Marion :: essays research papers

For a long time, I saw her almost every day on the train. Her gravely voice would prompt me to look up and then quickly look down. Sometimes, she would appear as I gazed aimlessly at the doors that adjoin the cars of the train. She would enter, look around, smile faintly and then introduce herself. Her name is Marion. She is homeless. But no, she doesn’t steal and never has in her life. She is down on her luck and needs help. And can we please help her? A dime, a nickel, anything. In fact, she would be happy with food. No, she doesn’t do drugs and would be so grateful for any kind soul who would help. Always that very same speech with that same plastic cheerfulness. She would make her way slowly through the train car, patiently when it was almost empty, and excusing herself to those who were already shrinking away from her, when it was crowded. She would stop sometimes and peer into the face closest to her with a deep imploration in her eyes. When it was my face, I would look down discreetly, sometimes placing wrinkled bills into her dirty, wrinkled palm. She would thank and bless me profusely, I would dismiss her by staring at my hands with an embarrassment I couldn’t explain. I didn’t want her attention. I didn’t want her to look at me or thank me. I wanted her to not exist. I didn’t want to wonder if she was a mother or a part of family or how she ended up in her sad journey walking through the rumbling cars of New York City’s trains. She would move on to another uncomfortable face, another one that ignored her. Some would say a casual, â€Å"No.† Almost as if she had asked if they knew the time. She would simply move on. When she had been ignored by enough faces, she would stand close to the doors adjoining the trains, nod slowly and then walk through. I saw her one day in the bathroom of the Long Island Ferry Station. I stood to the side, waiting for a free stall. She walked in and sneezed several times. She had an almost confused expression, staring at the wall and then the floor and then me for a little while before walking up to the garbage can. I was very surprised, so removed she was from where I was used to seeing her, from the part of my day where her presence had become normal, expected.

Jazz Showcase Essay -- essays research papers

Jazz Showcase The concert I attended was the Jazz Showcase in Rudder Theatre on Monday June21, 2004 at 7:30 p.m. Surroundings Rudder Theatre is a large venue for this Jazz Showcase. There are five sections with fifteen rows deep in each section. The theatre is decorated modestly with solid colors and nothing too spectacular or eye catching. The chairs were covered in a yellowish fabric. The initial backdrop behind the stage was a white backdrop with red and blue lighting. This backdrop would change colors throughout the concert. Located at the doors were ushers with programs detailing the Texas Music Festival. The seats inside were not assigned but on a first come first serve basis. Seated in the very front and centered to the audience were the performers. The stage was set up with five chairs lined up three rows back. Each row was more elevated than the previous. The piano was at the far left, the guitar and bass were next to the piano, and the drums were in the back. The first row of chairs included the saxophone players, the second row were the trombone players, and the trumpet players were in the third and last row. Audience The audience, for the most part, seemed to be made up of college students attending for the same reasons as myself. However, there were some audience members who are part of older age groups in the audience. They were there only seeking a good performance and a great time. These older age group audience members were located mostly in the center section of the theatre seated in the first few rows. The dress was more casual among the students but dressier for the older people. Some people were in jeans and a T-shirt, including myself, while some wore nice clothes. The audience rewarded each soloist with a warm ovation of applause after their turn was finished. This led me to believe the audience enjoyed the performance and was very respectable to the performers. Performers I counted nineteen total performers with occasionally two others and a vocalist. Each performer was dressed in black pants and a black shirt except one who showed up late. He was wearing blue jeans and a sports coat and he definitely stood out from all the others. The performers related very well with the audience. Each acknowledged the audience after applauses and there was a narrator between pieces. There was a lot of humor among the performers and they seemed ... ...ked throughout the concert. The pacing of the selections seemed appropriate. No piece sounded like the one before it. There was a great variety of songs played. There were songs played that were written by famous jazz composers and songs played that were written by some of the performers themselves. This added to the excitement of the show. Opinions I enjoyed this concert. It was my first real experience with jazz music. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect, but I left satisfied that I attended. However, there was one thing I did not enjoy. The narrator between songs was not very effective and actually took away somewhat from the concert. He failed numerous times at trying to be humorous and rambled on. My favorite piece was 88 Basie Street. It gave me that easy and relaxed feeling. This piece started softer, and then seemed to pick up with more energy. With my lack of knowledge of Jazz music, I certainly enjoyed this piece the best. I learned how exciting and fun listening to jazz being played live can actually be. I found it very interesting. Like I said earlier, the only thing I would change to make the concert more effective would be to have the narrator speak less.

