ well. Devotion was definitely something I could appreciate. Adrian didn't say anything else for the rest of the drive, but at least I didn't get the impression he was brooding anymore. Mostly he seemed thoughtful, and that wasn't so concerning. What did make me a little uneasy was that I often caught sight of him studying me in my periphery. I replayed what I'd said over and over in my mind, trying to figure out if there'd been anything to warrant such attention. Adrian's father was staying at a sprawling San Diego hotel with a vibe similar to the resort Brayden and I had eaten breakfast at. Businessmen in suits mingled with pleasure seekers in tropical prints and flip-flops. I'd almost worn jeans to breakfast and was glad now for my choice of a gray skirt and short-sleeved blouse with a muted blue and gray print. It had a tiny ruffled trim, and the skirt had a very, very faint herringbone pattern. Normally, I wouldn't have worn such contrasting textures together, but I'd liked the boldness of the look. I'd pointed it out to Jill before I left the dorm for breakfast. It'd taken her a while to even find the contrasting textures, and when she did, she'd rolled her eyes. â€Å"Yeah, Sydney. You're a real rebel.† Meanwhile, Adrian was in one of his typical summer outfits, jeans and a button-up shirt – though of course the shirt was untucked, with the sleeves rolled up and a few top buttons undone. He wore that look all the time, and despite its casual faà §ade, he often made it appear dressy and fashionable. Not today, however. These were the most worn-out jeans I'd ever seen him wear – the knees were on the verge of having holes. The dark green shirt, while nice quality and a perfect match for his eyes, was wrinkled to inexplicable levels. Sleeping in it or tossing it on the floor wouldn't achieve that state. I was pretty sure someone would have to actually crumple it into a ball and sit on it for it to look that bad. If I'd noticed it back at Amberwood (and hadn't been so distracted getting him away from Brayden), I would've insisted on ironing the shirt before we left. He still looked good, of course. He always looked good, no matter the condition of his clothing and hair. It was one of the more annoying things about him. This rumpled look made him come across as some pensive European model. Studying him as we took the elevator to the second floor lobby, I decided it couldn't be a coincidence that the most disheveled outfit I'd ever seen Adrian in had fallen on the day he had a father-son visit. The question was: why? He'd complained that his dad always found fault with him. Dressing this way seemed like Adrian was just providing one more reason. The elevator opened, and I gasped as we stepped out. The back wall of the lobby was almost entirely covered with windows that offered a dramatic view of the Pacific. Adrian chuckled at my reaction and took out his cell phone. â€Å"Take a closer look while I call the old man.† He didn't have to tell me twice. I walked over to one of the glass walls, admiring the vast, blue-gray expanse. I imagined that on cloudy days, it would be hard to tell where sky ended and ocean began. The weather was gorgeous out today, full of sun and a perfectly clear azure-blue sky. On the lobby's right side, a set of doors opened up onto a Mediterranean style balcony where diners were enjoying lunch out in the sun. Looking down to ground level, I caught sight of a sparkling pool as blue as the sky, surrounded in palm trees and sunbathers. I didn't have the same longing for water that a magic user like Jill possessed, but I had been living in the desert for almost two months. This was amazing. I was so transfixed with the beauty outside that I didn't notice Adrian's return. In fact, I didn't even notice he was standing right beside me until a mother calling for her daughter – also named Sydney – made me glance aside. There, I saw Adrian only inches away, watching me with amusement. I flinched and stepped back a little. â€Å"How about some warning next time?† He smiled. â€Å"I didn't want to interrupt. You looked happy for a change.† â€Å"For a change? I'm happy lots of times.† I knew Adrian well enough to recognize the sign of an incoming snarky comment. At the last second, he changed course, his expression turning serious. â€Å"Does that guy – that Brendan guy – â€Å" â€Å"Brayden.† â€Å"Does that Brayden guy make you happy?† I looked at Adrian in surprise. These kinds of questions were almost always a setup from him, but his neutral face made it hard to guess his motives this time. â€Å"I guess,† I said at last. â€Å"Yeah. I mean, he doesn't make me unhappy.† That brought Adrian's smile back. â€Å"Red-hot answer if ever there was one. What do you like about him? Aside from the car? And that he smells like coffee?† â€Å"I like that he's smart,† I said. â€Å"I like that I don't have to dumb myself down around him.† Now Adrian frowned. â€Å"You do that a lot for people?† I was surprised at the bitterness in my own laugh. â€Å"‘A lot?' Try all the time. Probably the most important thing I've learned at Amberwood is that people don't like to know how much you know. With Brayden, there's no censoring for either of us. I mean, just look at this morning. One minute we were talking Halloween costumes, the next we were discussing the ancient Athenian origins of democracy.† â€Å"I'm not going to claim to be a genius, but how the hell did you make that leap?† â€Å"Oh,† I said. â€Å"Our Halloween costumes. We're dressing Greek. From the Athenian era.† â€Å"Of course,† he said. And this time, I could tell the snark was about to return. â€Å"No sexy cat costumes for you. Only the most dignified, feminist attire will do.† I shook my head. â€Å"Feminist? Oh, no. Not Athenian women. They're about as far from feminist as you can – well, forget it. It's not really important.† Adrian did a double take. â€Å"That's it, isn't it?† He leaned toward me, and I nearly moved back†¦ but something held me where I was, something about the intensity in his eyes. â€Å"What?† I asked. He pointed at me. â€Å"You stopped yourself just now. You just dumbed it down for me.† I hesitated only a moment. â€Å"Yeah, I kind of did.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Because you really don't want to hear about ancient Athens, any more than you wanted to hear Brayden talk about Chaos Theory.† â€Å"That's different,† said Adrian. He hadn't moved away and was still standing so, so close to me. It seemed like that should've bothered me, but it didn't. â€Å"He's boring. You make learning fun. Like a children's book or after school special. Tell me about your†¦ um, Athenian women.† I tried not to smile. I admired his intentions here but knew he really wasn't up for a history lesson. Again, I wondered what game was going on. Why was he pretending to be interested? I tried to compose an answer that would take less than sixty seconds. â€Å"Most Athenian women weren't educated. They mostly stayed inside and were just expected to have kids and take care of the house. The most progressive women were the hetaerae. They were like entertainers and high-class prostitutes. They were educated and a little flashier. Powerful men kept their wives at home to raise children and then hung out with hetaerae for fun.† I paused, unsure if he'd followed any of that. â€Å"Like I said, it's not really important.† â€Å"I don't know,† said Adrian thoughtfully. â€Å"I find prostitutes vastly important.† â€Å"Well. How refreshing to see that things haven't changed,† a new voice cut in. We both flinched and looked up at the scowling man who had just joined us. Adrian's father had arrived.

Cute in Japanese Culture

The rise of cuteness in Japanese culture emerged in the 1970s as part of a new style of writing. Many teenage girls began to write laterally using mechanical pencils. These pencils produced very fine lines, as opposed to traditional Japanese writing that varied in thickness and was vertical. Also, the girls would write in big, round characters and they added little pictures to their writing, such as hearts, stars, smiley faces, and letters of the Latin alphabet. These pictures would be inserted randomly and made the writing very hard to read.As a result, this writing style caused a lot of controversy and was banned in many schools. During the 1980s, however, this new â€Å"cute† writing was adopted by magazines and comics and was put onto packaging and advertising. From 1984–1986, Yamane Kazuma studied the development of cute handwriting, which he called Anomalous Female Teenage Handwriting, in depth. Although it was commonly thought that the writing style was something that teenagers had picked up from comics, he found that teenagers had come up with the style themselves, as part of an underground movement.Later, cute handwriting became associated with acting childishly and using infantile slang words. Because of this growing trend, companies such as Sanrio came out with merchandise like Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty was an immediate success and the obsession with cute continued to progress in other areas as well. The 1980s also saw the rise of cute idols, such as Seiko Matsuda, who is largely credited with popularizing the trend. Women began to emulate Seiko Matsuda and her cute fashion style and mannerisms, which emphasized the helplessness and innocence of young girls. 4] No longer limited to teenagers, however, the spread of making things as cute as possible, even common household items, was embraced by people of all ages. Now there are airplanes painted with Pikachu on the side, and each of Japan’s 47 prefectures, the Tokyo police, and eve n the public broadcaster NHK all have their own cute mascots. Currently, Sanrio’s line of more than 50 characters takes in more than $1 billion a year and it remains the most successful company to capitalize on the cute trend

