Implementation of an Industrial Hygiene Program Research Paper

Implementation of an Industrial Hygiene Program - Research Paper Example This essay will provide a hygiene program for pharmaceuticals with a focus on handling of hazardous chemicals and other raw materials for the manufacture or research and development of drugs. R&D and work areas for pharmaceuticals are one of the most dangerous places for operators and workers, if these are not adequately designed and control systems are not properly in place. Providing a hygiene system for pharmaceutical laboratories is therefore a challenging task. Pharmaceuticals produce small groups of high-potency active ingredients. These compounds pose risks to persons who are involved in the manufacturing. The chemicals are potentially toxic, can cause cancer, â€Å"teratogenic, mutagenic,† and are really dangerous even in small amounts (Fay & Phillips, 2002). In controlling chemicals, there must be a protective barrier between the chemical and the person handling the chemical. There are acceptable working conditions in the handling of chemicals, for example pharmaceutical ingredients, agricultural chemicals particularly herbicides and pesticides, dyes and pigments, and other chemicals such as radioisotopes and intermediates. In the development of procedures and equipment to protect persons handling the chemicals, there are two steps that should be followed. First, there must be a method of control. Second, how to attain the methods and how to attain them must be formulated. Analytical chemistry is used in determining smaller quantities and this can be attained through new computer applications or software. The company should provide an effective design and layout of the work area that is conducive to a clean and effective work environment. Designated areas for hazardous chemicals have to be clearly separate from other rooms designated for offices. Proper handling of materials should be the order of the day. Training of personnel who will handle sensitive materials and chemicals should be a part of the procedures. Training should be conducted by

Ethnographic Process †Homo Narrans Essay Example for Free

Ethnographic Process – Homo Narrans Essay With her assertion in Number Our Days that humankind is a species of homo-narrans, Barbara Myerhoff describes us as story-telling creatures. We identify, express, discover and categorize ourselves based on the legends and lore of our cultural heritage as well as the anecdotal accounts of our personal lives. The works we have read support Myerhoff’s assertion, demonstrating through the narratives that humans define their world through stories at the same time that their stories define them. Myerhoff, Cruikshank and Fabian all respond to humans as story-telling beings, employing ethnographic strategies based on a holistic combination of qualitative and quantitative research. In her Number Our Days, Myerhoff gathered exhaustive narratives from the senior Jewish population of Venice, California. Likewise, Cruikshank’s interviews with the Yukon elders in Life Lived Like a Story reveal how thoroughly she participates with the ethnographic study of man as homo-narrans. (I particularly liked Angela’s story of balancing old and new customs. Similarly, Fabian’s Power and Performance supports itself upon qualitative fieldwork, contributing a plethora of anecdotal information to African anthropological studies. All authors interacted with and affected the social environment in which they worked, their studies not only speaking to the lives of their research subjects but the research and researchers themselves. I support the ways these authors respond to the notion of mankind as homo-narrans. People tell stories in life as a way to communicate their identity and beliefs, their backgrounds and ambitions. The only challenges I foresee lie in the fact that personal accounts are not always representative of the group to which they belong. And while it is impossible not to affect the sample population from which researchers derive information, to feel personally moved even to advocate on its behalf, it seems best that researchers remain objective in their studies, at least for the duration of those studies. A mind clouded with passion is not a viable tool of rational inquiry or observation. Once the study is complete, I could not fault a researcher for advocating people s/he discovered to be in need of help in the course of the inquiry.

