Design and Facilities in Curry Leaf Restaurant is the United Kingdoms Assignment

Design and Facilities in Curry Leaf Restaurant is the United Kingdoms Finest Indian Restaurant - Assignment Example These project a beautiful inner view that attracts both locals and visitors making Curry Leaf restaurant the preferred place by many. The restaurant has a main objective of making sure that, it provides not only Indian cuisine but also an Indian environment for its customers. Therefore, the restaurant management has come up with two concepts on how to go about realizing this goal. The first one is that the management proposed to establish an Indian garden with an Indian touch. The management had in mind a place that gives its Indian customers and all its customers a pleasant interaction with the garden’s natural beauty. A garden is referred to as a place to grow the plant and exhibit a variety of plants for ornamental purpose or practical use. However, since the restaurant is located in town and space is limited, a good layout plan is needed to realize a natural Indian garden look. For instance, to come up with a house a professional architect is needed the same case with a garden. In order to realize satisfactory results from a garden, the garden should be designed carefully considering its permanent and se mi-permanent features (Miller et al, 2012). An Indian garden combines the aesthetic Indian beauty, artistry from India and knowledge on growth and development of plants as well as principles of garden maintenance practices. May it be arranging trees, climber, shrubs, or any other flowers, a design is relevant. This is because designs outline the character of an object or a place in serving its sole purpose. The design may either be aesthetic of economic in such a way it attracts only for a purpose (Miller et al, 2012). Therefore, there are a number of fundamental factors to consider. The first one is that the garden layout should be convenient and comfortable to the owner. The second one is that the design should be simple and selective. For example, in this case, the garden is an Indian garden; therefore, the design should be simple where even an American Indian will recognize the Indian touch at a glance.

Office Space: Bureaucracy in the Workplace

Office Space: Bureaucracy in the Workplace The 1999 film, Office Space, characterizes an unhappy employee that works for a generic software company named Initech, which is structured as a bureaucracy. The main character, Peter Gibbons, eventually gets fed up by his job and the pressured environment in the workplace as a result of the bureaucratic environment. As a result of being fed up, Peter decides to rebel with the help of his two friends, Samir and Michael Bolton, and devise a computer program to steal from the company in small decimal amounts, but accidentally end up stealing a large amount. Meanwhile, the company decides to promote him while Peter is rebelling against the company. Bureaucracy, as defined by Max Weber, has six elements: first, the element of specialization of the job each worker does; second, bureaucracy has a rule of many by the few in which only one or a few people have rule of authority; third, bureaucracy has rules and regulations that the workers must follow; fourth, it is the characteristic of technical competence; fifth, it is the component of impersonality; finally, sixth, bureaucracy has formal written communication and official documentation. Webers characteristics of bureaucracy are shown to be in agreement with what is shown in the film. The first element is shown through the employees of Office Space. It is shown that each employee of Initech has a specific role that they contribute in the workplace. For example, Peter Gibbons, Michael Bolton, and Samir are all part of the computer programming component of the company while Lumbergh and the seven bosses that Peter has are part of the management component of the company. The purpose of having different people to complete different aspects of a company is to increase efficiency, however, the movie also shows that the computer programmers write the bank software to save space, such as taking out two digits (97 instead of 1997), but they have to go back into the program and change thousands of numbers so all of them only have two digits instead of four, which, in itself, is inefficient but it still emphasizes that only the computer programmers in the company have to do that, and that is what their job/contribution is in the company. The second element address that there is only one of few people that have rule of authority in the company, and in the film, this rulers would be Lumbergh and the seven other bosses that are part of management. But in these eight bosses, there is a hierarchy of management, giving the company a pyramid-like structure. The pyramid was Lumbergh up at the top, then Peter Gibbons, then Michael Bolton, then Samir, and then Milton, who would be at the very bottom of the food chain, with no authority in any situation or over anyone. This pyramid also contributes to the blatant difference in salary, as the film shows the employees general, family cars while Lumbergh had a Porsche in the same parking lot. Rules and regulations, as the third element of bureaucracy, are shown in the film in the very popular TPS Report scene of the movie in which Dom Portwood confronts Peter Gibbons: Dom Portwood: Hi, Peter. Whats happening? We need to talk about your TPS reports. Peter Gibbons: Yeah. The coversheet. I know, I know. Uh, Bill talked to me about it. Dom Portwood: Yeah. Did you get that memo? Peter Gibbons: Yeah. I got the memo. And I understand the policy. And the problem is just that I forgot the one time. And Ive already taken care of it so its not even really a problem anymore. Dom Portwood: Ah! Yeah. Its just were putting new coversheets on all the TPS reports before they go out now. So if you could go ahead and try to remember to do that from now on, thatd be great. All right! (credit: IMDB Office Space Quotes) This scene in the film is showing how Dom Portwood, the vice president reprimands Peter for not using the correct cover sheet on a report even though there had been a memo detailing the new procedure. Even when Peter said that it was a simple mistake and that he had a copy of the memo Portwood insists on sending another copy of the memo. This shows that the bureaucracy must follow a strict set of rules and regulations in order to be successful, and the management must make it clear that such mistakes will not be accepted in order to keep the important of rules and regulations high in priority. The fourth aspect of bureaucracy is the technical competence. In the movie, the two consultants are brought into the company to assess the efficiency and competence of each employee in the role that they are in, and they do this so the companys efficiency can be increased. This is interesting because it would seem that a company is run on many people, in many different departments, to successfully run a company, however they are laying off employees to increase efficiency, but that is really just the code phrase for downsizing. Peter, for example, is probably the antithesis of efficiency and competence because he says to one of the consultants that he stares at his desk and gets about 15 minutes of work done in an actual week. The fifth element is impersonality, which means that corporations and bosses dont actually consider getting to know their employees important. They, instead, write impersonal memos to their employees, and do not identify them as individuals. For example. Samir has been working in Initech for five years, and his name is still mispronounced. And the bosses, especially Lumbergh, are always just saying things like, did you see the memo, instead of addressing the person they are talking to. The final element is the need to officialize and formalize all documentation in the office. This also falls under the category of rules and regulations because the need to document everything is overemphasized, such as in the example in which Peter forgot a coversheet and how that little issue became over exaggerated enough for the vice-president to come and point it out. Examples of official documentation in Office Space include TPS reports, memos, files, and personal records of each employee that the company keeps, but nothing is really personal about that file just an impersonal set of information of each employee. Overall, the 1999 film cleverly points out the flaws of a highly bureaucratized work environment, and Webers Theory of Bureaucracy is also portrayed in the film. Teaching assistant: Developing child learning Teaching assistant: Developing child learning Historically, teaching assistants, or auxiliaries as they were sometimes formerly known, were non teaching adults who helped qualified teachers by carrying out day to day preparatory and administrative tasks and providing pastoral care to children. (Clayton. 1993) However, in 1998, the Local Government Chronicle published a summary of a Green Paper, (LGC, 1998), in which they outlined proposals for employing a greater number of support staff 20,000 by the year 2002 in order to provide more support for teachers. The summary also announced the governments suggestions for a more effective use of, and better training for, teaching assistants and other school support staff which, along with a subsequent OfSTED review, (2002a, p6) declared the need for training that would, match any proposed structure of qualifications and to facilitate career progression. The implementation of national occupational standards for teaching assistants, approved in 2001, and the HLTA status introduced in 20 03, (TDA, 2008) offered committed support staff the opportunity to progress and acquire the skills to become more accomplished educators. Working as a teaching assistant started to become a career and so began the real debate about the role of the teaching assistant. As with many job titles within the working environment, the title teaching assistant is often interpreted in a variety of ways but one common theme I have encountered, when questioning educational staff, is that all teaching assistants have the potential to be facilitators of learning and therefore are essential elements in the development of learning for children. How the facilitation is carried out, however, is less clear and open to individual interpretation by both employers and employees. In order to support the learning of all children, teaching assistants, like any educator, need to have a good understanding of how children learn. In the book, Teaching and Learning in the Early Years, Whitebread (2008, chapter 1) discusses Piagets ideas that children need to feel and hold control over their learning. Whitebread continues by exploring Vygotsys claims that it is the role of the adult to provide opportunities for social interaction and to support the child in moving out of their comfort zone or level of actual development and towards their potential via their zone of proximal development. To do this, a teaching assistant must understand how to promote curiosity amongst children while providing opportunities for discussion and exploration. With current class sizes in the region of up to 30 pupils, a class teacher will often be unable to engage in this vital aspect of developing childrens learning and so it is essential that supporting adults are equipped with the skills to scaffold learning and to provide opportunities for them to develop the language needed to be able to discuss and explain their ideas. (Bruner 1983, cited in Peabody Journal of Education, pp 64-66) Recently I was fortunate to be part of an initiative to promote reading amongst a group of reluctant pupils who had formulated an opinion that reading was a chore to be undertaken with animosity and only when instructed to do so. Upon investigation, it was obvious that these children had encountered a variety of barriers that had influenced their attitude and ability to read. My role was that of the enabling adult as described by Chambers (1991). By providing them with an opportunity to share and discuss each others reading experiences I was able to promote and inspire in them a willingness and enjoyment of reading. The outcome of this quickly became apparent in their understanding of written text. The children also began writing with enthusiasm, using their own knowledge and experiences; as a result, they had taken control of their own learning. The childrens vocal responses demonstrated that they felt empowered by the fact that they were directly responsible for the progress that t hey were making and they continue to enjoy our weekly discussions about their reading and progress. The children mentioned do not have special educational needs, as is often the case for pupils being supported by a teaching assistant. Children with SEN require a higher level of support and this has, traditionally, been provided by teaching assistants. (Alborz et al, 2009a) This has previously been an area for debate with The Daily Telegraph (2009) publishing an article claiming that research shows that, Pupils make less progress in classrooms where schools employ more teaching assistants. This article states that teaching assistants often support lower attaining pupils, resulting in them being less supported by a qualified teacher and to them making limited progress. The article does not, however, take into account the training of the teaching assistants. While reviewing the impact of workforce remodeling, a report by OfSTED (2004) stated that when a teaching assistant is appointed to work with carefully chosen pupils and is provided with the appropriate training to do so effective ly, the pupils make significant progress. This is, of course, as well as the obvious benefits of providing the teacher with more time to focus on other pupils. Having worked alongside several teaching assistants employed to support children with SEN I have witnessed the immeasurable benefit to the pupil and the class as a whole. The teaching assistants enabled the pupils to be included in a mainstream classroom and access the curriculum, while allowing the class teacher to support the majority of the pupils. Their support involved the re-enforcing of the whole class teaching, giving the pupil the confidence to participate in class discussions, simplification of vocabulary, offering praise and encouragement and feedback on the completed task. Following the lesson, the teaching assistant also provided the teacher with assessment and monitoring feedback to enable assessment of and for learning. This assessment has become a vital aspect of the role of the teaching assistant and supports the teacher and pupil by enabling differentiation and personalised learning to become every day practice. (OfSTED, 2002b) Guidance published by the NFER (2002, cited in Department for Education and Skills, 2005, p.22) found that when teachers and teaching assistants work in partnership, the results are a more effective level of teaching and learning. An example of this is a scenario I have experienced recently where a teaching assistant supported the learning of the majority of the class while the class teacher focused on the children with SEN. As a result of the teacher and teaching assistant having spent time working together to plan the lesson, the teaching assistant was able to support the learning objectives and assist pupils in their achievement of them. Teaching assistants can also, when included in the planning of a lesson, actively participate in the delivery of the lesson providing an alternative viewpoint or by playing a character in role. One such example was provided by my colleague who, upon realising that many of the pupils within the class had misunderstood a key concept, pretended to be confused and raised a hand to ask for clarification. As a result, pupils developed a clearer understanding of the lesson and therefore, the teaching assistant had played an important role in developing their learning. By implementing a combination of all of these approaches and with effective training and guidance, teaching assistants can provide invaluable support for all children within any lesson. Teaching assistants also support behaviour management within classes and can provide an alternative level of perception within the classroom. In daily Literacy lessons, I have observed a teaching assistant supporting a pupil with ADHD and have no doubt that without her presence, the class teacher would have to spend a large proportion of the lesson settling the child and addressing low level distractions. Personal experience has shown me that children with emotional or behavioural difficulties are often more responsive towards a teaching assistant with whom they can forge a positive adult / child relationship. This can contribute towards the social and emotional wellbeing of the child as outlined by Alborz et al. (2009b). Besides the opportunity to support childrens learning during lesson time, teaching assistants continue to carry out a multitude of administrative tasks in order to support the class teacher and the school as a whole. The National Agreement, (ATL et al. 2003, p.2), implemented as part of the governments workforce remodelling initiative, states that teachers should not spend their time carrying out administrative responsibilities that do not make full use of their skills and expertise but that these tasks should be carried out by support staff. The agreement outlines twenty-one tasks that teaching staff should not be required to carry out including the preparation of classroom resources, photocopying, the collection of monies for educational visit and the preparation and setting up of displays. These tasks must also, therefore, be considered the responsibility of the teaching assistant. Each and every one of the administrative tasks has an impact on the educational environment and ther efore contributes towards supporting the development of childrens learning. In practice, however, the need for teaching assistants to be more involved in the delivery of lessons surely means that they too will have less time for carrying out administrative duties which in turn might relay these duties back into the hands of the teachers. In my experience, teaching assistants often offer unconditional support for the school in which they are employed. Many carry out duties beyond their working hours providing curriculum enrichment activities and regularly being at the forefront of fund raising events. They frequently are able to provide a connection between local communities and their schools as they often live in close proximity to their workplace. This is a non essential yet valuable part of their role as it enables teaching staff to be aware of local issues and provides a link between parents and schools. (Lipsett, 2008) In conclusion, the role of the teaching assistant has evolved significantly over recent years and can offer committed individuals with a recognised career that is both progressive and rewarding. With appropriate professional development opportunities, a teaching assistant can give invaluable support to individuals and groups of pupils, teaching staff, parents and schools. By providing pastoral care, administrative support and personalised learning they can, as outlined in the Governments Every Child Matters initiative (DfES, 2003), promote enjoyment and achievement in a safe, nurturing environment; contribute to the academic and emotional wellbeing of all children; help them to become successful members of the school and wider community.