Don’t Skip Breakfast Essay

Have you ever felt uncomfortable physically because of skipping your breakfast? A nutritious breakfast bring us a fresh start of one day. Many people who want to lose weight choose not to eat breakfast. However, this method would only cause converse effects. We might feel deprived of energy and hungry all the morning as a result of skipping breakfast. In fact, breakfast determines our health condition. Skipping breakfast is a bad habit which will affect our health and we need to eat breakfast everyday. For one thing, skipping breakfast is not an appropriate way to lose weight. Surprisingly, a study from the Dairy Research Institute proved that citizens who don’t eat breakfast are weight more than those who do. The results indicates that those who skip it expend 40% more sweets, 55% more soft drinks, 45% fewer vegetables and 30% less fruit than those who eat breakfast(July 1, 2012)(mrbreakfast.com). Actually, eating a healthy breakfast could somehow help you to manage weight. A nutritionist Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D. who works in Mayo Clinic in USA replies how it helps to get rid of needless weight in three main ways. â€Å"Reduced hunger, healthy choices and more energy.† She mentioned that when long-term fasting happens, the insulin response of your body would grow, then more fat would be stored in your body. She also states if you eat breakfast, you’re more likely to eat a healthy diet during the rest of the day. (mayoclinic.com n.d.)We prefer snacks such as chocolate bars to supply our energy when we are starved. Definitely, the diet which we planned is changed. Skipping breakfast makes us less efficient at work or study. Amanda Wynne of the British Dietetic Association told BBC News Online that studies of children who are at school reflects that eating breakfast help them to concentrate more in the morning. Another study from the Learning Connection Summit indicates â€Å"brain scans of children who eat breakfast show more activity than scans of children who skip breakfast(October 9, 2012)† (mrbreakfast.com). The energy we need is obtained after we have breakfast, therefore we have more strength throughout the whole morning. Obviously, we are more businesslike at work when we are energetic. We should be aware of the importance of eating breakfast.A 16-year research from Harvard investigated into approximately 30,000 subjects show that individuals who skip breakfast are 21% more likely to have Type 2 diabetes than those who eat breakfast regularly(May 24, 2012). . A study in the Environmental Health Journal found that â€Å"children who ate breakfast had 15% lower blood lead levels than those who skipped breakfast(April 1,2011)†.(mrbreakfast.com)Nowadays, the number of diabetics is in rise gradually. Many of us skip breakfast for saving time or more sleep. However, it seems we need to be conscious of the necessity of eating breakfast. It is decisive to our health condition. Overall, daily breakfast keep us on track if we are trying to manage weight, making us attentive at work, avoiding blood-sugar problems, and supplying nutritious to our body. In the other hand, regular breakfast makes us vigorous from the beginning of everyday. Reference Page Breakfast: How does it help weight control? (2011 July). Retrieved Dec 3,2012 http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/food-and-nutrition/AN01119 Breakfast Research & Statistics.(n.d.)Retrieved Dec 3,2012 http://www.mrbreakfast.com/glossary_term.asp?glossaryID=152 Mdhil, (2012 June), 8 Health Reasons You Should Never Skip Breakfast. Retrieved Dec 3,2012. http://in.lifestyle.yahoo.com/8-health-reasons-never-skip-breakfast-033028953.html Shereen Jegtvig, (2012 November), Don’t Skip Breakfast. Retrieved Dec 3,2012. http://nutrition.about.com/od/nutrition101/a/breakfast.htm Skipping breakfast very bad for health.(2003 July)Retrieved Dec 3,2012 http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/4004.php

Consider the means by which history is portrayed in the German film Essay

Consider the means by which history is portrayed in the German film The Counterfeiters(2007). How does the film contribute to - Essay Example The authenticity of the events as they have occurred in real life transports the audience to see what people had been subjected to during those dark times. â€Å"Die Falscher â€Å"or â€Å"The Counterfeiters† takes on a new light in the development of the historical construct that was the Nazi concentration camps by introducing divergent characters who are as real as they could possibly be. The reality of human nature as one faces moral problems is an inherent quality that we cannot escape, particularly if we are faced with choices under abnormal circumstances. â€Å"The Counterfeiters† brings a new perspective on the people that seem inconsequential but make the ultimate difference and how their choices bring about the consequences that may reasonably alter the course of history. Consequently, flooding the market with counterfeited bills of the enemy is a viable plot to sway the war, but this intangible notion of a mere possibility in the eyes of prison workers is s econdary to the threat of imminent death. The film presents us inadvertently with an alternate scenario where the dollar was forged earlier and the Nazis could have stood a better chance of winning the entire war. â€Å"The Counterfeiters† shows us that the infamous concentration camps of World War II, just as fundamentally as history itself, are made up of people, people and their choices. As the introduction of Eleanor Roosevelt to the renowned book â€Å"Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl† so eloquently puts it, â€Å"living in constant fear and isolation, imprisoned not only by the terrible outward circumstances of war but inwardly by themselves, made me intimately and shockingly aware of war's greatest evil--the degradation of the human spirit.† Though Anne Frank and the people in â€Å"The Counterfeiters† may have had different experiences, the fear and mortification runs parallel between them. The men chosen for ‘Operation Bernhand were ha ndpicked because of their previous professions vital to the operations of a large-scale currency counterfeiting scheme confidential even to other high ranking SS officials. Central to the entire process is Salomon ‘Sally’ Sorowitsch, a world class counterfeiter living the high life in Berlin before he was caught by the Sturmbannfuhrer Friedrich Herzog. â€Å"Like most films about the Holocaust it is a survivor’s tale, and its protagonist, at least at first, seems long on guile and short on scruple† (Scott par.1). The triangle in his uniform represents the tag of a habitual criminal separating him from the other prisoners. Displaying his skills in cunning, Sally finds himself comfortable in the Mauthausen concentration camp by capitalizing on his artistic skills and painting for the Nazi officers. His transfer to the Sachsenhausen camp reunited him with Herzog who privies him to his new role in the forging of the British pound and then onwards to the Americ an dollar. The pivotal dynamics of the story revolves around the struggle between the ideals of two men between Sally Sorowitsch and Adolf Burger. The two represent diverging ethos each with its own viable merit. The film is essentially a story of survival under dire circumstances and how a tactical plan by the Nazis could bring the war to an end. This is framed in the characters of the story and how the human ethical dilemma of choosing between one’

Case Study, KKC Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

, KKC - Case Study Example KKC management has decided not to overburden its customers with the transportation tariff, and therefore it incurs all the payment towards insurance of the goods and its safety; the customer is liable to only pay for the transportation charges upon receipt of the product. As per the customer survey, less than 5percent of the customers have asked for delivery within period of 4days. In this case, we will try to satisfy 95percent of the customers by developing transportation strategy through which delivery can be made within 4days. On daily basis Houston, Minneapolis and Little Rock are the locations where less than 20units are procured on daily basis. In other locations, the average demand is more than 40units; therefore we would give Houston, Minneapolis and Little Rock relatively lower priority. We are ignoring Little Rock and Minneapolis for daily shipment; therefore KKC will not post its cargo through to these locations directly through airline. KKC is advised to post its units from Houston to Denver, Little Rock and Minneapolis through trucks. From the given figures, it is evident that transportation from Houston and Atlanta shall be feasible option for the company. Houston and Atlanta shall be the focal points from San Francisco and Los Angeles. From these two primary locations, further shipment shall be carried through trucks. The company is advised to adhere to safe policy related to the inventory count, and storage of units at private depots shall never be considered a safe option. The count of units is not high enough to advise company for expansion of its business unit at this stage, however company is advised to focus on marketing side to capture

The food crisis of 2008 had been threatening for a few years, mostly Essay - 1

The food crisis of 2008 had been threatening for a few years, mostly affecting the poor. A variety of causes but mostly man-made - Essay Example In this essay, the writer attempts to explicate that among variegated causes of food crisis are population explosion, mismatch of developmental priorities, environmental degradation and climate change. Population explosion The world has reached a population of 6.85 billion in the mid-year of 2010 and is estimated to reach 7 billion by the end of 2011 (Rosenberg, 2011). This increasing statistics of population could reach a peak that challenges the limited resources of the world. This situation is further compounded with massive influx of people from the rural communities, with whom nations relied for agricultural production, into the urban community in search for jobs that can immediately transform labor to money. Most of whom unfortunately dwell in ghettos and less conductive urban communities, except for those who were lucky to land in corporate jobs or in entrepreneurial initiatives. This rise of global population and anent urbanization trend, if uncontrolled, has serious implicat ion to food insecurity, mortality rate or severe malnourishment of children. It will generally affect the quality of life, delivery of social services, cause resource conflicts and increase of criminal rates and social malaise (Rosenberg, 2011). Thus, governments especially in developing countries have been advocating for reproductive health matters to limit populations in consideration to limited resources and services to be accorded to people. This is evidenced as crises are more felt in urban areas where people are vulnerable to volatile markets. On the other hand, rural communities are also confronted with difficulties in feeding their families with low income from farm produce against costly farm inputs and inflation (Lean, 2008) of prime commodities e.g. rice, sugar, oil and including skyrocketing prices of tuition fees in educational institutions, transportation and livestock’s food. Housing is incredibly a problem and albeit construction of villages, these homes are a ffordable only for those who have achieved a certain level of affluence to purchase properties. Indeed, increase of population means scaling up of utilization and maximization of resources, hence the wanton use of rainforests and wildlife. The inability to balance human needs and protection of environment presents detrimental condition—a world’s peril and damaging conflict of resource. Mismatch of Developmental Needs Recent developments made people grow grain to make fuel. Others raise crocodiles to fashion expensive bags. The worst side of this is that some countries are producing massive pineapples, mangoes, vegetation, rice and got best fishes only to be exported to rich countries while farmers, fishers and laborer were paid barely an amount for subsistence. In some developing countries, hug trees are cut to meet the construction needs of foreign nations while those who are leaving in logged sites content themselves with indigenous materials to live. People live in such irony. In United States, while there is recognition of decreasing wheat production as food in the last decades, whilst grain and oilseeds were also diverted for biofuel  production (US Department of State, 2009). Such impacted to the prices of wheat and rice just as how the use of palm oil for biofuel is affecting soybeans and vegetable oils’s pricing. This is further influenced by monopolistic capitals which dictate prices in the market and exacerbated the effects of inflation rates. There is therefore an urgent need to evaluate development programs