Assignment: Wal-Mart Essay

Wal-Mart, the retail icon, taking on yet another strategy when sitting somewhat comfortably, (a business is never comfortable or should not be so comfortable), especially when the one to â€Å"beat.† Advertising strategy is as any strategy and that is with risk. An example of such risk is investing and the risk tolerance for each individual, conservative, moderate, or aggressive specific to goals. Wal-Mart is able to take the aggressive stance but not necessary because of their national, soon-to-be (?), global success but can never consider permanent. As said, it is much more difficult to remain on top than to work towards the top. The latest advertising campaign is one of a surprisingly risky and unique platform for Wal-Mart. Still attempting to disassociate itself from the negative image of a discriminatory violator of employee rights and participant of extensive bribery allegations gave way to an, as interpreted, defensive almost challenging response from a seemingly naà ¯ve, oblivious, and loyal Lee Scott, CEO or one only too aware and guilt driven angry. That is giving the CEO the benefit of the doubt unless privy to undocumented evidence to refute the crimes allegedly committed. A lengthy investigation into the bribery allegations includes that sometime in January 2006, the case had reached a critical juncture. Wal-Mart’s leaders were again weighing whether to approve a full investigation that would inevitably focus on a star executive already publicly discussed as a potential successor to Mr. Scott, (Barstow, David, 2012); the same quoted in the latest ad campaign. Wal-Mart’s ethics policy offered clear direction. â€Å"Never cover up or ignore an ethics problem,† the policy states and some who were involved in the investigation argued that it was time to take a stand against signs of rising corruption in Wal-Mart’s global operations. Each year the company received hundreds of internal reports of bribery and fraud, records showed. In Asia alone, there had been 90 reports of bribery just in the previous 18 months. After years of investigation that turned up evidence upon evidence to validate corruption and illegal activity, ultimately resulted in â€Å"swept under the rug† acceptance and closing of the investigation. With the closing of another â€Å"money=innocence† case offers the opportunity to focus on the latest advertising campaign left to surmise its intent. Somewhat biased after a brief research of Wal-Mart remarkably did not affect the initial perception and is as thus: In response to, â€Å". . . when special-interest groups and critics spread misinformation about Wal-Mart, the public deserves to hear the truth, everyone is entitled to their own opinions about our company, but they are not entitled to make up their own facts.† * The intent here is a â€Å"We are so confident in our innocence of unsubstantiated allegations we can be so bold to force a code of ethics we abide by and cannot be reasonably denied upon and challenge anyone attempting.† A portrayal of morals and ethics defended is one perception. * The possible negative impact is the audacity Wal-Mart has to tell anyone what or how to think, act, or live. * Attempting to reach further than their established target market, a newspaper ad appeals to a different market that as of yet not a typical Wal-Mart shopper can validate this new strategy. * Creative execution, as interpreted, is the driving force of such a bold and challenging advertisement. Its effectiveness of this campaign has not rendered statistics to my knowledge, but as an already not impressed by pricing, customer service, and the whole Wal-Mart shopping experience consumer, this advertisement does not improve their chances of my being a regular if at all customer. For a value shopper that I consider myself avoids Wal-Mart for reasons aforementioned and the cleanliness factor, the employees lack of knowledge of products and location of products, and the much too often out of stock issues encountered leaves desperation the only reason to shop in a Wal-Mart. Works Cited Barstow, David. (2012, April 21). Vast Mexico Bribery Case Hushed Up by Wal-Mart After Top-Level Struggle. Retrieved from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/business/at-wal-mart-in-mexico-a-bribe-inquiry-silenced.html?pagewanted=all