Tech Prep :: Education School Careers Essays

Tech Prep Tech prep has become more widely accepted by educators and the business community as real changes have been made in curriculum, courses, and programs. However, the jury is still outabout whether the anticipated student, school, and community outcomes are being realized. This essay examines the extent to which tech prep is succeeding as a unique effort, living up to the claims that have been made for it. Over the years, educators have been challenged by a number of federal, state, and local initiativesthat profess to result in better educational outcomes for students. Highly marketed at their inception, many of the initiatives ultimately fade into obscurity, some absorbed as part of otherprograms. Examinations of tech prep and its relationship to school-to-work initiatives point to thedistinctions that make each of the two programs unique and highlight the characteristics that makethem similar. Program focus is the most distinguishing feature that differentiates tech prep from school to work.Tech preps focus is primarily on school-based learning, whereas school-to-work programs alsoinclude work-based learning and linkages between the two. The distinction is less clear when thecore elements required for tech prep vary among tech prep consortia, as they are reported to do(Owens 1996). For example, when tech prep adds elements that include work-based and careerguidance components, it becomes similar to school-to-work, which may explain why someeducators are seeing little or no difference between the two. Of the 100 persons surveyed at the1996 American Vocational Association Convention, however, only 15 percent saw tech prep andschool-to-work as being exactly the same (Bragg 1996). Most of the surveyed tech prep consortia did not see the two efforts as synonymous, but perceived tech prep as a component of school to work: 35% of the respondents considered techprep to be the foundation for school to work; 50% considered tech prep to be under the school-to-work umbrella (ibid). However, for funding as well as program issues, most local techprep coordinators believe that tech prep should retain its unique identity to ensure that thebenefits of its processes and procedures are not lost or duplicated by school-to-work (Bragg et al.1997). Survey responses from 42 of 50 state directors of vocational-technical education showedagreement with the view that tech prep is one option within school to work and that its identityneeds to remin strong (Dykman 1995). Imprecision in defining the two reforms can create confusion and frustration among allstakeholders. At one of the five field sites studied during the 1996-1997 academic year, forexample, tech prep was "viewed as a premier approach to STW for more academically talentedstudents, incorporating both school-based and work-based components.

Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 6~7

6. The Vampire Parrots of Telegraph Hill A flock of wild parrots lives in the city of San Francisco. They are South American cherry-headed conures-bright green with a red head, a little smaller than a typical pigeon. No one is quite sure how they came to the City. It's likely that they are the descendants of animals caught in the jungle, then released to the city skies when they proved too wild to be kept as pets. They fly over the northern waterfront of San Francisco, foraging for fruit, berries, and blossoms, from the Presidio at the entrance of the Golden Gate Bridge, over Pacific Heights, the Marina, Russian Hill, North Beach, and all the way to the Ferry Building near the Oakland Bay Bridge. They are social, squawky, silly birds that mate for life and advertise their presence with a cacophony of beeps and cheeps that inspire smiles from residents, bewilderment from tourists, and hunger in predators, mostly red-tailed hawks and peregrine falcons. The parrots spend their nights high in the trees of Telegraph Hill, beneath the great concrete phallus of Coit Tower, sheltered from attack from hawks by the evergreen canopy overhead, and from all but the most ambitious cats, by the sheer altitude. But still, they are sometimes attacked, and although gentle creatures, they will fight back, biting with their thick, built-for-seed-crushing beaks. Which is what happened. The next morning after he witnessed the cat attack in the SOMA, the Emperor of San Francisco was awakened from a nest he'd made in one of the little stair gardens on Telegraph Hill, to hear parrots squawking in the trees. The sun was just breaking the horizon behind the Bay Bridge, turning the water red-gold under a blue morning mist. The Emperor crawled out from under a pile of carpet padding, stood, and stretched, his great joints creaking in the cold like ancient church doors. The men, Bummer and Lazarus, poked their noses out of the gray cloak, snuffled the dawn, then, with the call of the parrots, resolved themselves to morning and emerged like urgent butterflies to search for the perfect spot for the first wee of the day. The three watched as fifty or so squawking parrots circled Coit Tower and headed out toward the Embarcadero, where, suddenly, they all stopped flying, burst into flames, and fell like a smoldering storm of dying comets into Levi's Plaza. â€Å"Well, you don't see that every day,† said the Emperor, scratching Lazarus's ears through the bandages. The retriever was a doggy version of The Mummy, wrapped ears to tail in bandages after his last encounter with the vampire cats. The vet in the Mission wanted to keep him overnight, but the retriever had never spent a night away from the Emperor since they had found each other, and the vet had no accommodations for a large and burly monarch, let alone a feisty Boston terrier, so the three had bunked together under the carpet pad. Bummer chuffed, which translated from dog to: â€Å"I don't like it.† As the famous frog sang, it's not easy being green. 7. The Fog Comes on Little Cat Feet and Whatnot FOO Stephen â€Å"Foo Dog† Wong's fully bombed Honda drift machine was full of rats. Not completely full, the passenger seat was filled by Jared Whitewolf, Abby's backup BFF. (BBFF, really.) â€Å"Did you have to get all white ones?† Jared asked. He was six foot two, very thin, and paler than Death shagging a snowman. The sides of his head were shaved and in the middle he sported an unlaquered Mohawk, which hung in his eyes unless he was lying on his back or looking up. In addition to a floor-length black PVC cenobite coat, he was currently wearing Abby's thigh-high red platform Skankenstein ® boots, which was completely within his rights, as her current BFF. What bothered Foo was not that Jared had on girl's boots, but that he had on the boots of a girl with distinctly small feet. â€Å"Don't those hurt?† Jared tossed his hair out of his eyes. â€Å"Well, it's like Morrissey said, ‘Life is suffering.'† â€Å"I think the Buddha said that.† â€Å"I'm pretty sure Morrissey said it first-like, back in the eighties.† â€Å"No, it was the Buddha.† â€Å"Have you ever even seen a picture of the Buddha with shoes on?† Jared asked. Foo couldn't believe he was having this argument. What's more, he couldn't believe he was losing this argument. â€Å"Well, I have some Nikes upstairs that might fit you if you need to change shoes. Let's get the rats unloaded. I have to get to work.† Jared already had four plastic cages with two white rats in each stacked on his lap, so he unfolded himself out of the Honda and wobbled on the red platforms to the fire door of the loft. â€Å"Don't try to paint them black,† Jared said, peering into the Plexiglas boxes as Foo opened the door for him. â€Å"I tried that with my first rat, Lucifer. It was tragic.† â€Å"Tragic?† said Foo. â€Å"I'd have never guessed. Put them on the floor in the living room. I'll borrow the truck from work tomorrow and pick up some folding tables to put them on.† In addition to pursuing his degree in molecular biology, and variously rescuing Abby, formulating vampire serum, and tricking out his Honda, Foo still worked part-time at Stereo City, where he specialized in telling people that they needed a bigger TV. â€Å"You still have that job?† Jared said as he stumbled up the stairs. â€Å"Abby said you guys have total fuck-you money.† Why did she tell him? She wasn't supposed to tell him. Did she tell him everything? Why did she have to have friends at all? She'd given Jared five thousand dollars of Jody and Tommy's money for Hanukkah-despite the fact that neither one of them was Jewish. â€Å"Because I will not let mainstream society make me into the Christmas bitch of the zombie baby-Jebus, that's why,† she'd said. â€Å"And because he helped me take care of the Countess and Lord Flood when they were in trouble.† â€Å"I need to keep my cover,† Foo said. â€Å"For tax purposes.† That was partially true. He did need to keep up his cover, because, like Abby, he hadn't actually told his parents that he'd moved out. They were so used to him being at school, in the lab, or at work, that they hadn't really noticed that he hadn't been sleeping at home. It helped that he had four younger brothers and sisters, who were all carrying insane work and course loads. His parents were all about toil. As long as you were toiling, you were okay. They could smell toil from miles away, or the lack of it. He might be able to get away with living in his own loft with his spooky-sexy girlfriend, and doing bizarre genetic experiments on the undead, but if he quit his job they'd sense it in a second. It took Foo and Jared twenty minutes to get all the rats up the steps and lined up around the living room. â€Å"We're not going to hurt them, are we?† said Jared, holding up one of the plastic cages so he was eye to eye with its occupants. â€Å"We're going to turn them into vampires.† â€Å"Oh, cool. Now?† â€Å"No, not now. For now, you're going to need to feed them and make sure there's a water bottle in each of their cages,† Foo said. â€Å"Then what?† Jared asked, tossing his hair out of his eyes. â€Å"Then you can go home,† said Foo. â€Å"You don't need to observe them full-time until the experiment starts.† â€Å"I can't go home. I told my parents I was staying over at Abby's.† Foo was suddenly horrified at the thought of having to spend the night in the loft with a hundred rats, two bronzed vampires, and Jared. Especially Jared. Maybe he'd go home and leave Jared to watch the rats-make an appearance at home for the parents, so as to throw them off the trail of his non-toiling, loft-living, Anglo-girlfriend lifestyle. â€Å"You can stay here, then,† Foo said. â€Å"I'll be back in the morning.† â€Å"What about them?† Jared nodded toward the bronzed figures of Jody and Tommy. â€Å"What about them?† â€Å"Can I talk to them? I didn't get to finish telling Jody my novel.† Jared had spent a very long night telling Jody the first part of the novel he was going to write, an erotic horror story that starred himself and his pet rat, Lucifer 2. â€Å"Okay,† said Foo. He didn't really like thinking about the two people, well, vampires, but they seemed a lot like people, that he'd helped imprison in a bronze shell. It sort of gave him the willies, and that was highly unscientific. â€Å"But no touching,† he added. Jared pouted and sat down on the futon, about the only spot in the entire living-room-kitchen area not covered with plastic rat cages. â€Å"Okay, but will you help me get these boots off before you go?† Foo shuddered. It had been less than an hour since the cops led Abby away and already he missed her like a severed limb. It was embarrassing. How could hormones and hydrostatic pressure make you feel like this? Love was very unscientific. â€Å"Sorry,† Foo said. â€Å"Gotta jet.† A true hero, the kind Abby accused him of being, he knew, would have helped Jared. JARED Abby Normal had once offered to pay for a tattoo for Jared that read: Danger. Do not administer caffeine without adult supervision. Jared asked, â€Å"Can it be in red? Does it have to be on the forehead? Maybe on the side so I can grow my hair over it if I don't like it. Am I being emo? Do you want to play Blood-feast on Xbox? They have green fur iPod cases at Urban Outfitters. I love white chocolate mochas. Marilyn Manson needs to be dragged to death behind a clown car. Oh fuck, I'm so allergic to this eyeliner I could cry.† Abby said, â€Å"Oh my God, you're like Obnoxious and Annoying had an ass baby!† â€Å"What are you trying to say?† asked Jared. What she had been trying to say, although she didn't know it at the time, was that under no circumstances should Jared be left alone in an apartment with an abundance of time and espresso, which is what Foo had just done. So after feeding, watering, and naming all the rats (most given French names from Abby's copy of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal), Jared began brewing espressos and was nine demitasse cups into the afternoon when he decided to act out the remainder of his unwritten vampire adventure novel, The Dark of Darkness, for a hundred rats caged in plastic and two vampires encased in bronze. â€Å"So the evil Blood Queen dons her chrome strap-on of death and goes after Lucifer 2. But Jared Whitewolf is on her like a fat kid on a cupcake, parrying her blows with his dagger of death, or Dee Dee, as it is known.† Jared pirouetted, a move he'd learned in ballet class at age six, and slashed the air, low and fast, with the double-edged dagger held backhand so as to sever his imaginary enemy's femoral artery, a move he'd learned in Soul Assassin Five on the Xbox (although it was harder to do while wearing platform boots than it was in the video game). The dagger was real enough, twelve inches of double-edged high-carbon stainless steel with a dragon hilt. Jared carried it because he thought it made him look badass when doormen took it away from him at clubs. â€Å"And he strikes her weapon in half!† he said, leaping and bringing the blade around a little too fast. He turned his ankle, lost his balance, and as he fell, the dagger put a deep nick in the bronze statue. â€Å"Ow!† He sat on the floor holding his ankle and rocking back and forth in the yoga position known as the â€Å"freaked-out half-lotus.† Then he noticed the gash he'd put in the bronze, directly over Jody's right clavicle. â€Å"I'm sorry, Countess,† Jared said, still a little breathless from his battle. â€Å"I didn't mean to hurt you. It's just that I had to save Lucifer 2. You'd do the same thing for Lord Flood if he was in the story.† Jared buffed at the bronze with his sleeve, but the gash was deep and wasn't going to go away with polishing. â€Å"Abby's going to kill me. I'll patch you, Countess. Just hang on. Toothpaste. We used it on the wall that time we drank Abby's mom's vodka and played cross-country darts in her living room. Hang on a minute.† Jared let the heavy dagger drop to the floor, climbed to his feet, winced, then limped off to the bathroom to look for toothpaste. He located a tube of all natural tartar control with baking soda just as the sun dropped under the horizon in the west. Out in the living room, a needle-thin stream of mist began leaking out of the gash he'd made in the bronze statue. Toothpaste probably wouldn't have fixed it. THE ANIMALS In the last two months, the Animals, the night stock crew at the Marina Safeway, had hunted an ancient vampire, blown up his yacht, stolen millions of dollars' worth of art, sold it for pennies on the dollar, spent the remaining hundreds of thousands on gambling and a blue hooker, got turned into vampires, were torn apart by zoo animals, then burned up by sunlamps when they attacked Abby Normal, then turned, by Foo, back into seven guys who stocked shelves at the Safeway and smoked a little too much weed. And as it often is with adventurers, after the adventure, they were feeling a little bored, and a little worried that nothing exciting would ever happen to them again. After you've battled the darkness, then become the darkness, then shagged the darkness, frozen turkey bowling and skiing behind the floor-scrubbing machine just doesn't hold the same thrill. After you've shared a blue prostitute with your buddies to the tune of a half a million dollars, only to have her kill and resurrect you before disappearing into the night, swapping stories of banging babes was a bit of an anticlimax. After all, they worked nights and the oldest of them, Clint, was only twenty-three, so most of their stories were gross exaggerations, wishful thinking, or outright lies anyway. Even crucifying Clint with zip ties on the potato chip rack every other Friday didn't seem fun anymore, and last week they had just left him hanging, thrashing in the Doritos, and went off to stock their aisles before he could even forgive them for knowing not what they did. Tragic, really, to be young, free, and mind-numbingly bored. So when the Emperor of San Francisco came screaming out of the parking lot and slammed, face-first, into the big Plexiglas front window, rattling the Tic Tacs on every register, each of them dropped what he was working on and headed to the front of the store, hoping in their hearts that something outstanding was coming down. The seven, the Animals, stood on one side of the big window, while the Emperor pounded on the other, the royal hounds leaping and barking at his side. â€Å"Maybe we should let him in,† said Clint, curly-haired, born-again, ex-heroin addict who worked cereal, coffee, and juices. â€Å"He seems troubled.† â€Å"S,† said Gustavo, the porter, leaning on his mop. â€Å"Troubled.† â€Å"Seems fucking freaked,† said Drew, the Ichabod-Crane-gaunt master of the frozen food aisle and chief medical officer. â€Å"Totally fucking freaked.† â€Å"What's wrong?† asked Lash, the lean black guy who had become their leader when Tommy was turned into a vampire, largely because he almost had an MBA, but also because he was a black guy and inherently cooler than everyone else. â€Å"Murder, destruction, ravenous creatures of the night, a storm of them,† shouted the Emperor. â€Å"Hurry, please.† â€Å"He always says that,† said Barry, the balding fireplug of a scuba diver who also stocked soap and dog food. â€Å"Well, every time he says it, it's kind of true,† said Jeff, the tall blond ex-power forward with the blown-out knee (baking supplies and international foods). â€Å"I say let him in.† â€Å"Look, the retriever is all bandaged up. Poor guy,† said Troy Lee, their resident martial arts expert who worked the glass aisle. â€Å"Let them in.† â€Å"You just want to roll the little one up in a burrito,† said Lash. â€Å"Yeah, that's right, Lash. Because I'm Chinese, I have a deep-seated need to nosh house pets. Now why don't you let him in before my inner Chinaman forces me to kung-fu your bitch ass.† Because he understood that he was the leader only so long as he told everyone to do what they wanted to do anyway, and because he had had his bitch ass kung-fued in the past and hadn't cared for it, Lash unlocked the door and let the Emperor in. The old man fell into the store when Lash opened the door. Bummer and Lazarus stopped barking and bolted by them, and on toward the back of the store. Jeff and Drew got the Emperor seated on one of the registers and Troy Lee handed him a bottle of water. â€Å"Chill, Your Majesty, we've done this before.† â€Å"Not like this. Not like this,† said the Emperor. â€Å"It's a storm of evil. Lock the door.† Lash rolled his eyes. They really had done this before, and the door being locked or unlocked wasn't going to make much difference if a vampire was following the old man. â€Å"We got your back, Highness,† Lash said. â€Å"Lock the door,† the Emperor moaned, pointing through the window. A fog bank was moving across the parking lot, with rather more intent than one usually expects from a fog bank. A high, yowling screech seemed to come out of the fog in a stream, as if it had been sampled, amplified, and duplicated a thousand times. The Animals moved to the glass. â€Å"Lock the door, Lash,† Clint said. Clint never gave orders. The edge of the fog bank was boiling with shapes, claws, ears, eyes, teeth, tails-cats formed of fog, rolling in a wave over one another, some materializing partially, only to evaporate and roll back into the cloud, their red eyes moving through the cloud like embers out of a firestorm. â€Å"Whoa,† said Drew. â€Å"Whoa,† repeated the others. â€Å"Okay, that is different,† said Troy Lee. â€Å"My friends all over the City are missing,† the Emperor said. â€Å"Street people. They're gone. Just their clothes and gray dust,† the Emperor said. â€Å"The cats are killing everything in their way.† â€Å"That is fucked up,† said Jeff. â€Å"Deeply, deeply fucked up,† said Barry, dragging one of the heavy wooden order dividers off the register and brandishing it like a club. â€Å"Lock the fucking door, Lash!† Clint screamed. â€Å"Jesus hates it when you use the f-word,† said Gustavo, the Mexican porter, who was Catholic and liked to remind Clint when his Jesus was slipping. The fog washed against the window and claw marks etched the Plexiglas instantly to frost, as if it had all been sanded. The noise was like, well, it was like a thousand vampire cats clawing on Plexiglas-it made their teeth hurt. â€Å"Did anyone bring weapons?† Troy Lee asked. â€Å"I brought some weed,† Drew said. A cat's claw of fog crept under the door and raked the toe of Lash's sneaker. He snapped the lock shut, pulled out the key, and backed away. â€Å"Okay, break time,† he said. â€Å"Crew meeting in the walk-in.† JARED Across town, in the bedroom of a fashionable loft, in the fashionable SOMA neighborhood, aspiring rat-shagger, Jared Whitewolf, looked up from rubbing his sore ankle to see a completely naked redhead walk into the room. Her hair hung to her waist in a great curling cape, framing her figure, which was perfect and as white as a marble statue. She held Jared's double-edged dagger in her right hand. Jared backed up onto the bed in a reverse crab walk. â€Å"I, I, I, it, it, it-Abby made me-â€Å" â€Å"Chill, Scissorhands,† Jody said. â€Å"You'd better find some of those blood bags of Steve's fast, unless you'd like to finish high school as a pile of greasy dust. Countess is thirsty.†