JULIAN OF NORWICH & MICHAEL HARNER Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

JULIAN OF NORWICH & MICHAEL HARNER - Assignment Example So while Julian talks about Christ being â€Å"the foundation, he is the substance, he is the teacher, he is the end†, Harner talks about the matter of fact aspects of the tsentsak and non-drug forms of shamanism in ordinary, factual language (Harner 57-68; Julian of Norwich 43). Both sources narrate forms of spiritual quests, and a common element in both is a sense that both are honest and sincere in their quests and in the way they tried to make sense of their experiences and visions. This is important because both are narrating extremely subjective experiences whose validity cannot be experienced or confirmed by an external party, but only felt as genuine and believable from an intuitive point of view. The integrity of the narrators can make or break the narratives. One gets a sense of the integrity of Harner’s narratives especially with regard to the subjective experience of ayahuasca, confirmed by a blind shaman for instance. For Julian, her reputation and the internal consistency of her message attest to the sincerity and the genuineness of her narratives and religious insights (Harner; Julian of Norwich). Julian contextualizes her sufferings in the context of Christ’s own suffering and death, couched in language tied to compassion and love. She learns from a desire to suffer the bodily pains and sufferings of Christ also of the internal reality of the compassion that exists in men as a spark too of the divine in men, of the Christ in men. Her key insights are with regard to the love of God shown through the Christ’s own passion, so that she and all who love God and desire to follow the will of God may experience that love as well (Julian of Norwich). The sacred drink ingested by Harner is ayahuasca. When he ingested this he had visions of another dimension, including that of a creature that is reptile-like, who reveals to him an inner reality tied to the nature of man’s past, of the way man had evolved

An Analysis Of Why International Companies Fail In Emerging Economies Assignment

An Analysis Of Why International Companies Fail In Emerging Economies (China) And Facebooks Strategies For Entering In Chinese Emerging Markets - Assignment Example These companies are characterized y having factories and offices in different countries that are all managed form a centralized office that coordinates the corporation’s global management. These multinational corporations not only produce but also sell a variety of services and goods in various countries around the world (Fatemi, Saint-Phalle and Williams, 1975). According to Bjà ¶rkstà ©n and Haglund (2010), most multinational companies fail to perform well in China not because of the Chinese government policies but mainly because of their own incompetence. This is chiefly credited to the fact that the management teams of most companies fail to try and understand the Chinese market, drastically underestimates the challenges involved in doing business in China or even simply just choose the wrong business partners (BjörksteÃŒ n and Hägglund, 2010). This view is supported by Joerg Wuttke who is the Chief Representative of the German chemical giant BASF. Wuttke has ha d a long experience with working in China but points out that more often than not, every body is always rushing to blame China but when an indepth analysis of an organization’s failures is conducted, it is usually fond that the mistakes were mainly of the organization’s making. ... t lead to Google’s and eBay’s failure in China China first allowed its first internet 16 years ago and the various companies and western governments quickly hailed the move as being a major move away from the country’s traditional authoritarian control and censorship. Most of the foreign companies immediately laid down various policies and plans that were aimed at enabling them to take advantage of China’s massive consumer base that was perceived by many to be relatively untouched (Daltorio 2010). Google planned on taking over China in the same manner and fashion that it was taking over the United States market. In attempting to take over the Chinese market in the same way it took over the United States market, Google foolishly and blatantly ignored what is considered by many to essentially be one of the most vital rules necessary for conducting any business: Know your market. In essence, by attempting to impose its western vision of the internet on the As ian nation, Google ended up creating a huge mess for itself and inadvertently made easy profits for its local competition. China has about 384 million internet users that account for an average of one-fifth of the over 1.73 billion global internet users. It is especially in light of these statistics that Google adopted a trend that was keenly focused on global domination. Google is commonly faulted for the fact that it initially took many years for it to research and find out some of the basic facts as pertaining to some of its local Chinese competitors such as Baidu and Tencent Holdings. Google also happened to largely ignore the free music downloads market segment an element that was greatly capitalized by Baidu and helped to make Baidu extremely popular in the Chinese market (Daltorio 2010). Google’s

The connection between happiness and religion in general and the Essay

The connection between happiness and religion in general and the positive correlation therein - Essay Example The purpose of the essay is to investigate the connection existing between happiness and religion. Happiness and religion exists mainly because many, if not all, of the religions tend to focus on the minds of the followers. Studies have revealed that while not many religions may explicitly express their full support or agreement to positive psychology, many embrace it. That is to say, the components of positive psychology are normally applied in many of the religious teachings though without using the same terms. In positive psychology, the central ideology is focusing on the positive even when faced with an enormous challenge. Similarly, in many religions, the followers are encouraged to rely on a being capable of helping them with the challenge. Therefore, when this happens, the people feel the burden is not insurmountable and tend to hold a positive attitude. Consequently, the religious people are compelled to remain positive in the midst of challenges. It is after remaining positive that religious people exhibit happiness since one’s psychological state is imperative to happiness. Notwithstanding these assertions, there is a disparity when it comes to the role played by religion in various social classes. For instance, the poorest people in the society may attribute much of their success to religion unlike the others who, despite holding religious beliefs, may take credit. In short, religion does indeed influence happiness but in different capacities depending on the class of people involved. Religious individuals of higher status in the society may not always ascribe to religion as their source of happiness. Conversely, the others who cannot in any way control their lives will most likely rely on the beliefs and practices to find insurance, happiness and satisfaction in religious places. In light of the above, it is evident that even though religion does indeed have a significant impact on one’s happiness, it

Profile of A Place of Work or Community Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Profile of A Place of Work or Community - Essay Example Our neighbourhood is a small part of not more than 10,000 residents. Compared to the overall city, the locality that I live in a quiet borough with mostly residential complexes making up for the most part of the area. The locality has a post office and a police station of its own along with a hospital. Thus it is a self-sufficient neighbourhood with the necessary facilities for provisions and the like. The locality is ethnically diverse with a liberal mix of different communities and races. It also has places of worship for the different communities and there are enough facilities for all the residents. In the next section, we look at the ethnic mix of the population along with the demographic characteristics. Further, we will also look at the social and economic characteristics of the population in the locality. The locality is made up of a diverse mix of ethnic races. It counts Christians, Muslims and Hindus among its populace and the relative compositions of the three races are ro ughly in the proportion of 40%, 40% and 20%. Both Muslims and Christians are equal in number and the Hindus make up the rest. It is noteworthy that despite the locality being ethnically diverse, the communities live in relative peace with each other. Despite the daily gatherings of the communities in the places of economic activity, it is by and large a peaceful co-existence of the people with their neighbours. Recently, there have been some attempts to disturb the peace of the area by disgruntled elements and this was successfully thwarted due to the timely action of the citizen committees set up by the people in the neighbourhood. The presence of community elders in the neighbourhood adds to the sense of peace and calm and the youth who otherwise might be tempted to take up activities inimical to the peace of the community are counselled to not to do anything harmful to the locality.

Sophies World Outline Essay Example for Free

Sophies World Outline Essay The idea that nothing can come from nothing is introduced. Sophie questions whether all things come from a basic element. She learned that things in nature are in a constant state of transformation. Is there a beginning of everything? What do you believe it to be?introduction: The idea that nothing can come from nothing is introduced. Sophie questions whether all things come from a basic element. She learned that things in nature are in a constant state of transformation. Is there a beginning of everything? What do you believe it to be? Yanotan Zelink I. event one A. Sophie receives a letter containing three new questions. Which she contemplates an entire day before getting another packet with a letter explaining to her that the philosophy course will be going from ancient Greek philosophy up to present day philosophy. B. She learns that the ancient Greeks believed the world was eternal. â€Å"The earliest Greek Philosophers are sometimes called natural philosophers because they were mainly concerned with the natural world and its processes† (30). So, they never asked about where it came from. Instead they were interested in the question of change. C. The Tao of Physics. II.event two A. The debate â€Å"what are we made of?† is raised. Early philosophers shared a belief that there had to be a certain basic substance at the root of all change. B. While some natural philosophers believed that everything was made of water, others believed they were made of air. â€Å"Earth, air, and fire were all necessary the creation of life† (33). C. Human-Aesthetic Perfection Song Lyrics. III.event three A. All Things Flow- â€Å"Everything is in constant flux and movement, nothing is abiding. Therefore we ‘cannot step twice into the river.’†(34)- Heraclitus B. Heraclitus states the world is made of opposites- we would not appreciate one thing if we did not experience the other. C. A Healthy Transformation by Dr. Jeffery McCombs. IV.conclusion A. As Sophie thinks about all of this, she concludes that one cannot learn philosophy. They can only learn how to think like a philosopher. V.journal questions A. If you were to come up with your own philosophy about life and what we’re made of, what would it be? Explain your philosophy. B. Other than physical aspects of a human, such as bones or basic elements, what would you say humans are made of emotionally or philosophically? Why? C. If there was only good in the world and no bad, how would it be and how would the outcome affect the world?