A Study Of The Life And Career Of Lord Alfred Tennyson and Selected Cri

A Study Of The Life And Career Of Lord Alfred Tennyson And Selected Criticism Of His Works Whether a person likes or dislikes the works of Lord Alfred Tennyson, most would agree that he was one of the most influential writers of his time period. Tennyson grew up in a wealthy family never wanting for anything. English author often regarded as the chief representative of the Victorian age in poetry. Tennyson succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in 1850; he was appointed by Queen Victoria and served 42 years. Tennyson's works were melancholic, and reflected the moral and intellectual values of his time, which made them especially vulnerable for later critic. Alfred, Lord Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire. His father, George Clayton Tennyson, a clergyman and rector, suffered from depression and was notoriously absentminded. Alfred began to write poetry at an early age in the style of Lord Byron. After spending four unhappy years in school he was tutored at home. Tennyson then studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he joined the literary club 'The Apostles' and met Arthur Hallam, who became his closest friend. The undergraduate society discussed contemporary social, religious, scientific, and literary issues. Encouraged by 'The Apostles', Tennyson published POEMS, CHIEFLY LYRICAL, in 1830, which included the popular 'Mariana'. He travelled with Hallam on the Continent. By 1830, Hallam had become engaged to Tennyson's sister Emily. After his father's death in 1831 Tennyson returned to Somersby without a degree. His next book, POEMS (1833), received unfavorable reviews, and Tennyson ceased to publish for nearly ten years. Hallam died suddenly on the same year in Vienna. It was a heavy blow to Tennyson. He began to write 'Im Memorian' for his lost friend - the work took seventeen years. A revised volume of Poems, which included the 'The Lady of Shalott' and 'The Lotus-eaters'. 'Morte d'Arthur' and 'Ulysses' appeared in 1842 in the two-volume POEMS, and established his reputation as a writer. In 'Ulysses Tennyson portrayed the Greek after his travels, longing past days: "How dull it is to pause, to make an end, / To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!" After marrying Emily Sellwood, whom he had already met in 1836,... ... heart blend and break, one against the other, with the pathetic inconsistency.† 7 As for Tennyson’s other great work, â€Å"Idylls of the King†, people seemed to give it a much nicer criticism. Prince Albert felt that the poems, which he thourghly enjoyed, â€Å"rekindle the feeling with which the legends of King Arthur must have inspired the chivalry of old, whilst the graceful form in which they are presented blends those feelings with the softer tone of our present age.† 8 Tennyson’s other popular works include: â€Å"The Princess†, â€Å"Maud† and â€Å"Drama† . These are just a few of his poems Tennyson wrote hundreds in his career. It seems that the critics of Tennyson’s work, either loves it or hates it there is rarely a middle ground. Most critics seems to enjoy â€Å"Idylls of the King† and give it much better reviews than those of â€Å"In Memoriam† which people don’t seem to like as much. Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-92) was considered England's greatest poet in the last half of the 19th century. People from every walk of life understood and loved his work.

How to Run a Good Meeting :: essays research papers

How to Run a Good Meeting Most people don’t like meetings. They say they are boring, go on too long, and don’t get anything done. And often that’s the truth. So to have a good meeting, you need to make it interesting, keep it on track, and make sure something gets done. Here are eight steps toward making your next meeting a success. 1. Make sure you need to have a meeting. Meetings are needed when a group of people must be involved in an action or a decision. Don’t schedule a meeting just because it’s time to have one. 2. Set a goal for the meeting. Be very clear about why you’re having the meeting, and what needs to get done or be decided. Break that task into steps, or divide the discussion into sections—that’s the agenda for your meeting. At the start of the meeting say, this is our goal, and if we can get this done, the meeting will be a success. At the end of the meeting remind them that you achieved your goal. This lets everyone leave feeling successful, and they’ll be glad to come to your next meeting. 3. Put decisions to the group. The participants own the meeting. Let them set the agenda before the meeting, or at least add to it when you begin. If decisions need to be made about the process (whether to end a discussion that’s going too long, for example) then ask that question to the group. 4. Stay on schedule. Remember that every minute a person spends in your meeting, they could be doing other things. They’re with you because they’ve decided your meeting is important, so treat them like their time is important. Start on time and end on time! 5. Pay attention to what’s important. Set a certain amount of time for each item on the agenda, based on how important it is. If the group starts spending a lot of time on details, ask them â€Å"Is this what we want to spend our time talking about?† A lot of details can be worked out by individuals or committees—meetings are for the decisions that need to involve the whole group. 6. Keep the meeting on track. Your agenda is the tool you use to make sure you’re on time and on the right topic. When side issues come up, help the group get back on track. If the issue sounds important, check with the group.