The Constellation Orion

Orion has been recognized as distinct group of stars for thousands of years. The Chaldeans knew it as Tammuz, named after the month that the familiar belt of stars first rose before sunrise. The Syrians called it Al Jabbar, the Giant. To the ancient Egyptians it was Sahu, the soul of Osiris. However in Greek mythology, Orion was a beautiful giant hunter. There are many legends about Orion and several variations about his death and why he was placed in the stars.One story tells of his boast that he would eventually rid the earth of all its wild animals. When the Earth goddess Gea heard of this she became upset and sent a Giant Scorpion to sting him to death. Now even after death that scorpion chases him around the sky. If you notice scorpio and Orion are never in the sky together. Another story says that Artemis the goddess of hunting fell in love with Orion. And when Orion was swimming Artemis was speaking to her brother Apollo.He bet her that she could not shoot a dot on the distanc e. She hit the target right on but had been tricked. She had shoot Orion. She put her love, Orion in the sky. And yet another tells how Orion raped Artemis. And she took her revenge upon him, when she shot him. Now seeing as there are several variations of his death you would have to choose which one you like best and go with it. There are two stars that are well know in the constalation of Orion. The first one is know as Betelgeuse, also called Alpha Orinis.It is one of the brightest stars in the constelation of Orion. It is an irregular because it changes brightness and size but has no regular periods of veration. It is classified as a red supergiant and it is 600 times the size of the sun. The other star to be Mentioned is Rigel also known as Beta Orionis. It is the Brightest star in the constelation and the seventh brightest star in the heavens. The Location of both stars can be seen on the picture of Orion.

Skate Characteristics and Information

Skate Characteristics and Information Skates are a type of cartilaginous fish that have a flat body and wing-like pectoral fins attached to their head. If you can picture a stingray, you know basically what a skate looks like. There are dozens of species of skates. According to the Florida Museum of Natural History, the common skate is the largest skate species - it can reach over 8 feet in length. At only about 30 inches, the starry skate is the smallest skate species. Description of a Skate Fish Like stingrays, skates have a long, whip-like tail and breathe through spiracles. Breathing through spiracles allows the skate to rest on the ocean bottom and get oxygenated water through openings in their head, rather than breathing in water and sand from the ocean bottom. Skates may also have a prominent dorsal fin (or two fins) near the end of their tail, while rays usually do not. While many fish propel themselves by flexing their bodies and using their tail, skates move by flapping their wing-like pectoral fins. Unlike stingrays, skates do not have a venomous spine in their tail. Classification Skates are a type of cartilaginous fish. They are classified in the order Rajiformes, which contains a dozen families, including the families Anacanthobatidae and Rajidae, which include skates and smooth skates. Kingdom: AnimaliaPhylum: ChordataClass: ElasmobranchiiOrder: Rajiformes Feeding Skates eat shellfish, worms, and crabs. They have strong teeth and jaws, allowing them to easily crush shells. Habitat and Distribution Skates live throughout the world. Skates spend most of their time on the ocean bottom. Reproduction Reproduction is another way that skates differ from rays. Skates bear their young in eggs, while rays bear live young. Thus, skates are oviparous. With rays, the young develop in eggs that are retained in the mothers body, thus they are ovoviviparous. Skates mate at the same nursery grounds each year. Male skates have claspers that they use to transmit sperm to the female, and eggs are fertilized internally. The eggs develop into a capsule called an egg case- or more commonly, a mermaids purse - and then are deposited onto the ocean floor. These mermaids purses sometimes wash up on beaches. The egg cases may sit on the ocean floor, or attach to seaweeds. Inside the egg case, a yolk nourishes the embryos. The young may remain in the egg case for up to 15 months, and then hatch looking like miniature adult skates. Conservation and Human Uses Skates are harmless to humans. Skates are commercially harvested  for their wings, which are considered tasty (Skate Wing With Butter, anyone?). The flesh of a skates wing is said to be similar to the taste and texture of scallops. They are usually harvested  using  otter trawls. Skate wings can also be used for lobster bait, and to make fish meal and pet food. In addition to commercial fisheries, skates may also be caught as bycatch. Some U.S. skate species, such as the thorny skate, are considered overfished, and management plans are in place in the U.S. to protect skate populations through methods such as fishing trip limits, and possession prohibitions. Skate Species Below are some examples of skate species found in the U.S.: Barndoor Skate (Dipturus laevis)Big Skate (Raja binoculata)Longnose Skate (Raja rhina)Thorny Skate (Amblyraja radiata)Winter Skate (Leucoraja ocellata)Little Skate (Leucoraja erinacea) Sources Bester, Cathleen. Ray and Skate Basics (Online). Florida Museum of Natural History: Icthyology.   Canadian Shark Research Lab. 2007. Skates and Rays of Atlantic Canada: Reproduction. Canadian Shark Research Lab.   Coulombe, Deborah A. 1984. The Seaside Naturalist. Simon Schuster. Sosebee, Kathy. Skates - Status of Fishery Resources off the Northeastern US. NOAA NEFSC - Resource Evaluation and Assessment Division. World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). WoRMS Taxon List.