Pmc Case Answers Essay Example for Free

Pmc Case Answers Essay 1) List the important facts in the case. SAS Pvt Ltd is a rapidly growing software firm in IT industry. Employee compensation package is one of the major factors which help SAS to maintain its employee loyalty. They facilitate activities like game, sports, yoga etc, which helps the employee to feel more relaxed in their workplace. Both mental and physical strength is necessary for deliver a better result. Activities offered by company helps the employee to balance both work life and family life together. Working hours of company is scheduled in such a way that to ensure the employee work life balance. Company following a relaxed culture which avoid stress and tension which is the major problem which is seen in majority IT companies. Enough leaves and medical facilities are providing by company without any salary cut which will help the company to make a secure feeling among employees. Job security is the major factor which all employees are looking for. Even though company is not providing stock options and higher salary, employees won’t feel any bad about it because of the loyalty they have towards the company. Layoff rate of company is maintained in a minimum level when compare to competitors and which helps them to save employee replacement-related costs and lost work time. Even though they are spending more for employee compensation they have a high rate of return from that. 2) Are progressive HR practices like those at SAS, a cause or a result of high profits? Yes. By doing progressive HR practices company can maintain a loyalty among employees which helps the organization for better performance. Work life balance helps the employee to maintain a healthy family life along with job and they feel more secure in their job. It helps the organization to reduce the rate of layoff which is the major loss for a company. Company can save employee replacement-related costs such as recruitment, interviews, moving costs for new hires and lost work time. Following are some of the major benefits: Job satisfaction: Employees would be happy with their jobs and would love to work for you if they get fair rewards in exchange of their services. Motivation: We all have different kinds of needs. Some value achievement more than money, they would associate themselves with firms. A compensation plan that hits workers’ needs is more likely to motivate them to act in the desired way. Low Absenteeism: If they enjoy the office environment and are happy with their benefits and get what they need and want. Low Turnover: Employees don’t want to work for any other company if you offer them fair rewards. Advantage to Your Employees: Peace of Mind: Offering of several types of insurances to your workers relieves them from certain fears. Your workers as a result now work with relaxed mind. Increases self-confidence: Every human being wants his/her efforts to get acknowledgment. Employees gain more and more confidence in them and in their abilities if they receive just rewards. As a result, their performance level shoots up. 3) What possible problems could the management at SAS face (from employees) due to the benefits offered? If employees are getting more benefits like employees getting in SAS there is a chance to have a tendency to give second priority to work. It is because of less strictness about the timing and more benefit without any deduction in salary. And it can lead to a mismatch in benefit and productivity. Because they have lot of benefits but there is no specific par in terms of productivity an employee should have. It may leads to mismatch. 4) If you are appointed as the HR manager at SAS, what changes would you recommend in the compensation structure? If I am appointed as an HR manager then I will modify the existing salary. Main modification should be on productivity and benefits. If an employee is working more productively then benefit given also will be high. It is better to implement some specific target to each employee to achieve and if he/she achieved the target within the specific time then rewards should be given. Rewards can be in both tangible and intangible. It will give motivation to employees to attain more and its leads to increase in productivity. I will ensure a better career growth so that employee feels more responsible and loyalty towards the firm. â€Å"Work more†¦. get more †Ã¢â‚¬â€this will be the strategy in terms of Benefits.

Ethics in the Finance and Investment Industry

Ethics in the Finance and Investment Industry Introduction Ethics can be defined as the study of what institutes of right or wrong behavior in terms of ones principle and integrity expected to be by society. It is the branch of philosophy that focuses on morality and the way in which moral principles are derived or the way in which a given set of moral principles applies to ones conduct in daily life. Different people face different ethical questions in their day to day life and as well as in their business life. Ethics usually assumes people are rational and make free choices correctly. We can also give or take that it has got certain rules to follow in our collaborations and our actions that affect others. There can be ethical questions that have influence in our daily life or in business life like fairness, justness, rightness or wrongness. Both ethics in finance and investing are part of business and business ethics focuses on what constitutes right or wrong behavior in the business world and on how moral and ethical principles are applied by business persons to situations that arise in their daily activities in the workplace and their handling of client asset. Ethics that are faced in personal life is much more different and complex in business life. Social Influences on Ethics When evaluating professional decisions and behavior in the finance and investment industry, high standards of ethics and blatant violations of ethical conventions are difficult to explain solely in terms of individual traits and personality. Situational factors may lead to considerable differences in the ethical standards of behavior of a single individual in different social situations-a fact that has been revealed time and again by media reports. Thus, a true understanding of the psychology of ethics in the world of finance and investment requires awareness of how people interact and influence each other ethically. 1 1. See: Thomas Oberlechner Webster University Vienna The Psychology of Ethics in the Finance and Investment Industry Research Foundation of CFA Institute from http://www.cfapubs.org/doi/pdf/10.2470/rf.v2007.n2.4697 Ethics in Finance When anyone thinks about financial market they think about money, that also trillions of dollar. With that amount of money in greed, which can be defines as excessive desire to posses wealth, mixed with competition can be powerful combination to introduce unethical behavior. This is not solely concerned with the individuals but also with financial markets and financial institutions. Financial ethics is more to do with maintaining trust between the financial industry and client. If we analyze how financial system works, it is easy to see that it is easy for financial fraud and deceit. As almost all the people in United States have a 401K which is invested in financial market through different financial companies. All the people investing their money come from different walk of life and have limited knowledge in financial market. The only way public can believe in an investing firm to invest in their lifetime saving is by trust. This trust is built over the years by these firms by foll owing correct ethical procedure (by the firm and its staffs). Ethics in the Investment Profession Ethical practices by the investment professional benefit all market participants and stakeholders and lead to increased investor confidence in global capital markets. Ethical practices instill a public trust in the fairness of markets, allowing them to function efficiently. In short, we can say that good ethics is a fundamental requirement to the investment profession. The Code of Ethics for Finance and Investment Act with integrity, competence, diligence, respect and in an ethical manner with the public, clients, prospective clients, employers, employees, colleagues in the investment profession, and other participants in the global capital markets. Place the integrity of the investment profession and the interests of clients above their own personal interests. Use reasonable care and exercise independent professional judgment when conducting investment analysis, making investment recommendations, taking investment actions, and engaging in other professional activities. Practice and encourage others to practice in a professional and ethical manner that will reflect credit on themselves and the profession. Promote the integrity of, and uphold the rules governing, capital markets. Maintain and improve their professional competence and strive to maintain and improve the competence of other investment professionals.   See: Ethical and Professional Standards and Quantitative Methods. Level I 2008. Pearson Custom Publishing The Psychology of Ethics in the Finance and Investment Industry Financial and investment professionals are mainly susceptible to ethical misconduct. But what makes some obviously violate ethical standards and even violate the law while others behave highly ethically? Besides in all the courses taught in the entire business program we are taught that the objective of rationale individual is to maximize wealth. The psychology of ethics tries to find out why and when does a person behave (un) ethical way, their motivation, influence and social dynamic behind a certain active. It also tries to analyze individual cognitive and emotional dynamics. This analysis will help figure out the most effective may an ethical code can be written and implemented. Approaches to Ethics When people talk and write about ethics in the finance and investment industry, they approach the topic in variety of ways and address different realms of ethics. Usually, their dealing with ethics takes one of three main directions: (1) what investment professionals should do, (2) what they actually do, or (3) how finance and investment professionals can be helped to get from what they actually do to what they should do. Normative Ethics What should finance and investment professionals do? As the name implies, normative ethics aims at establishing norms and guidelines for professionals regarding how they should behave. This approach to ethics is inherent in, for example, the ethical theories of moral philosophy, theology, and definitions of professional norms, standards, and acceptable behavior for a professional field. Thus, a normative approach to ethics in finance and investments defines what is ethical in this profession. It tells practitioners how investment professionals should act to be ethical, which behavior should be considered ethical, and which behavior should not. Descriptive Ethics What do investment professionals actually do? Descriptive ethics aims at describing not how people should behave but how they actually do behave. And descriptive ethics attempts to explain and predict the unethical behavior of people in real-life situations (OFallon and Butterfield 2005). Psychological research conducted in controlled laboratory studies and real world settings of professional decision makers offers a systematic and comprehensive basis for descriptive ethics in finance and investing. Only this psychological and descriptive approach allows us to understand when and why people and organizations in the investment industry engage in ethical behavior and when and why they do not. Prescriptive Ethics How can finance and investment professionals be helped to get from what they actually do to what they should do? Based on descriptive insights about the factors influencing actual ethical decision making, the Prescriptive approach to ethics aims at helping people and organizations toward ethical decision making by giving advice about how to create environments that foster ethical decisions and how to improve the ethical component of decisions. The two main questions addressed by prescriptive ethics are the following: How can we create organizations that foster ethical behavior? How can we train professionals to readily perceive the ethical dimensions of their own behavior and to act ethically? Thus, prescriptive ethics suggests tools that assist people in making the prescribed decisions. 4 4 See: Thomas Oberlechner Webster University Vienna The Psychology of Ethics in the Finance and Investment Industry Research Foundation of CFA Institute from http://www.cfapubs.org/doi/pdf/10.2470/rf.v2007.n2.4697 Ethics and Investment in Global Perspective As the financial market now is more open globally, investment flows from one country to another more efficiently. With this comes an ethical risk for a financial firm. E.g. A financial firm in US investing in Singapore, but the ethical standard in both this countries financial market are different. Now which ethics standard should the firm or its employee follow? Can a firms employee ignore financial ethics code in US when he travels to Singapore? In this situation a firm should always follow the ethics code which is stricter. If US ethics code is stricter than the one in Singapore, it should still follow the US code of ethics. For individuals, the ethics code will apply globally i.e. if a person travels to jurisdiction outside of United States he is still bound by code of ethics and SEC laws. He is still not supposed to disclose all the protected financial information to any individual or firm. When analyzing investment opportunities in emerging market a financial firm much always check the ethical code of the country he is investing in. Even if the probability of profit is high but there has been high number of cases of ethical violation then the investment might not be a good idea. A good example of this is the amount of investment that went in China during Chinas IPO boom, a lot of companies from that boom is no where to be seen and the financial report present were falsified. Ethical Issues in Finance Industry Ethical issues in the financial services industry affect everyone, because even if you dont work in the field, youre a consumer of the services.  The public seems to have the perception that the financial services sector is more unethical than other areas of business. In the real business scenario there are many positions where we act without considering the ethical implication. Sometime what we think is ethical (because of the way we are brought up in society) might not be an ethical one in the world of finance or business. For example, one can have close friend with whom he share everything in life. Like normal individuals they talk about their work along with other stuff. But for the person who works in financial market there are certain discloser standard he has to follow. Let us say their discussion is related to financial market. So is it ethical for this person who is working with a financial firm to tell his friend all about the things he has information on, that is covered under discloser standard, or is it ethical for him to tell his best friend that he cant talk about this information and then risk his friend feeling that he does not trust him?. Because lets face it if I know something and I dont tell you that means you dont trust me, t hat is the idea implanted in our brain from our childhood. This is an example of social ethics dilemma that intertwines with financial (professional) ethics. Therefore the boundary between ethical and unethical is quite skinny. So, how can do companies ensure that the company and staff follow ethical behavior? Most large firms have implemented their own code of ethics-a set of general professional guidelines to inspire employees to behave ethically and responsibly as an individual or as a group representing the company.  But as in our examples these codes are stringent dos and donts that will cause more harm than good as the employee might be hesitant to even do the right ethical thing. As there is a thin line between ethical and unethical behavior this might give the employees a false notion that anything if it is not specifically prohibited would be acceptable. In addition to the company specific codes of ethics, companies and professionals are also bound by ethical codes of conducts of numerous professional organizations and institutions. Companies should train employees to these organizational code of ethics would be more effective as employee would think that its a global financial society standard. As global financial market is more combined with millions of transactions daily, the chances of business and professions using to more unethical conduct in todays age compared to previous decades. However, in this internet age, business condition and the resulting troubles are more complex. For example, companies and CEOs (for a public company) have to put their shareholders interest first before any other. The shareholder interest is to get maximum profit; CEOs are paid million of dollar in benefit and salary to achieve the goal of maximum profitability. They are under tremendous pressure to keep the company profitable every quarter and also outperform its competition. This might lead to a situation where the companies higher level staff might think they have found a loophole in the system and perform unethical adjustments of financial numbers. Recent example we can find is the collapse of ENRON because of fraud and FANNIE MAE accounting irregularities in start of this decade. It can also be pointed out that that ethical behavior is governed more by the individual rather than the environment. If we can establish a norm on the financial industry that its not only immoral to do unethical activity but its also immoral to not to notify of other peoples unethical activity, then there will be more violations reported. There have few instances where whistleblowers have reproted unethical behavior or violations of the companys code of ethics and brought big corporations down to their knees. But these kind of whistle blowing is rare. Research shows that this rarity is because whistleblowers are scared of getting fired from their jobs, especially if the violators are of higher post. In ones mind question arises is it ethical to whistleblower a violation and risk getting fired or is it ethical to keep quite and not risk putting food on family table? Companies should try to resolve this kind of dilemma , by implementing anonymous whistleblower program and by rewarding a them anonymously. A company code of ethics is useful only when the companys actions are consistent with it. Only then can it be followed consistently within the company. Conclusion Our society is interworking of people built in the pillar of trust. This trust is based on molarity and ethical behavior. For financial market not only Ethics is the pillar, it is also a ladder for success. Lose that trust and the firm or individual is going downhill. So financial firms should not only keep code of ethics in paper but also promote self-regulation. For financial market Ethical integrity is paramount and clients always come first.