George Mead Theory Essay

â€Å"the self is something which has a development; it is not initially there, at birth, but arises in the process of social experience and activity, that is, develops in the given individual as a result of his relations to that process as a whole and to other individuals within that process.† * was an American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists * He is regarded as one of the founders of social psychology and the American sociological tradition in general. * Mead is well-known for his theory of the social self, which is based on the central argument that the self is a social emergent. * Mead’s most widely read work, Mind, Self and Society, gives priority to society over the mind and highlights the idea that the social leads to the development of mental states. * Mind is a process, not a thing, and it is found in social phenomena rather than within individu als. * The self occupies a central place in Mead’s theory. * Self is essentially a social structure and it arises in social experience. It is the unique combination of the roles and individual play in relation to others – the complex blending of individual motivations and socially desirable responses. * The self consists of an â€Å"I† which the active side and as object, called â€Å"me†. * Infants begin with no self. As they learn to use the language and other symbols, the self emerges through play which involves taking the roles of significant others. * Gradually children move from simpler games to more complex ones involving others such as team sports. Mead called this generalized others to refer to the general cultural norms and values people use as references in evaluating others. * Mead defines self as the ability to take oneself as an object and identifies basic mechanism of the development of the self as reflexivity – the ability to put ourselves into the place of others and acts as they act. * Self can arise only through social experiences, and the traces its development to two stages in childhood: the play stage and game stage. * Play stage – children learn how to take the attitude of particular others themselves. * Game stage – children learn how to take the role of many others and the attitude of the generalized other. * I – is the immediate response of an individual to others; it is unpredictable and creative aspect of the self. * Me – is the organized set of attitudes of others that an individual assumes; it is how society dominates the individual and is a source of social control. Mead’s theory on social self * The social conception of the self entails that individual selves are the product of social interaction and not the logical or biological preconditions of that interaction. It is not initially there at birth but arises in the process of social experience and activity. * Language – allows individuals to take on the â€Å"role of the other† and allows people to respond to his or her own gestures in terms of symbolized attitudes of others. * Is communication via â€Å"significant symbols† and it is through significant communication that the individual is able to take the attitudes of others toward his/herself. Language is not only a â€Å"necessary mechanism† of the mind, but also the primary social foundation of self. * Play – individuals take on the roles of other people and pretend to be those other people in order to express the expectation of significant others. * This process of role-playing is the key to generation of self-consciousness and to the general development of the self. * In the play, the child takes the role of another and acts as though he/she were the other. This form of role-playing involves a single role at a time. Thus, the other which comes into the child’s experience in play is a â€Å"specific other† * Game – individual is required to internalize the roles of all others who are involved with him or her in the game and must comprehend the rules of the game. * Is the stage of social process at which * Generalized other- organized and generalized attitude of a social group. * consists of a composite of all those who contribute and participate in one’s society * The individual defines his or her own behavior with reference to the generalized attitude of the social group(s) they occupy. When an individual can view him/herself from the standpoint of the generalized other, self-consciousness in the full sense of the terms is attained. * Me – represents the expectations and the attitudes of others (generalized others). It is the organized set of attitudes others that the individual assumes. * Is the social self * The organized set of attitudes of others which one himself assumes * is that part of the â€Å"self† which comes about as a result of the individual’s internalization of society’s values and behavior expectations * I – is the response to the â€Å"me†, or the person’s individuality. * Response of the organism to the attitudes of others * is that part of the â€Å"self† which is spontaneous * Self – develops by internalizing the norms of one’s society * Significant other – are those with whom the individual has an â€Å"important† relationship

Tesco Supply Chain Management Practices Case Study Essay

Tesco Supply Chain Management Practices Case Study - Essay Example They were the authors of the book known as ‘The Machine that changed the world’ which was in charge of introducing the concepts of lean production for the Toyota Company (Indu & Gupta, 2004). The experts found out that the company indulged in many unnecessary handlings whereby there would be improvements along with reductions in the costs the company incurred. They additionally found out that there were longer lead times, poor availability of products along with locations of stores. The company in turn established a system for continuous replenishment, which enabled their products to have immediate replenishment (Womack & Jones, 2006). They have also been reducing their handling of goods while also streamlining their flows. They were able to accomplish this by using dollies on wheels, which replaced shelves. The dollies could be sent from the suppliers and into their delivery Lorries and taken back to the stores. They helped in reducing the companies need for handling th e products since their products were just being loaded at the end of the company’s production line and taken directly by wheels to their supermarkets (Ohno, 2005). This move helped the company in reducing their touch points for drinks by 150 locations along with the transit times. However, the multiple trips that were carried out resulted in higher costs for the company but these costs were covered by decreases in their inventory costs. The company also had agreements with other companies such as P&G, Unilever along with Coca Cola in order to alter their schedules for distribution (Womack & Jones, 2006). This in turn enabled them to reduce their lead times by fifteen days since the daily deliveries made through their wheeled pallets, which enabled the placement of their goods directly on the shelves of many of their outlets (Bicheno, 2008). The company’s holding of stock reduced greatly from over four to two weeks while their service levels also improved by over six pe rcent. The company’s use of lean production methods in the above aspects helped them see their profits jump from 16,452 million pounds in the year 1998 to 37,070 million pounds in the year 2005 making them the biggest grocery within the United Kingdom (Indu & Gupta, 2004). Due to the company’s use of lean production systems, they were able to reduce their storage locations from five to two, their order entry locations from six to just one and their service levels from 98.5% to 99.5%. They were additionally able to reduce their throughput times from twenty to just five days, which represented a 75% reduction in their total inventory (Womack & Jones, 2006). The Tesco Company initiated a ‘step change’ curriculum, which was used for identifying the processes in their supply chains that required transformations. This program helped the company in eliminating several of the unnecessary procedures that enabled them to save about two hundred and seventy million po unds in the years 2004 to 2005. The changes that were implemented under the program additionally helped in simplifying the operations in their stores while freeing up their employees so that they could more effectively attend to their customer’s needs (Ohno, 2005). The company introduced operations across docks that involved goods being loaded into one