Your Awesome Team Is Using CoSchedule! Now What

Your Awesome Team Is Using ! Now What Congrats on your phenomenal decision to use ! Now its time to rock this amazing platform as a team and get the best results of your career. To do this, youre going to need to do a few key things. In this post, Ill walk you through exactly what to do.  Youll learn: How to get your team to consistently use the tool 😀 How to develop a built-in mechanism for sustained results. Exactly why (and how) to keep your team hungry to win. Now, lets set your team up to win. Helping your  marketing team win feels amazing. Crushing goals is gratifying. empowers both. But sustaining wins and new habits on any team thats the tough part. Especially because marketing is really hard. Our job is to  make hyper growth happen  every day. So, to get a quick win (and leg up on your competition), take advantage of this Your Awesome Team Is Using ! Now What? by @jordan_loftis via @Take Advantage Of Your Extra-Special Bonus 🚀 Because youre the best, Ive got something extra special for you. If you wanna learn why over 8,000 marketing teams across the world choose to organize and execute their entire marketing strategy in one place Schedule a 30 minute marketing demo of right now. Youll see exactly how legendary teams like Convince Convert, Smart Passive Income, and Campaign Monitor get amazing results with .   (And short cuts on how your team can do the same. Today!) Now, pick a time for your 1-on-1 marketing demo and lets get to it. The Value Of Mission Control Youve heard of mission control for NASA, right? Thats the room full of geniuses who keep launching rockets from crashing into orbiting satellites (among a million other things). Imagine a space program without an organized mission control! How impossible would it be to keep all of the moving parts in coordination without a single source of truth? Well, thats exactly what is for your team: is the mission control center for your entire marketing program. Your single source of truth that keeps all the moving parts working in perfect sync. All while making the chaos of inevitable fire drills manageable. So the first step is helping your team understand what   really is. Its waaaay more than a place to schedule social media messages (though its amazing at that). Its a platform to organize, launch, and coordinate: âÅ"…Marketing campaigns âÅ"…Project workflows âÅ"…Email marketing âÅ"…Social analytics âÅ"…Social media scheduling âÅ"…Intelligent social media automation all from a visual marketing calendar that gives you an eagle-eye view of everything in one place. Help your team understand the power (and nature) of . Then, its time to make it sticky. How To Facebook-ify For Your Team To keep your team hyper-engaged users, take a page out of Facebooks playbook. Facebook is one of the most successful software companies on the planet. Sure, theyve had their rough spots lately. But their success in one key metric predicts a favorable outcome What matters is the all-important software stat: Daily Active Users  (DAU). DAU measures the stickiness of an application. And if Facebook was a candy, it would be bubble gum. Facebook boasts 1.47 billion DAU Or about 74% of its global user base. Source: Statista The good news for us is that their stickiness tactics arent a big secret theyre rooted in psychology that we can use, too. Develop Smart Marketing Habits As A Team Theres a famous quote credited to the ancient philosopher Aristotle: â€Å"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.† These words are super portable for anyone who cares about sustaining change in organizations Keeping your team engaged with is no exception! Remember, your teams success is your success. And thats where positive, team-based habits come in. How Habits Work (And Why It Matters) According to a study in the British Journal of General Practice, healthcare points to this as well. Furthermore, even when patients successfully initiate the recommended changes, the gains are often transient because few of the traditional behaviour change strategies have built-in mechanisms for maintenance. Unless positive changes become engrained habits, hitting goals will become an exception, not a rule. And thats no good 😠¢ The study defines habits this way: Habits are actions that are triggered automatically in response to contextual cues that have been associated with their performance. What you can do is help make daily usage of into a habit by reinforcing habit loops. For a marketer using , this habit loop might look like this Step One: The Contextual Cue Lets say your team is planning a new campaign. And you need to get all of this stuff organized 📠Ã‚  creative brief, 📄  landing page, âÅ"‰ï ¸ Ã‚  email content, âÅ" Ã¯ ¸ Ã‚  blogs, 🙋†Ã¢â„¢â‚¬Ã¯ ¸  social media posts, 🎉  good ole press release, ðŸÅ' Ã‚  graphic design assets, 🎠¯Ã‚  target KPIs, 📈  analytics reporting, 😠«Ã‚  and more Thats a lot of stuff for anyone to wrangle. (And the list is probably missing plenty of other things you do, too.) Step Two: The Engrained Action Now, be honest about how your team works. Whats everyones go-to action given the contextual cue of planning and launching a fresh campaign? For tons of marketers, its firing up yet *another*  spreadsheet! Everything gets a tab. Everyone gets access (most of the time). And faster than you thought possible, chaos reigns. ^^^If those images look familiar, it means youre in good company. Theyre actual screenshots of how customers used to manage their marketing! We call this mess  makeshift marketing. Simply put, makeshift marketing happens when disconnected tools and apps are mashed into one martech stack that doesnt play nice together. For many, this is one of the most difficult series of habits to reform. Happily, theres good news Step two is complete when your new automated action, or habit, is executed. Then, immediately, one more magic thing happens. Step Three: The Glorious Reward In Charles Duhiggs modern classic,  The Power of Habit, the author outlines a third piece to the habit puzzle: the wondrous reward! The reward is what reinforces the habit loop. With every revolution, the habit gets more powerful. More automatic. More engrained. This means it requires less effort over time. In our example, the spreadsheet the spreadsheet or disconnected systems that once gave a sense of control, organization, and peace of mind fade away. And managing everything in as your mission control becomes steps A to Z. Heads Up, Leaders Your Habits Become Your Teams Habits The linchpin to keeping your team engaged in is modeling the right habits so you get amazing results every time. Imagine what it would mean if your team smashed marketing goals with the same frequency as brushing your teeth? That, class, is habit 101 🠤“ Now, lets look at exactly how move from marketing mess To marketing mastery with . Research at UCL Epidemiology and Public Health found it takes an average of 21 – 66 days to solidify a habit. To help your team, use this simple approach. Start with your teams goal, then reverse engineer actions to accomplish it. Establish consistent accountability. Build out *at least* a 21-day habit roadmap for everyone on your team to follow. Work Backwards From Your Teams Goal Start by pulling a Stephen Covey Begin with the end in mind. Then  reverse engineer the consistent actions your team needs to take to get there. For example, lets imagine your team needs to grow social media engagement by 40% across all channels. To start, pull your Social Engagement Report in . This will give you an instant snapshot of where you stand overall  and each channel individually. From here you can reverse engineer your fresh strategy and tactics to skyrocket that engagement. More importantly, you can see what your team must be doing  every week to grow those numbers. Intense, short-term efforts will give those KPIs a lift right away But its turning your highest-value actions into habits that help you win over the long haul. For example, what if you learn that social images get double the engagement of every other message type? The new habit should be that everything your team does has 3 – 5 images to promote it. Or perhaps  your team rocks video  and your audience eats it up. Your new behavior may become a Facebook live video with every new post. Heres an example anatomy: Contextual cue: You publish fresh content. Action: A Facebook live video giving quick value from the content plus a juicy call to action. Reward: More social media engagement + referral traffic + happy bosses ðŸ˜Æ' Build Accountability Into Your Teams Weekly Cadence To do what Ive been describing means using the A word accountability. Accountability gets a bad rap because we often associate it with the threat of punishment. But what if there is a better way? Turns out, there is! Accountability gets a bad rap because we often associate it with the threat of punishment.If youre accountable for your actions, youre definitely responsible for their outcomes. But a  multi-year study involving over 40,000 participants found: Accountability is incorrectly perceived as strictly consequential and almost entirely after-the-fact- 80% of those surveyed say feedback is something that happens to them only when things go wrong or not at all. Not very helpful. In reality, accountability can be more positive than negative. It starts with ditching the word and leveraging its  essence. Accountability is about: clarity, alignment of actions with goals, and enablement of the right behaviors. Superpower Organization With Clarity Now lets tackle another troublesome stat from the accountability study: 85% of survey participants indicated they werent even sure what their organizations are trying to achieve The quickest path to growth is being ultra clear with what results your team is after. Is there one overarching goal you absolutely must achieve? Then talk about non-stop. Is that big goal supported by smaller, short-term goals? Then keep those short-term goals in perspective and help your team see how they accomplish your overall mission And how helps you get there. One of the best ways to do this is through twice-per-week numbers check in. Automate Clarity With Strategic Reporting Via If we keep with our social engagement example, heres what it might look like. In , you can easily automate key reports. In this case, the social engagement report makes sense. To get there, hop on over to your analytics tab, then choose  Social Engagement Report. Next, click on  the  Schedule Report button. Then add any team members or stakeholders who should see it. Your progress will be automatically reported to everyone who needs to keep up with it all without you having to pull numbers yourself 🠤“ Keep your team focused on the goal even amidst the hustle and fast pace of your marketing program. Align Your Actions And Goals With Enter the supercharging power of habits. By performing the right actions every day, your team will move the needle in the right direction. As you keep the mission in front of your team, help them understand the best course to take them there. The perfect places to do this is in your team meetings. You can start  by having everyone answer this simple question: If you could only do one thing every day to achieve [team goal], what would it be? Every person answers Then explains why that action is so powerful. Use To Enable The Most Effective Behaviors And now, enable those powerful behaviors by answering a third question: What roadblocks exist between you and consistently [taking desired action]? As a team leader, you should be an obstacle bulldozer. Its tough enough to form new habits individually, much less for a team. So clear the debris and get the dirt piles out of the way! Clear the clutter then keep doing it. Step Three: Create A 21-Day Habits Roadmap For Your Team Now lets bring this one in for a landing. The best way forward is for you to get clear on what the next 21 working days with should look like for every person on your team. According to our BFF science, it takes anywhere from 18 to 254 days to establish a new habit. Thats a pretty big gap So, I suggest a quicker win: outline a 21-day habit roadmap for every person on your team. In one of my fave startup books,  Lean Analytics,  authors Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz  explain the right thought process for setting goal metrics, saying: [I]f you want to change behavior, your metric must be tied to the behavioral change you want. So focus the roadmap on the most important behavior youd like to instill into each team member. Simply show your team youre just as committed as they should be. Create a Projects Checklist.Assign it to the right person and set its completion date 21 days from now. Then, assign the right actions. A clever way to start is by having each team member outline their own habit loop. How will they engrain this new high-value activity? What works for their personality? How can they own the process themselves? Have them define a cue, routine, and reward. Then, they should run through the habit loop  every single day for the next 21 working days. This might look like: A 21-day video promotion campaign, Log into every day to mark tasks completed ☑ï ¸ , And even write a fresh social post every single day. Whatever the actions are, make sure you empower your team to make time each day. Habits are built in three simple steps: 1. Cue. 2. Routine. 3. Reward.Whats Next For Making A Habit? To change results, you had to change behaviors. To keep your results, you must sustain behaviors.