A Comparison of Contemporary American Notions of Happiness to the Epicu

People who are viewed as happy in our culture today are also seen as being rich, having a loving family, and a great occupation. Our society is attracted to material things, rather than spiritual ones. Can a person who does not have many possessions and an elevated social position still live a happy life? Epicurus believed that each one of us could achieve true happiness, and our only problem is that we stubbornly search for it in all the wrong places. Epicurus states that we only need three things to be happy besides the essentials needed for survival: friends, freedom, and an analyzed life. I will be comparing contemporary American notions of happiness to the Epicurean view. In our contemporary American life we have the desire for things that we do not really need to make us happy. Our commercial world intends to sell us substitutes for the things we truly need in order to be happy. We replace our real needs with things like clothing, furniture, cars, nice houses, and many other unessential items. Many individuals place the blame for an unhappy lifestyle on their occupation, and search out alternatives such as material items. We are happy when we receive things fast, because of our lack of patience, and because we simply enjoy the hassle free lifestyle. Our technological advances have made many things easy for us and it brings us some joy. Examples include that we rather drive than walk, and eat from unhealthy fast food restaurants than cook a meal ourselves. We see advertisements everywhere selling us products to make us happy, however the happiness from sex, food, and excitement are pleasures that are short lived. If we took away all unnecessary items for survival from our society today, could we still be happy? ... ...death, and the supernatural. Money cannot buy you analyzed thoughts about your life, or help you cope with the emotional effects of illness or death. Epicureans are looking for peace and freedom from fear and pain. Pleasure is how human beings can sense they are doing something right. I believe that a simpler life in general would help people live a happier lifestyle. We must have the essential needs for survival; however the unnecessary materialistic items are not needed and cannot bring happiness. We all can benefit from living a more Epicurean life, and we should take their advice to focus on friendship, independence, and thinking rationally. Bibliography â€Å"Letter to Menoeceus,† http://www.epicurus.net/en/menoeceus.html â€Å"Letter to Idomeneus,† http://www.epicurus.net/en/idomeneus.html â€Å"Letter to Herodotus,† http://www.epicurus.net/en/herodotus.html

Language: The True Tale of the Great Gatsby Essay -- The Great Gatsby

Language: The True Tale of the Great Gatsby The Jazz age was a time of glamour, sparkle, parties, music, the extreme rich, the extreme poor, and the exultation of lawlessness; F. Scoot Fitzgerald was no exception. Fitzgerald was enamored by the life of money, status, and beautiful people on a hopeless spiral into self destruction. The moral decadence of America became a prevailing theme in the works of Fitzgerald, taking birth fully within The Great Gatsby. This novel is brought to life by narrator Nick Carraway who is a moral Midwestern man, infatuated, much as Fitzgerald was, by the parties and pizzazz of the east. Gatsby is a mysterious rich man, taken by love, but caught up in the deviant nature of the days. The morals of the entire cast in this ballet are as whimsical as the sheets of Jazz music that emanated from the musicians of the day. This constant change of character was always more eloquently explained by the language Fitzgerald used, than the actual plot of the story. The language that Fitzgerald used within te story, was more indicative to the actual story than the plot itself. While the character analysis of many of the characters may seem incomplete, by simply analyzing the words that were used to describe the characters and their surroundings, one can derive an in-depth hypothesis about each. One can first see this use of language by looking at the point of view that the characters are seen in. Nick, the narrator, comes to Long Island, completely drawn by riches. Without even realizing it, Nick equates money to beauty and happiness. Fitzgerald’s use of language through Nick, always describes daisy as entrancing, beautiful, charming, tempting, sumptuous, and many other sexual, beautiful words; ... ...arn more about the character themselves. It is this that makes Fitzgerald the great author of the Jazz age and The Great Gatsby the great book of this age. Many people have argued that if it weren’t for jazz music, the culture of that age would not have been born. It is not the plot that is the primary bearer of symbolism and themes within The Great GatsbyI, rather it was the language. The language, that like jazz, told a whole story in a few scales. Jazz was the soul of the culture, it was their feelings and emotions on scales and scores. The case is the same with language of The Great Gatsby. The language is the soul of the novel, the lungs through which the theme breathes its life. Works Cited F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby. New York London Toronto Sydney Singapore: First Scribner Paperback Fiction Edition Published by Simon & Schuster, 1995*