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - Research Paper Example Born in a provincial and remote city on the shores of the Sea of Azov, Chekhov experienced philistine poverty under the supervision of a suppressed mother and tyrant and religious zealot father who was a grocer and son of a serf.Chekhov’s grandfather bought freedom for himself and his three sons in 1841 and taught himself reading and writing. Chekhov’s early life is shadowed by his father’s suppression and strict behavior. Frenzied father forced his sons to sing in evening church choirs. He not only tormented Chekhov and his brothers with late-night rehearsals but also asked them to play their roles as â€Å"master’s eyes and ears† in his shop. Antonsha was soon discovered to be more reliable than his brothers; therefore, father relied on him frequently. However, this compulsion proved to be productive for Chekhov and the world in the form of stories like; â€Å"The Sacred Night,† â€Å"The Sacred Mountains,† â€Å"The Student,† â€Å"Perhaps,† â€Å"and The Archbishop.†Chekhov would have never aware of the religious services and people with simple souls without these exercises. (Bunin 4). Chekhov's Education and Profession Chekhov attended a Greek school in Taganrog (1867-68 and then Taganrog grammar school (1868-79).Hid father’s bankruptcy forced the family to migrate to Moscow. Tutoring made Chekhov independent enough to support himself and spend some time alone in his hometown. In 1879, Chekhov got enrolled in Moscow University Medical School. He supported himself and his family by publishing hundreds of comic stories. Subjects of Chekhov’s stories were nonsensical social situations, marital issues, absurd encounters between husbands, wives, lovers, and mistresses, and whimsical young women. Though Chekhov had much knowledge of these issues, he was shy even after his marriage (Liukkonen). Chekhov worked as a physician in most of his life as adult. He gave credit to his medic al profession for his power of observation and sense of direction in literary work (Loehlin viii).He often stated that, â€Å"Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress† (qtd. in Loehlin viii). Writing and Achievements Nenunzhaya pobeda (1882) was Chekhov’s first novel, written in Hungarian context, this novel parodied famous Hungarian writer Mor Jokai’s novels. Jokai was also ridiculed for his ideological optimism during that time period. Chekhov established himself as a famous writer by 1886. The Shooting Party, Chekhov’s second full-length novel was translated into English in 1926.Its characters and atmosphere was also used by Agatha Christie’s mystery novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd in 1926(Liukkonen). Chekhov’s first story book was a success which transformed him into a full-time writer. His denial to join ranks of social critics annoyed liberal and radical intelligentsia. Their wrath appeared in the form of criticizin g Chekhov for dealing ad raising social and moral issues and avoiding answers. However, Chekhov won the support of

Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of joining a Assignment

Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of joining a professional association - Assignment Example rm, to voice and commiserate, and to provide affiliates a feeling that they are never alone in the hurdles opened by their profession in general (Kjellberg, 2013). Opportunities to discover new techniques, job options, among others, are priceless advantages to group members (Kjellberg, 2013). The disadvantages, on the other hand, of joining these organizations are needless fees, consumes a lot of time, needless expenses, socializing takes the attention away from career development and also they create a lot of pressure to achieve highly among its members (Harvey et al., 2003). Most professional organizations need the reimbursement of yearly fees. There might also be the first application fee (Kjellberg, 2013). Whereas $100 does not appear to be much, it accumulates when the individuals joins the national and state associations of numerous professional organizations (Harvey, 2004). Apart from the membership fees and applications, people also spend money on association lunches, breakfasts and dinners and gas expenses or transportation costs (Harvey, 2004). According to these advantages and disadvantages of belonging to a professional organization, I would opt to join a professional organization because I need access to the information, which will influence my practice. I also need people who will advocate for me in front of others and people who will develop me professionally, thus my decision to join a professional