Best Presidential Memorial Day Quotes

Best Presidential Memorial Day Quotes Humanitarian, educator, and former tennis player Arthur Ashe once said, True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost. As Memorial Day approaches, spare a moment to think about the many soldiers who died fighting for liberty. American Presidents Speak on Memorial Day The 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, expressed it beautifully, Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free. As another American president, Abraham Lincoln, put it, Freedom is the last, best hope of earth. Lincoln steered the country through the Civil War, saved the Union and ended slavery. Who better to define freedom for us? These are some of the best Memorial Day quotes from American presidents. Read their words of inspiration, and understand the heart of an American patriot. John F. Kennedy Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. Richard Nixon, 1974 What we do with this peace- whether we preserve it and defend it, or whether we lose it and let it slip away- will be the measure of our worthiness of the spirit and sacrifice of the hundreds of thousands who gave their lives in two World Wars, Korea, and in Vietnam. This Memorial Day should remind us of the greatness that past generations of Americans achieved from Valley Forge to Vietnam, and it should inspire us with the determination to keep America great and free by keeping America safe and strong in our own time, a time of unique destiny and opportunity for our Nation. Peace is the real and right memorial for those who have died in  war. Benjamin Harrison I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day. I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it. Woodrow Wilson, 1914 I believe that soldiers will bear me out in saying that both come in time of battle. I take it that the moral courage comes in going into the battle, and the physical courage in staying in. Therefore this peculiar thing comes about, that we can stand here and praise the memory of these soldiers in the interest of peace. They set us the example of self-sacrifice, which if followed in peace will make it unnecessary that men should follow war any more. They do not need our praise. They do not need that our admiration should sustain them. There is no immortality that is safer than theirs. We come not for their sakes but for our own, in order that we may drink at the same springs of inspiration from which they themselves selves drank. Lyndon Johnson, 1966 On this Memorial Day, it is right for us to remember the living and the dead for whom the call of their country has meant much pain and sacrifice. Peace does not come just because we wish for it. Peace must be fought for. It must be built stone by stone. Herbert Hoover, 1931 It was the transcendent fortitude and steadfastness of these men who in adversity and in suffering through the darkest hour of our history held faithful to an ideal. Here men endured that a nation might live. An ideal is an unselfish aspiration. Its purpose is the general welfare not only of this but of future generations. It is a thing of the spirit. It is a generous and humane desire that all men may share equally in a common good. Our ideals are the cement, which binds human society. Valley Forge has come indeed to be a symbol in American life. It is more than the name  for  a place, more than the scene of a military episode, more than just a critical event in history. Freedom was won here by fortitude  not  by the flash of the sword. Bill Clinton, 2000 You fought for freedom in foreign lands, knowing it would protect our freedom at home. Today, freedom advances all around the world, and for the first time in all human history, more than half the world’s people choose their own leaders. Yes, America has made your sacrifice matter. George Bush 1992 Whether we observe the occasion through public ceremony or through private prayer, Memorial Day leaves few hearts unmoved. Each of the patriots whom we remember on this day was first a beloved son or daughter, a brother or sister, or a spouse, friend, and neighbor.   2003 Their sacrifice was great, but not in vain. All Americans and every free nation on earth can trace their liberty to the white markers of places like Arlington National Cemetery. And may God keep us ever grateful. 2005 Looking across this field, we see the scale of heroism and sacrifice. All who are buried here understood their duty. All stood to protect America. And all carried with them memories of a family that they hoped to keep safe by their sacrifice. Barack Obama, 2009 They, and  we,  are the legacies of an unbroken chain of proud men and women who served their country with honor, who waged war so that we might know peace, who braved hardship so that we might know opportunity, who paid the ultimate price so that we might know freedom. If the fallen could speak to us, what would they say? Would they console us? Perhaps they might say that while they could not know they’d be called upon to storm a beach through a hail of gunfire, they were willing to give up everything for the defense of our freedom; that while they could not know they’d be called upon to jump into the mountains of Afghanistan and seek an elusive enemy, they were willing to sacrifice all for their country; that while they couldn’t possibly know they would be called to leave this world for another, they were willing to take that chance to save the lives of their brothers and  sisters  in arms.

Economic downturn Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Economic downturn - Essay Example Another cause of this economic downturn is borrowing and lending of money. For example, the banks of developed countries are keen to lend to developing countries. This makes both the lender and the borrower unstable as the lender is not left with any money for his use and the borrower gets deeper into the loan. Due to this system, the financial intervention has changed into globalized finance. In addition to that, shortages of basic necessities especially food, have also caused many economies to ruin. Recently these crises are increasing at a staggering rate. These shortages cause developed countries to be crushed under the loans from developed ones. Fluctuations in the real estate markets also fuel the downturn of any economy. For example the collapse of Lehmann brothers caused a great downturn in the US economy. Housing, being one of the basic necessities of life, has a great impact on the lives of the people. Large financial institutions invest in housing as it is a productive sec tor. People also borrow money to buy houses and expect the prices to rise so that they can get profit. The variations in the exchange rates also trigger the economic recession. An appreciation in a countries exchange rate can cause problems for other countries as well.

Summarize the geologic history of the Mojave National Preserve Essay

Summarize the geologic history of the Mojave National Preserve - Essay Example A low, moving cloud of ash and some rock fragments spread out at extremely high speed across the nearby areas. Some of the rock fragments were approximately 60 feet across this preserve (Glazner et al. 15). The hot ash buried every living thing that was along its path, while the magma spread across a region of approximately 600 kilometers, and the hot rock and ash segments welded together when they reached the ground. Some of the rocks, exposed at the preserve, are from 16.5 to 1.4 billion years ago. They consist of metamorphic rocks, derived from the pre-existing volcanic, sedimentary, and igneous rocks. Some of these rocks have extremely high-grade metamorphic textures and minerals that are because of the high pressures and temperature that are typical of crust 20-40km below the earth’s surface (Glazner et al 16). The preserve has several admirable sceneries; the rocks form a prominent place for a tour, and through the vast and complex history of how the preserve came about to be formed, one cannot but appreciate the beauty of the

Why did the Cold War not escalate into full-scale war between the USA Essay

Why did the Cold War not escalate into full-scale war between the USA and the USSR - Essay Example Even though there was no face to face conflicts these two blocks engaged in secret and indirect conflicts between each other. This was known to be the cold war. It continued till 1990’s when the Soviet Union broke up under the influence of perestroika and glasnost. To be precise, the cold war started in 1917 immediately after the Bolshevik revolution and ended in 1989 after the break up of USSR. It was a conflict between Bolshevism and democracy. The cold war is regarded as the most important political and diplomatical issue of the twentieth century. It got its name because both parties were afraid of fighting each other directly. Instead they fought the war indirectly. They played havoc in different parts of the world as well as fought with words on issues. Threatening and denouncement were common. Moreover they raced to make each other look foolish. The term cold war was used first by Mr. Bernard Baruch who was a senior advisor for the 33rd president of the US, Mr. Harry Tru man. He used this term because of the frequently occurring crisis between the two sides even though they fought side by side against Nazi Germany. The actual cause of the cold war was the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917. ... This prompted Russia to behave negatively against west. Russians though that the west was interested in toppling their communist regime and used all its strength to defend and shun them. Even though the US recognized USSR in 1933, suspicion between the two countries continued on a high note. This continued in the Second World War where both the countries were allies. The cold war is considered as decade’s long struggle for world supremacy. It began escalating during 1945 when relations between Washington and Moscow started deteriorating. The deterioration ignited the cold war as well as set a stage for the dynamic struggle between the east and the west. Even though political leaders changed in both sides, the cold war continued. In another sense, the cold war was more political rather than military (Cold war. 2011). One of the main reasons why the cold war did not escalate into a full fledged war was because both sides knew that if the war was started, it could easily be a nuc lear war causing destruction to the whole world (Why the cold war did never escalated. 2011). During the cold war, many times there was concern that this would escalate into a full war with nuclear arsenal used by both sides and killing millions. However both the sides developed a deterrence policy that further prevented problems from escalating beyond localities. Often periods of escalations and crisis appeared during the cold war days. That was in 1953, when Josef Stalin’s sudden death caused a leadership gap in Moscow. During this time in US there was American presidential election. This crisis continued till the most famous Cuban missile crisis of 1962. Other critical events during the cold war include the Hungarian