Business Proposal to Implement New IT Infastructure Essay -- Papers Bu

Business Proposal to Implement New IT Infastructure 1.0 - INTRODUCTION Welcome to the Information Technology Era! Ever since the Stone Age, Man has begun the quest of improving the efficiency of life. Today, this mission continues and the hottest topic in our company, as a matter of fact, is to unite our business with the Information Technology. Information Technology general means the acquisition, processing, storage, and dissemination of massive information by aid of computers or by telecommunication devices while the processed data can be ranged from vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical, etc. As a result, the company can benefits with high speed and more accurate processing of information for administrative and control purposes. Furthermore, Computers are often grouped into local or wide area network for communication among themselves, for example, the Internet and the Intranet this allows data to be transmitted from one place to another during the course of routine business activities. On the other hand, Information technology does not solely mea ns the use of computers because it is made up of many other components. It includes a variety of processes and techniques which may be as common as databases, word processing, spreadsheets, telecommunications, and electronic mail (e-mail). 1.1 - COMPANY BACKGROUND Established in 1980, Possehl BESI Electronic Hong Kong Limited has been famous in the Electronic industry locally and internationally for its? precision skills and loyalty towards its? customers. Located in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong, we are currently employing over 600 staffs; they include Management and Administration officers, engineers, technicians, production opera... ...to success. However, this kind of technology changing all over the time and hard to catch up. We must choose the suitable one which can really fit on our business in stead of choosing the one with the highest technology. After detail analysing the business evironment, the above system should be the most fit to our case. The milestone will be set after three months and a deep system report will also be generated. REFERENCE 1. Map and Top Communication (Standards and Application) A.Valenzano * C.Demartini * L.Ciminiera 2. Software Engineering David Alex Lamb 3. The UNIX Operating System Kaare Christian 4. Computers and Information Systems Marvin R.Gore * John W.Stubbe 5. Business System and Information Technology Ron Anderson 6. Local Area Netowrk Design Andrew Hopper * Steven Temple * Robin Williamson

Million Dollar Baby

The theme of this story is achieving the American Dream of riches and fame, it’s also about the need for love and support. Frankie is a brilliant but unsuccessful boxing trainer who train a lot of excellent boxers but lack of success. Maggie is a natural boxer who tirelessly trains each day in Frankie’s gym even though he has rejected her requests that he trains her. She is at the age of 32 believes she has one last chance to make a life for herself in boxing. They are the loneness people that try to find meaning in their life. Both of them want success! Frankie is estranged from his daughter, who returns his many letters that all are unopened. Beneath his crusty exterior is a man crying for the love and acceptance of his daughter, so he goes to church every single day. There is an aching void in his heart. Maggie is a waitress from a white trash family. Her mother only cares about her welfare. Nobody cares about her in the family. She also lack of family love but she treats her family very well because of her strong will. Maggie dedication and hard work influence Frankie’s mind and he agrees to train her, but only in the basic and then he will turn her over to another trainer. At this point Frankie is still afraid to open himself up to Maggie who follows every word of his advice. As Maggie fights her way up in her boxing, Frankie establishes a parental relationship with Maggie. While Maggie’s mother ridicules her success is the ring, Frankie eventually arranges a million dollar fight for Maggie and they actually success. Also the movie always mentions the guy who is called Danger. He is a innocent and optimistic young boy who always come to Frankie’s gym to practice but is not a nature boxer. Being successful in boxing is also his dream. The remorseless fact blows him into the depth of despair. Although he comes to the gym every day to practice, he can’t even fight back to the black guy. Now he know boxing is not as easy as his imagination. For this reason he disappears some days. But eventually, he comes back with his confidence. This is the irony in this story, even though you work hard, it’s not always a good outcome. He realized that he is not suit in boxing but the worshipful part is he still coming to practice tireless when he is awakened by Mr. Scrap. At least he flights for his dream and doesn't live in a ordinary life like Maggie’s mother. Maggie’s mother doesn’t have a job because she is lazy and she lives on the welfare. She doesn't have a dream and doesn't care about her own daughter. The only thing she concerns is money even though her own daughter is on the verge of death. At the top of the life of Maggie’s boxing, she is being a paralytic by the accident. The pain is intolerable for Maggie, she ask for ending her life. She does the most valuable thing in her life that she is satisfied with the brilliant achievements in the twinkling of an eye. She enjoys the process of boxing that she has never ever been regret of being a boxer. Lying on the bed is against to her believe – never have a original life. People in the world all are never and ever be the same because of difference dreams. They are finding the meaning of their lives. Maggie chooses to end of her life to wind up her finally dream. This story tell us, everyone has a right to pursue the dream. Just go for it, it might be failure but at least we try and our life will be unordinary. If we keep proceeding in the way of our dream, even though we fail we still get more than the other who live in an ordinary life.