The Rise and Fall of Solyndra Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Rise and Fall of Solyndra - Research Paper Example A firm uses its particular strengths to compete in the marketplace while seeking to minimize the effect of its weaknesses. The case of Solyndra, the solar panel manufacturer, is unique because it was the only company in the solar panel manufacturing industry of the USA that relied on silicon based technology. The Formation of Solyndra Solyndra was founded in 2005 by Dr. Christian Gronet and had its headquarters in Fremont, California. The company manufactured cylindrical panels of CIGS (copper-indium-gallium-diselenide) based thin film solar cells which, as it was believed, represented a superior technology having certain advantages over conventionally produced solar cells. Thus, the company hoped to have created its own niche within the industry. The sales revenues for 2009 and 2010 were $100 million and $140 million respectively, before a peculiar set of circumstances forced the company to file for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in 2011. The company claimed to have set up 1000 systems all around the world (The Solyndra Website, 2011). The Emergence of Legal and Other Issues Solyndra has been a company that was touted to be a success story exemplifying the usefulness of the Obama Administration’s green energy plan for the nation. The founder of the company was replaced by Bernie Harrison, an Intel veteran as CEO in September 2009. The company resorted to lobbying and had contributed a sizeable sum to the Obama campaign. Small wonder then- that out of 143 companies applying for a Federal loan, Solyndra was the first to receive a sum of $527 million from the Federal Financing Bank, under conditional guarantee from the US Department of Energy. By that time, it had already spent about $1.8 million lobbying for this cause. Further investigations have revealed that due to Chinese solar panels flooding the US markets, the company had been unable to compete effectively and had been forced to sell many of its products at below the cost of production. Moreover, as t he cost of silicon plummeted in the world market, it became more and more difficult to make a profit. It appeared that the company had chosen the wrong silicon based technology to make its products and was now bearing the brunt of this mistake. Controversies Surrounding the Company Ethical considerations notwithstanding, one might have expected that the loan from the Obama Administration would be used to correct an already worsening situation and that the company would try to claw its way of the abyss it had fallen into. Sadly, this was never the case. Investigations by the FBI and newspaper reports by the Washington Post and others have revealed that company executives and top management went on a spending spree following the approval of the loan. However, weakening demand in the light of competition from Chinese firms such as Yingli and Suntech was cited as a worry. Solyndra’s new plant was built from the proceeds of the loan and another $198 million from private investors. At the time of taking the loan, the company had promised to create at least 3000 jobs in the construction and solar manufacturing industries, of which 1000 would be US based. But it all came to nothing and Solyndra was forced to file for bankruptcy

Philosophy Statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Philosophy Statement - Essay Example lieve that teachers need to inculcate values such as punctuality and politeness and also instill a sense of responsibility within the students towards their own actions. In turn this will help the students to gain an insight into what is right and wrong and take the right decisions in their academic, personal life and all future endeavors. Thus teachers play a vital role in shaping the personality of their students apart from teaching the subject and hence play a dual role of both an educator as well as a counselor. I will also work to create a good rapport with my students as I believe it will pave the way for better interaction and understanding of the student’s thought process. Mere teaching of the subject would only be a professional approach which will not create a bond between the teacher and the student. Spending quality time with all the students and an unbiased attitude would help the students to share a good comrade with their teachers. However, it is also important for teachers to bear in mind the limits of their relationship and help the student to understand the same. When such an understanding is established it will prevent each one from taking advantage of the other. This would help to provide the right motivations for the students and prevent any form of deviant behavior. Thus with my educational experiences and a strong inclination in taking up career in teaching I assure that I will be an able teacher and provide the right guidance to all my

Asgnmt Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Asgnmt - Assignment Example terus, increased amniotic fluid, prolonged or rapid labor, medical instruments which cause trauma during delivery and placental problems such as placenta previa can lead to postpartum hemorrhage. In order to ensure the safety of the mother a thorough assessment is done by the nursing staff after labor. During the postpartum assessment nurses need to include any history of postpartum hemorrhage along with the present condition of the mother. The video clearly explains the various assessments and interventions that are required to be done. The video gives a clear explanation of the procedures for carrying out various preliminary investigations postpartum such as palpitation of the uterine fundus and determining the firmness of the uterus. Massage is given in case the uterus does not appear to be firm. In case of a full bladder the mother should be encouraged to void. The video also explains how to determine the amount and color of lochia and that increased bleeding could be indicative of risk of hemorrhage. Medication is administered in case of a prolonged uncontracted uterus by injecting into the IV fluid followed by constant monitoring. The labia and perineum are examined for pain. In addition the episiotomy and presence of hemorrhoids are also examined. The mother is taught about the various methods by which pain can be reduced using ice and analgesics or narcotics. Sprays are used to decrease topical discomfort and tucks can help decrease pain due to hemorrhoids. Immediate assessments also include recording of vital signs such as temperature and blood pressure, skin temperature and color and mucus membrane are also assessed. In case of a C-section, the mother is additionally examined for the level of consciousness in case of general anesthesia and for epidural anesthesia the feeling and movement of extremities are assessed. The respirations, oxygen saturation are also monitored in case narcotics have been used. In addition, the intactness of the surgical

Philosophy Statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Philosophy Statement - Essay Example lieve that teachers need to inculcate values such as punctuality and politeness and also instill a sense of responsibility within the students towards their own actions. In turn this will help the students to gain an insight into what is right and wrong and take the right decisions in their academic, personal life and all future endeavors. Thus teachers play a vital role in shaping the personality of their students apart from teaching the subject and hence play a dual role of both an educator as well as a counselor. I will also work to create a good rapport with my students as I believe it will pave the way for better interaction and understanding of the student’s thought process. Mere teaching of the subject would only be a professional approach which will not create a bond between the teacher and the student. Spending quality time with all the students and an unbiased attitude would help the students to share a good comrade with their teachers. However, it is also important for teachers to bear in mind the limits of their relationship and help the student to understand the same. When such an understanding is established it will prevent each one from taking advantage of the other. This would help to provide the right motivations for the students and prevent any form of deviant behavior. Thus with my educational experiences and a strong inclination in taking up career in teaching I assure that I will be an able teacher and provide the right guidance to all my

Student Notebook 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Student Notebook 2 - Essay Example Stewardship gives the priority to individuals needs and it does not focus on church’s need to receive. Major stewardship activities conducted in this Presbyterian Church are food drives, care projects. And also they decided to add more activities. Stewardship teaching is done based on three principles. The first one is an owner manager relationship. Here the owner is God and the man (or woman) is the manager. The second principle is love is the foundation of stewardship. Relationship, ownership, possession, sacrifice are the branches of the love. Through stewardship one can show God’s love in action. The third principle is the starting of the stewardship is presenting life’s resources. Teaching stewardship helps the life management which will enhance the kingdom of God. Presbyterian Churches usually conducts parish member meetings and forums for promoting stewardship activities. They also publish new brochures and flyers and newsletters for this purpose. Instead of these, the Northminster Presbyterian Church conduct Heritage education program in schools. They also present various cultural programs and dramas for convey the message of stewardship to the people. Budgeting is an important process required for the survival and growth of any organization. The Northminster Presbyterian Church takes this process very seriously. According to the pastor in charge of finances, the Church holds a large amount of public money donated by members and other charitable individuals. These donations are made for the purposes of running the day to day operations of the Church as well as for the many activities (religious and charitable) that the Church conducts. In such a scenario, the responsible person or persons should be doubly careful in the way finance is handled. For this proper budgeting at the beginning of a financial year is essential. The budgeting process followed by the Church is given here. The Church has a permanent

Academic Motivation, Resilience and the At-Risk Student

Academic Motivation, Resilience and the At-Risk Student Introduction The topic of investigation was academic resilience and motivation and how it relates to the at-risk student. Motivation and resilience are two key factors students need in order to achieve academic success. Students with motivation and resilience perform well in school and have a developed sense of self-efficacy. Successful students can see the connection between school and future goals, and are more likely to perform tasks even when they become difficult (Berger, 2013). This is characterized as resilience. These students are able to achieve academically and will most likely persist to graduation. Students who are not succeeding academically have a higher potential of failing or dropping out of school (Donnelly, 1987). These students are considered at-risk. Characteristics of the at-risk student include: low academic achievement, low self-esteem, males, minority, and low socioeconomic status (Donnelly, 1987). How does family background affect the at-risk student? According to Donnelly, Students who are both low income and minority status are at a higher risk [of failing]; their parents may have low educational backgrounds and may not have high educational expectations for their children (Donnelly, 1987). Berger states, at-risk students are more likely to experience behavior issues, lower attendance rates, poor grades, lack direction, and fail to use self-regulation strategies (Berger, 2013). If students are engaged in school are they less likely to drop-out? Berger (2013) suggested when students are engaged in school and have positive connections they may be able to overcome many of the barriers that exist in order to achieve success while in school and persist until graduation. How does motivation and resilience effect graduation rates? While much work has been done to improve graduation rates over the past eight years, resilience and motivation are two essential characteristics students need in order to persist in school academically. When students experience positive interactions with teachers and other adults, motivation and engagement will increase (Berger, 2013). Students want to see the connection between the task and how it connects to their future. Students need to feel supported in order to be successful; positive connections with parents and teachers are imperative in order for students to succeed. Statement of the Problem At-Risk students are more likely to fail and drop-out of school because they lack motivation and resilience academically. When students leave school before completing requirements, the consequences are dire. Students who leave school early are often left with little options later in life. They more likely to experience lower wages in life, and are less likely to attend college. Should the at-risk student attend college, they are much less likely to complete school compared to their peers, who are 83% more likely to finish (Berger, 2013). When are students mostly likely to fail? According to Finn and Rock (1997), investigating early behavior and academic patterns one may be able predict academic success in later years. Reaching students early is important when confronting barriers. Forming positive connections with caring adults is also necessary for students to build resilience and motivation. The purpose of this study is to investigate counselor intervention programs and the effect of motivation and resilience in at-risk 9th grade students. At-risk is defined as students who are under-achieving academically, have lower attendance rates and who have experienced behavior issues. Will students who have positive attachments to teachers or counselors perform better than students who do not? Statement of the Hypothesis Prior research has shown that positive school experiences and encouraging relationships at school have had a positive effect on at-risk students engagement and motivation (Scheel et al., 2009). Therefore, it is hypothesized if at-risk students are involved in a counseling intervention program then there will be an increase in academic achievement, students will experience less behavior problems, and students will experience an increase of motivation academically. References Berger C 2013 Bring out teh Brilliance: A Counseling Intervention for Underachieving Students.Berger, C. (2013). Bring out the Brilliance: A Counseling Intervention for Underachieving Students. Professional School Counseling, 17(1), 86-89. 201703241158141438499809 Donnelly M At-Risk Students. ERIC Digest [Supplemental material].20170325140827109581351Donnelly M 1987 At-Risk Students.Donnelly, M. (1987). At-Risk Students. ERIC Digest, 21. Retrieved March 25, 2017, from https://www.ericdigests.org/pre-928/risk.htm 20170325141053517867326 Finn J D Rock D A 1997 Academic Success Among Students At-Risk for School Failure.Finn, J. D., Rock, D. A. (1997). Academic Success among Students At-Risk for School Failure. The American Psychological Association, 82(2), 221-234. 201703241224041284194231 Scheel M Madabhushi S Backhaus A 2009 Academic Motivation of At-Risk Students in a Counseling Prevention Program.Scheel, M., Madabhushi, S., Backhaus, A. (2009). The Academic Motivation of At-Risk Students in a Counseling Prevention Program. The Counseling Psychologist, 37(8), 1147-1178. 20170324122636560129761