The Stupidest Angel Chapter 8

Chapter 8 HOLIDAY HEARTBREAK Christmas Amnesty. You can fall out of contact with a friend, fail to return calls, ignore e-mails, avoid eye contact at the Thrifty-Mart, forget birthdays, anniversaries, and reunions, and if you show up at their house during the holidays (with a gift) they are socially bound to forgive you – act like nothing happened. Decorum dictates that the friendship move forward from that point, without guilt or recrimination. If you started a chess game ten years ago in October, you need only remember whose move it is – or why you sold the chessboard and bought an Xbox in the interim. (Look, Christmas Amnesty is a wonderful thing, but it's not a dimensional shift. The laws of time and space continue to apply, even if you have been avoiding your friends. But don't try using the expansion of the universe as an excuse – like you kept meaning to stop by, but their house kept getting farther away. That crap won't wash. Just say, â€Å"Sorry I haven't called. Merry Chris tmas.† Then show the present. Christmas Amnesty protocol dictates that your friend say, â€Å"That's okay,† and let you in without further comment. This is the way it has always been done.) â€Å"Where the fuck have you been?† said Gabe Fenton when he opened the door and saw his old friend Theophilus Crowe standing there, holding a present. Gabe, forty-five, short and wiry, unshaven and slightly balding, was wearing khakis that looked like he'd slept in them for a week. â€Å"Merry Christmas, Gabe,† said Theo, holding out the present, a big red bow on it – sort of waving the box back and forth as if to say, Hey, I have a present here, you're not supposed to sandbag me for not calling for three years. â€Å"Yeah, nice,† said Gabe. â€Å"But you might have called.† â€Å"Sorry. I meant to, but you were involved with Val, I didn't want to interrupt.† â€Å"She dumped me, you know?† Gabe had been seeing Valerie Riordan, the town's only psychiatrist, for several years now. Not for the last month, however. â€Å"Yeah, I heard about that.† Theo had heard that Val wanted someone who was a little more involved with human culture than Gabe. Gabe was a behavioral field biologist who studied wild rodents or marine mammals, depending on who was providing the funding. He lived at a small federally owned cottage by the lighthouse with his hundred-pound black Labrador retriever, Skinner. â€Å"You heard? And you didn't call?† It was nearly noon, and Theo's buzz had mostly worn off, but he was still thrown. Guys were not supposed to lament the lack of support from a friend, unless it was backup in a bar fight or help in moving heavy stuff. This was not normal behavior. Maybe Gabe really did need to spend more time around human beings. â€Å"Look, Gabe, I brought you a present,† Theo said. â€Å"Look at how glad Skinner is to see me.† Skinner was, in fact, glad to see Theo. He was crowding Gabe in the doorway, his beefy tail beating against the open door like a Snausage war drum. He associated Theo with hamburgers and pizza, and had once thought of him as the emergency backup Food Guy (Gabe being the primary Food Guy). â€Å"Well, I suppose you should come in,† said Gabe. The biologist stepped away from the door and allowed Theo to enter. Skinner said hi by shoving his nose into Theo's crotch. â€Å"I'm working in here, so things are a little messy.† A little messy? An understatement on a par with calling the Bataan Death March a nature hike – it looked like someone had loaded all of Gabe's belongings into a cannon and fired them into the room through the wall. Dirty laundry and dishes covered every surface except for Gabe's worktable, which, except for the rats, was immaculate. â€Å"Nice rats,† Theo said. â€Å"What are you doing with them?† â€Å"I'm studying them.† Gabe sat down in front of a series of five-gallon aquariums arranged around a center tank in a star pattern and linked by Habitrail tubes, with gates for routing rats from one chamber to another. Each of the rats had a silver disk about the size of a quarter glued to its back. Theo watched as Gabe opened a gate and one of the rats rushed to the center tank and immediately tried to mount its occupant. Gabe picked up a small remote control and hit the button. The attacking rat nearly did a backflip trying to retreat. â€Å"Ha! That'll teach ‘im,† Gabe shouted. â€Å"The female in the center cage is in estrus.† The rat backed away tentatively and did some sniffing, then attempted to mount the female again. Gabe hit the button. The male was jolted off of her. â€Å"Ha! Now do you get it?!† Gabe said maniacally. He looked up from the cages to Theo. â€Å"There are electrodes on their testes. The silver disks are batteries and remote receivers. Every time he gets sexually aroused, I'm hitting his little nuts with fifty volts.† The rat made another attempt and again Gabe hit the button. The rat spazzed its way to the corner of the cage. â€Å"You stupid shit!† Gabe shouted. â€Å"You think they'd learn. I'll hit each of them with the jolt a dozen times today, but when I open the cage tomorrow, they'll all run back in and try to mount her again. You see, you see how we are?† â€Å"We?† â€Å"Us. Males. See how we are. We know there's going to be nothing but pain, but we go back again and again.† Gabe had always been so steady, so calm, so professionally detached, scientifically obsessed, so dependably nerdy – Theo felt as if he were talking to a whole different person, like someone had scrubbed off all the intellect and had exposed the nerves. â€Å"Uh, Gabe, I'm not sure that we should equate ourselves with rodents. I mean – ; â€Å"Oh, sure. That's what you say now. But you'll call me and tell me I was right. Something will happen and you'll call. She'll stomp your heart and you'll finish the destruction she starts. Am I right? Am I right?† â€Å"Uh, I – † Theo was thinking about the graveyard sex followed by the fight he'd had with Molly last night. â€Å"So I'm going to change the association. Watch this.† Gabe stormed over to a bookshelf, threw aside a bunch of professional journals and notebooks until he found what he was looking for. â€Å"See. See her.† Gabe held up a recent Victoria's Secret catalog. The model on the front was wearing garments spectacularly inadequate in concealing her appeal. She looked as if she just couldn't be happier about it. â€Å"Beautiful, right? Amazing, right? Hold that thought.† Gabe reached into the pocket of his khakis and pulled out a stainless remote just like the one on the rat table. â€Å"Beautiful,† he said, and he hit the button. The biologist's back arched and he suddenly became six inches taller, all the muscles of his body seeming to flex at once. He convulsed twice, then fell to the floor, the crumpled catalog still in his hand. Skinner lapsed into a barking fit. Don't die, Food Guy, my bowl is on the porch and I can't open the door by myself, he was saying. It was the same every time, he was always glad when the Food Guy wasn't actually dead, but the Food Guy's convulsions made him anxious. Theo rushed to his friend's aid. Gabe's eyes were rolled back and he twitched a couple of times before he sucked in a deep breath and looked Theo in the eye. â€Å"See. You change the association. Won't be long and I'll have that reaction without the electrodes glued to my scrotum.† â€Å"Are you okay?† â€Å"Oh yeah. It will take hold, I know it. It hasn't worked with the rats yet, but I'm hoping it will before they all die.† â€Å"They're dying of this?† â€Å"Well, it has to hurt or they'll never learn.† Gabe held up his remote again and Theo snatched it out of his hand. â€Å"Stop it!† â€Å"I have another set of electrodes and receiver. You want to try it? I've been dying to try it out in the field. We could go to a titty bar.† Theo helped Gabe to his feet, then set him in a chair facing away from the rat table and pulled a chair around for himself. â€Å"Gabe, you are out of control. I'm sorry I didn't call.† â€Å"I know you've been busy. It's okay.† Great, now he has the appropriate Christmas Amnesty reaction, Theo thought. â€Å"These rats, the electrodes, all of it, it's just wrong. You're just going to end up with either a bunch of paranoid misogynist males, or a pile of corpses.† â€Å"You make that sound like a bad thing.† â€Å"You got your heart broken. It will heal.† â€Å"She said I was dull.† â€Å"She should see this.† Theo gestured around the room. â€Å"She wasn't interested in my work.† â€Å"You guys had a good run. Five years. Maybe it was just time. You told me yourself that the human male was not evolved for monogamy.† â€Å"Yeah, but I had a girlfriend when I said that.† â€Å"So it's not true?† â€Å"No, it's true, but it didn't bother me when I had a girlfriend. Now I know that I am biologically programmed to spread the seed of my loins far and wide, to as many females as possible, a series of torrid, meaningless matings, only to move on to the next fertile female. My genes are demanding that I pass them on, and I don't know where to start.† â€Å"You might want to shower before you start the seed spreading.† â€Å"You don't think I know that? That's why I was trying to reprogram my impulses. Tame the animus, as it were.† â€Å"Because you don't want to shower?† â€Å"No, because I don't know how to talk to women. I could talk to Val.† â€Å"Val was a pro.† â€Å"She was not. She never turned a trick in her life.† â€Å"Listener, Gabe. She was a pro listener – a psychiatrist.† â€Å"Oh, right. Do you think I should start with a prostitute, or ‘tutes?† â€Å"For a broken heart? Yeah, I'm sure that will work just as well as the electrodes on your scrotum, but first I need you to do something for me.† Theo thought maybe, just maybe, work – nonfreakish work – might bring his friend back from the brink. He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the hank of yellow hair he'd taken out of the Volvo's wheel well. â€Å"I need you to look at this and tell me about it.† Gabe took the hair and looked at it. â€Å"Is this crime stuff?† â€Å"Sort of.† â€Å"Where did you get it? What do you need to know?† â€Å"Tell me everything you can about it before I tell you anything, okay?† â€Å"Well, it appears to be blond.† â€Å"Thanks, Gabe, I was thinking maybe you could look at it under the microscope or something.† â€Å"Doesn't the county have a crime lab for that?† â€Å"Yeah, but I can't take it to them. There are circumstances.† â€Å"Like?† â€Å"Like they will think I'm stoned or nuts or both. Look at the hair,† Theo said. â€Å"You tell me. I'll tell you. â€Å"Okay, but I don't have all that cool CSI stuff.† â€Å"Yeah, but the guys at the crime lab don't have batteries Super-Glued to their gonads. You've got them there.† Ten minutes later Gabe looked up from his microscope. â€Å"Well, it's not human,† he said. â€Å"Swell.† â€Å"In fact, it doesn't appear to be hair.† â€Å"So what is it?† â€Å"Well, it seems to have a lot of the qualities of optic fiber.† â€Å"So it's man-made?† â€Å"Not so fast. It has a root, and what appears to be a cuticle, but it doesn't look like keratin. I'd have to have it tested for proteins. If it's manufactured, there's no evidence of the process. It looks as if it was grown, not made. You know polar-bear hair has fiber-optic properties – channels light energy through to the black skin for heat.† â€Å"So it's polar-bear hair?† â€Å"Not so fast.† â€Å"Gabe, goddammit, where in the hell did it come from?† â€Å"You tell me.† â€Å"Just us, okay? This doesn't leave this cottage unless We get some confirmation, okay?† â€Å"Of course. Are you okay, Theo?† â€Å"Am I okay? You're asking me if I'm okay?† â€Å"Everything all right with you and Molly? The job? You're not smoking dope again, are you?† Theo hung his head. â€Å"You say you have another one of those electrodes?† Gabe brightened. â€Å"You'll need to shave a spot. Can I open my present while you're in the bathroom? You can use my razor.† â€Å"No, go ahead and open your present. I have some stuff I need to tell you.† â€Å"Wow, a salad shooter. Thanks, Theo.† â€Å"He took the salad shooter,† Molly said. â€Å"Wow, was that important to him?† Lena asked. â€Å"It was a wedding present.† â€Å"I know, I gave it to you. It was a wedding present to me and Dale, too.† â€Å"See, there was tradition.† Molly was inconsolable. She drank off half of her diet Coke and slammed the plastic Budweiser cup down on the bar like a pirate cursing over a schooner of grog. â€Å"Bastard!† It was Wednesday evening, and they were at the Head of the Slug saloon to coordinate the replanning of the food for the Christmas for the Lonesome party. Lena's first reaction to Molly's call to help was to beg off and stay at home, but even as she was creating an excuse, she realized that she'd only sit home obsessing alternately on getting caught for killing Dale and getting her heart broken by this strange, strange helicopter pilot. She decided that maybe meeting with Molly and Mavis down at the Slug wasn't such a bad idea. And she might be able to find out from Molly if Theo suspected her in Dale's disappearance. Yeah, fat chance, with Molly obsessing on Theo's – whatever it was that Theo was supposed to have done wrong. It sounded to Lena like he had just taken a salad shooter to work with him. You were supposed to empathize with your friend's problems, but they were, after all, your friend's problems, and Lena's friends, Molly in particular, could be a little wacky. The bar was full of singles in their twenties and thirties and you could feel a desperate energy sparking around the dark room, like loneliness was the negative and sex was the positive and someone was brushing the wires together over an open bucket of gasoline. This was the fallout of the holiday heartbreak cycle that started with young men who, lacking any stronger motivation toward changing their lives, would break up with their current girlfriend in order to avoid having to buy her a Christmas present. The distraught women would sulk for a few days, eat ice cream, and avoid calling relatives, but then, as the idea of a solitary Christmas and New Year started to loom large, they swarmed into the Slug in search of a companion, virtually any companion, with whom they could pass the holidays. Full speed ahead and forget the presents. Pine Cove's male singles, to display their newfound freedom, would descend on the Slug, and avail themselves of the affections of dejected women in a ga me of small-town sexual musical chairs played hungrily to the tune of â€Å"Deck the Halls† – everyone hoping to have slipped drunkenly into someone more comfortable before the last fa was la-la-ed. There might have been a bubble around Lena and Molly, however, for they were obviously not part of the game. While both were certainly more than attractive enough to garner attention from the younger men, they had about them a mystique of experience, of having been there and moved on, of unbullshitability. Essentially, they scared the hell out of all but the drunkest of the Slug's suitors, and the fact that they were drinking straight diet Coke scared the hell out of the drunks. Molly and Lena, despite their own personal distress, had slain their own holiday desperation dragons, which was how the Lonesome Christmas party had started in the first place. Now they were on to new, individual anxieties. â€Å"Sloppy joes,† said Mavis, a great cloud of low-tar smoke powering the announcement and washing over Lena and Molly. It had been illegal to smoke in California bars for years, but Mavis ignored the law and the authorities (Theophilus Crowe) and smoked on. â€Å"Who doesn't like his meat sloppy on a bun?† â€Å"Mavis, it's Christmas,† Lena said. So far Mavis had only suggested soupy or saucy entres – Lena suspected that Mavis had misplaced her dentures again and was therefore lobbying for a gummable feast. â€Å"With pickles, then. Red sauce, green pickles, Christmas theme.† â€Å"I mean shouldn't we do something nice for Christmas? Not just sloppy joes?† â€Å"At five bucks a head, I told her that barbecue was the only way to feed them.† Mavis leaned in and looked at Molly, who was muttering malevolently into her ice cubes. â€Å"But everyone seems to think it's going to rain. Like it ever rains in December.† Molly looked up and growled a little, then looked at the television screen behind Mavis and pointed. The sound was muted, but there was a weather map of California. About eight hundred miles off the coast there was a great blob of color whirling in jump-frame satellite-photo motion, making it appear that a Technicolor amoeba was about to consume the Bay Area. â€Å"Ain't nothin',† Mavis said. â€Å"They won't even give it a name. If that thing was crouched like that over Bermuda, they'd have given it a name two days ago. Know why? ‘Cause they don't come onshore here. That bitch will turn right a hundred miles off Anacapa Island and go down and dump all over the Yucatan. Meanwhile we won't be able to wash our cars because of the drought.† â€Å"The rain at least will stop any sand-pirate attacks,† Molly said, crunching an ice cube. â€Å"Huh?† said Lena. â€Å"The hell did you say?† Mavis adjusted her hearing aid. â€Å"Nothing,† Molly said. â€Å"What do you guys think about lasagna? You know, some garlic bread, a little salad.† â€Å"Yeah, we can probably do it for five bucks a head if we don't use sauce or cheese,† said Mavis. â€Å"Lasagna just doesn't seem very Christmasy,† said Lena. â€Å"We could put it in Santa Claus pans,† Molly suggested. â€Å"No!† Lena snapped. â€Å"No Santas! We can do a snowman or something, but no friggin' Santas.† Mavis reached over and patted Lena's hand. â€Å"Santa played a little grab-ass with a lot of us when we were little, darlin'. Once your mustache starts growing you're supposed to let go of that shit.† â€Å"I am not growing a mustache.† â€Å"Do you wax? Because you can't see a thing,† said Molly, being supportive. â€Å"I do not have a mustache,† said Lena. â€Å"You think it's bad being a Mexican, Romanian women have to start shaving when they're twelve,† Mavis said. Lena took that opportunity to plant her elbows squarely on the bar and grip two great handfuls of her hair, which she began to pull, slowly and steadily, to make her point. â€Å"What?† said Mavis. â€Å"What?† said Molly. And there was an awkward moment of silence among the three – only the muted jukebox thumping in the background and the low murmur of people lying to one another. They looked around to avoid talking, then turned to the front door as Vance McNally, Pine Cove's senior EMT, came through it and let loose a long, growling belch. Vance was in his midfifties, and fancied himself a charmer and a hero, when, in fact, he was a bit of a dolt. He had been driving the ambulance for over twenty years now, and nothing gave him pleasure like being the bearer of bad news. It was the measure of his importance. â€Å"You guys hear that the highway patrol found Dale Pearson's truck parked up in Big Sur by Lime Kiln Rock? Looks like he was fishing and fell in. Yep, surf coming up from that storm, they'll never find him. Theo's up there now investigating.† Lena stumbled back to her bar stool and climbed up. She was sure everyone in the bar, all the locals anyway, were looking at her for a reaction. She let her long hair hang down by her face, hiding in it. â€Å"So, lasagna it is,† said Mavis. â€Å"But no fucking Santa pans!† Lena snapped, not looking up. Mavis pulled both of their plastic cups off the bar. â€Å"Normal circumstances, you'd be cut off, but as it is, I think you two really need to start drinking.†

Job Roles and Working Arrangements At Richer Sounds Essay

Levels of Hierarchy: are the layers of authority within an organisation. Spans of control: A span of control is the number of workers directly supervised by a more senior employee. Whereas an organisation chart shows how employees fit into the business, a job description gives details about what is expected of the individual employee. Job applicants normally receive a job description when they apply for a position with a business. A job description usually consists of: 1) The title of the job (e.g. sales manager). 2) The tasks to be completed as part of the job (e.g. having to write monthly sales reports, in the case of a sales manager). 3) The responsibilities of the job (e.g. a sales manager might be responsible for managing a team of sales representatives). 4) Information on working conditions linked to the job, such as rates of pay, hours to be worked and holidays. 5) A description of how the job fits into the organisational structure. UK businesses have employed increasing number of part-time and temporary employees. They have also used self-employed workers, who hire out their skills to firms but are their own bosses. At the same time, businesses have made use of more flexible contracts of employment, in some cases with annualised hours (hours worked in a year) included instead of hours per week. High proportions of these types of employees in businesses are called flexible workforces. In recent years, a number of trends have emerged in the UK’s workforce, including: More temporary workers: The number of workers on temporary contracts has risen since the early 1980’s although in the last few years it has levelled out. In 2000, nearly two million workers were on temporary contracts. Use of annualised hours: Many businesses face an uneven pattern of work over the year. For example, farms are very busy in the summer months harvesting crops, but are quiet in the winter. Without annualised hours, farmers might pay overtime in the summer and not have enough work to keep employees busy during the winter months. More part-time working: The number of employees within the UK who work part-time has increased each year. By 200, more than one-quarter of all employees – nearly seven million people – were part-time workers. Self-Employment: The number of self-employed has fallen recently, but 2.5 million people still work for themselves. Hiring consultants: Many businesses have replaced full-time employees with consultants, who work for a business for a short time. Consultants are usually very highly skilled, for example IT experts. Use of contractors: Many businesses employ other firms to carry out particular duties. The exact arrangements are set out in a contract between the businesses involved. It is common, for example, to hire contract staff for cleaning, rather than use permanent full-time employees. Managers: Managers play a vital role in businesses; 1) They have responsibility for an aspect of the business’s work under the guidance from the director. For example, a manager might take responsibility for employee training, under guidance from the director of human resources. 2) Managers plan activities, look after teams of employees, manage finances and attempt to meet targets set by the directors of the business. 3) Managers’ jobs are normally secure, as they usually have permanent full-time contracts. Managers often have a professional qualification in an area such as accountancy or marketing. They need to be good communicators, able to use IT, use time effectively and control finances. Managers’ pay varies according to the seniority of the position, but it can be over à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½100,000 a year. Other benefits that are common are company cars and private health insurance. Supervisors: In some businesses supervisors are also called team leaders. Supervisors provide a link between operatives and managers. They; 1) Monitor work of junior employees. 2) Ensure that production and quality targets set by managers are met whenever possible. 3) Advise managers of problems or difficulties in the work of the business. In some businesses supervisors have been given responsibility for some of the roles previously carried out by managers. For instance, they may recruit new employees or lead training sessions. The pay of supervisors depends on how much authority they have, but they are normally paid more than operatives. Operatives: The most junior employees in the business are the operatives. In a factory, they would work on the production line; in a shop they would be the sales assistants. Their role in a business is as follows; 1) They are normally only responsible for their own work. 2) They usually carry out routine tasks, though some employers do provide more varied and interesting work. 3) They often have little job security. Many are employed on temporary contracts, and when the contract runs out they may find themselves unemployed. Others find they are no longer needed because their jobs have been replaced by machinery. 4) In a minority of businesses, they are allowed to take decisions such as stopping the production line to remove poor-quality products. Many operatives are relatively unskilled. Sales assistants may have some training and qualifications in customer service, but some factory workers on production lines have no qualifications. Because of this, pay rates for operatives are normally low.| Support Staff: The support staff provides Specialist skills in businesses. They may offer expertise in the areas of security or information technology or provide secretarial skills. Support staff can operate at various levels in the organisation; 1) They offer advice and assistance in their specialist areas to employees. Thus, IT staff may recommend new software or hardware, provide training and sort out computer problems. 2) Some support staff are managers looking after teams of people are in charge on finances; others carry out routine tasks. 3) Senior support staff take important decisions, such as spending on computer systems. There are two working arrangements at Richer sounds, one is for permanent and temporary colleagues and the other is for full-time and part-time colleagues. Information on these working arrangements follow; Working arrangements for permanent and temporary colleagues: The vast majority of their colleagues are employed permanently. They are all issued with a written contract of employment. At Christmas Richer S0unds employ greeters in their stores to greet and assist customers at busy times. Their greeters are temporary colleagues who work for a short time and their work ends after the sale period. Many are students at college or university who work for them during their Christmas holidays. Richer Sounds do not issue written contracts to temporary colleagues, neither do we keep personnel records for them. However, they do receive a mini-welcome pack, which explains how Richer Sounds operates. Working arrangements for full-time and part-time colleagues: Most of thei colleagues work full time, although their hours may vary. A normal working week for store colleagues is 42.5 hours although in some of their stores which are open from 12 noon – 7 pm, colleagues may work fewer hours. Departmental support colleagues work 40 hours a week. Richer Sounds don’t use the term ‘part-time’. Colleagues who don’t work the full number of hours are called career key timers. They have access to all the same training opportunities and benefits as the full-time colleagues.