The Extinction Event and Life in the Post-Apocalyptic Greenhouse :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

The Extinction Event and Life in the Post-Apocalyptic Greenhouse The biggest mass extinction of the past 600 million years (My), the end-Permian event (251 My ago), witnessed the loss of as much as 95% of all species on Earth. Key questions for biologists concern what combination of environmental changes could possibly have had such a devastating effect, the scale and pattern of species loss, and the nature of the recovery. New studies on dating the event, contemporary volcanic activity, and the anatomy of the environmental crisis have changed our perspectives dramatically in the past five years. Evidence on causation is equivocal, with support for either an asteroid impact or mass volcanism, but the latter seems most probable. The rest of this article spends time speculating through the advances in technology and the reanalyzation of old evidence to determine various cataclysmic events that happened millions of years ago. There are many sections in this article that discuss the methods used to determine the closet possible dates and the sequence in which they follow. There are also sections in this article which discuss methods used for the evidence of impact, eruption and how reading the environmental changes can help paleontologists determine conclusions and narrow the perspectives of paleontologists (scientists) and popular culture as a whole. However, there are still many factors in the evidence collecting process that make it difficult to determine the actual events, let alone the sequence of them. For instance, at the end of the Permian, giant volcanic eruptions occurred in Siberia, spewing out some 2 million km3 of basalt lava, and covering 1.6 million km2 of eastern Russia to a depth of 400-3000mteres, equivalent to the area of the European Community. Consequently, with increasingly precise dating, the Siberian â€Å"Trap† (areas which are composed of basalt, a dark-colored igneous rock which is generally not erupted explosively from classic conical volcanoes, but usually emerges more slowly from the long fissures in the ground) have switched from having only a minor role in the Permian crisis to being the most probable cause of the whole catastrophe. Some scientists have even suggested recently that the massive flood basalts were actually themselves caused by a giant extraterrestrial impact, which tore deep into the continental crust of that part of present-day Siberia. So this is yet another example the evolutionary and

Public Policy Topic: Health Care :: Healthcare, Politics

Through the decades there have been many public policy topics in our society that have a very large impact on the county as whole. They are reasons why American have either prospered and have been set back into recessions. Health is one of the most talked about public policy topics. Health care is topic that affects local and state governments for many reasons. First of all, health care is insurance for people that are injured or ill. Each county has their own type of health care. There are many different types of health care organizations that are offered to people all over the world. Some of these organizations include: the health maintenance group, provider group, and a proposal that combines aspects from both the health maintenance group and the provider group. The most important type of health care insurance is a universal health plan. Universal health care is what will eventually save Americans a large amount of money and it will also guarantee that every American is insured. The number of uninsured citizens has grown to be above 40 million people. Health care is becoming unaffordable and we can eliminate wasteful inadequacies. A centralized national database can be established to make life easier for doctors, and medical professionals will only have to worry about the patience and not who’s paying for the medication for people . There are many people today who do not like the idea of universal health care and refuse to get it. America is known for having the best medical physicians and people are afraid that it will change drastically if we all share one universal health care plan. Also, if the insurance were to decrease in the universal health plan then taxes should skyrocket and therefore the money that is being saved will end up being used for taxes. According to â€Å"Should the Government Provide Free Universal Healthcare for All Americans?† Joe Messerli says that â€Å"The government must pay for this somehow† (Messerli). I agree with this because the government will need the money to fund for this universal health care plan. In a Universal health the patient can be responsible for some cost at the time of the consumption but the majority of the cost is covered by compulsory insurance and tax revenues. To provide health care services for the entire country requires a lot of funding tha t other governments acquire by taxation and also maybe from premiums for some of compulsory health insurance required of all citizens.

Characters Effect on a Reader Essay

Characters dealing with a situation affect each reader differently. The characters reaction to a situation may have a reader feel exactly as the character does, or in some instances, the reader may look more at how differently they would feel in the same situation. In an attempt to answer Henry James on how characters are only as interesting as their response to the particular situation we will look at â€Å"The Chrysanthemums† by John Steinbeck and â€Å"To Build a Fire† by Jack London. In â€Å"The Chrysanthemums† we are introduced to Elisa Allen at her ranch working in her garden. She is described in the story as: â€Å"She was thirty five. Her face was lean and strong and her eyes were clear as water. Her figure was blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man’s black hat pulled down over her eyes, clodhopper shoes, a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron with four big pockets to hold the snips, the trowel and scratcher, the seeds and the knife she worked with. She wore heavy leather gloves to protect her hand while she worked. †(Steinbeck 242) This detail gives the reader the mental picture of Elisa. The description makes it easy for the reader to know exactly what she looks like. Being around the outdoors and growing up on a farm helps me in picturing how a busy female rancher would look. This sets up the reader for when the wagon pulls up. As the gentlemen from the wagon talks with Elisa in attempt to get her to purchase work from him, I felt there was sexual tension between the two. Elisa attempts to hold her ground in the hopes he would just go away, but he finally breaks through to her by showing interest in her Chrysanthemums. By showing that they had something in common, the gentlemen is able to break the guard Elisa had put up, and she in turn, gives him work to do by fixing old saucepans. Once the gentlemen leaves, she runs into the house and begins to bathe almost in a way to remove the dirty thoughts. Once out of the bath, she takes her time looking at herself in the mirror and getting dressed; almost as if the thoughts were coming back, all to go away when she heard her husband returning. That is the way I felt towards Elisa Allen’s character. I am not sure if that is the intended way the author meant. Trying to look at the story from the author’s point of view, I almost see Elisa looking at the wagon as a way of freedom from where she has perfected her Chrysanthemums and looking for something new in her life. Early in the story, her husband jokingly asked about going to the fights and she quickly declined, but towards the end, after her encounter with the traveler, she started questioning how the fights were. It is almost as if she was looking for something different, something that would give her a sense of adventure to take her away from the monotony of her boring life. In the end she declines the opportunity and the author shows us she has accepted the reality of her life being boring with this excerpt: â€Å"She relaxed limply in the seat. â€Å"Oh, no. No. I don’t want to go. I’m sure I don’t. † Her face was turned away from him. â€Å"It will be enough if we can have wine. It will be plenty. † She turned up her coat collar so he could not see that she was crying weakly – like an old woman. †(Steinbeck 249) Either way it was perceived, the character shows that there is something in her life she is missing and she attempts to fulfill it with the Chrysanthemums. Other readers may find different ways of seeing how Elisa Allen may feel in this story. Without the description of how she was, and the way she reacted to the fights, this may have been a boring story because it would have lacked the information about the character to make her interesting enough for the reader to wonder about her. Next, we will look at â€Å"To Build a Fire†. Right from the beginning the character has no name, only referred to as â€Å"the Man†. This gives the reader the chance to put themselves in the story. By not giving the character a name, it allows the reader to fall into the pages, especially with how descriptive the setting is. Each detail brings more and more bitterness on how cold it is. With this cold comes the overconfidence of the man: â€Å"Fifty degrees below zero was to him just a precisely fifty degrees below zero. That there should be anything more to it than that was a thought that never entered his head. †(London 128) This overconfidence leads the man down a path to death. My experiences in scouting and life have taught me to respect Mother Nature and never take her for granted. This also allowed me to put myself in the same situation in the story and imagine all the things I would have done differently. The man’s attitude was that cold is cold, no matter the temperature, and his knowledge will get him through his lack of experience. I became more frustrated with his actions, as I knew he was dealing with each situation incorrectly. As the story progressed, there was continued hope that his luck wouldn’t run out, but in the end, his handicap of ignorance led to his demise. A reader that has never been in this type of situation may not have understood the severity of the situation and would only be able to see from the eyes of the man. It is also possible for a reader to feel the frustration of him dealing with each of the problems he came across. If the man’s confidence was not as great, there would have been more thought to the situation, and he may have listened to what advice had been given. It may have also led to the man making different choices, or allowing himself some humility and turned around. This confidence allows the story to be thought of from a point of view that anyone could be put in a similar situation and that any daily life situation can cause our confidence to sometimes gets the best of us. We always think we know more that we do. â€Å"All a man had to do was keep his head, and he was all right. Any man who was a man could travel alone. †(London 132) This excerpt is a perfect example as shortly after this, the snow falls on the fire and the man admits his mistake. This would have not happened if the man’s confidence had not got the best of him. Additionally, the entire story would have changed, and the character would have had better chance if he would have thought things through or if he would have had someone else traveling with him. Both of these stories can be interesting to the readers from their own personal experiences, or quite simply by the details the authors publish. If the characters would have dealt with the situations differently, or the details of the characters, then they would have been boring. I believe that this easily answers Henry James because the details allowed my thoughts to wander and kept me interested on what would happen next. Works Cited Steinbeck, John. â€Å"The Chrysanthemums. † Literature: An introduction to fiction, poetry, drama, and writing. 12th ed. Kennedy, X. J. , and Gioia, D. New York, New York 2013. Pearson. pp 242-249 London, Jack. â€Å"To Build a Fire. † Literature: An introduction to fiction, poetry, drama, and writing. 12th ed. Kennedy, X. J. , and Gioia, D. New York, New York 2013. Pearson. pp 127-146.