Bag of Bones CHAPTER FIVE

Once, when I was sixteen, a plane went supersonic directly over my head. I was walking in the woods when it happened, thinking of some story I was going to write, perhaps, or how great it would be if Doreen Fournier weakened some Friday night and let me take off her panties while we were parked at the end of Cushman Road. In any case I was travelling far roads in my own mind, and when that boom went off, I was caught totally by surprise. I went flat on the leafy ground with my hands over my head and my heart drumming crazily, sure I'd reached the end of my life (and while I was still a virgin). In my forty years, that was the only thing which equalled the final dream of the ‘Manderley series' for utter terror. I lay on the ground, waiting for the hammer to fall, and when thirty seconds or so passed and no hammer did fall, I began to realize it had just been some jet-jockey from the Brunswick Naval Air Station, too eager to wait until he was out over the Atlantic before going to Mach 1. But, holy shit, who ever could have guessed that it would be so loud? I got slowly to my feet and as I stood there with my heart finally slowing down, I realized I wasn't the only thing that had been scared witless by that sudden clear-sky boom. For the first time in my memory, the little patch of woods behind our house in Prout's Neck was entirely silent. I stood there in a dusty bar of sunlight, crumbled leaves all over my tee-shirt and jeans, holding my breath, listening. I had never heard a silence like it. Even on a cold day in January, the woods would have been full of conversation. At last a finch sang. There were two or three seconds of silence, and then a jay replied. Another two or three seconds went by, and then a crow added his two cents' worth. A woodpecker began to hammer for grubs. A chipmunk bumbled through some underbrush on my left. A minute after I had stood up, the woods were fully alive with little noises again; it was back to business as usual, and I continued with my own. I never forgot that unexpected boom, though, or the deathly silence which followed it. I thought of that June day often in the wake of the nightmare, and there was nothing so remarkable in that. Things had changed, somehow, or could change . . . but first comes silence while we assure ourselves that we are still unhurt and that the danger if there was danger is gone. Derry was shut down for most of the following week, anyway. Ice and high winds caused a great deal of damage during the storm, and a sudden twenty-degree plunge in the temperature afterward made the digging out hard and the cleanup slow. Added to that, the atmosphere after a March storm is always dour and pessimistic; we get them up this way every year (and two or three in April for good measure, if we're not lucky), but we never seem to expect them. Every time we get clouted, we take it personally. On a day toward the end of that week, the weather finally started to break. I took advantage, going out for a cup of coffee and a mid-morning pastry at the little restaurant three doors down from the Rite Aid where Johanna did her last errand. I was sipping and chewing and working the newspaper crossword when someone asked, ‘Could I share your booth, Mr. Noonan? It's pretty crowded in here today.' I looked up and saw an old man that I knew but couldn't quite place. ‘Ralph Roberts,' he said. ‘I volunteer down at the Red Cross. Me and my wife, Lois.' ‘Oh, okay, sure,' I said. I give blood at the Red Cross every six weeks or so. Ralph Roberts was one of the old parties who passed out juice and cookies afterward, telling you not to get up or make any sudden movements if you felt woozy. ‘Please, sit down.' He looked at my paper, folded open to the crossword and lying in a patch of sun, as he slid into the booth. ‘Don't you find that doing the crossword in the Derry News is sort of like striking out the pitcher in a baseball game?' he asked. I laughed and nodded. ‘I do it for the same reason folks climb Mount Everest, Mr. Roberts . . . because it's there. Only with the News crossword, no one ever falls off.' ‘Call me Ralph. Please.' ‘Okay. And I'm Mike.' ‘Good.' He grinned, revealing teeth that were crooked and a little yellow, but all his own. ‘I like getting to the first names. It's like being able to take off your tie. Was quite a little cap of wind we had, wasn't it?' ‘Yes,' I said, ‘but it's warming up nicely now.' The thermometer had made one of its nimble March leaps, climbing from twenty-five degrees the night before to fifty that morning. Better than the rise in air-temperature, the sun was warm again on your face. It was that warmth that had coaxed me out of the house. ‘Spring'll get here, I guess. Some years it gets a little lost, but it always seems to find its way back home.' He sipped his coffee, then set the cup down. ‘Haven't seen you at the Red Cross lately.' ‘I'm recycling,' I said, but that was a fib; I'd come eligible to give another pint two weeks ago. The reminder card was up on the refrigerator. It had just slipped my mind. ‘Next week, for sure.' ‘I only mention it because I know you're an A, and we can always use that.' ‘Save me a couch.' ‘Count on it. Everything going all right? I only ask because you look tired. If it's insomnia, I can sympathize, believe me.' He did have the look of an insomniac, I thought too wide around the eyes, somehow. But he was also a man in his mid- to late seventies, and I don't think anyone gets that far without showing it. Stick around a little while, and life maybe only jabs at your cheeks and eyes. Stick around a long while and you end up looking like Jake La Motta after a hard fifteen. I opened my mouth to say what I always do when someone asks me if I'm all right, then wondered why I always felt I had to pull that tiresome Marlboro Man shit, just who I was trying to fool. What did I think would happen if I told the guy who gave me a chocolate-chip cookie down at the Red Cross after the nurse took the needle out of my arm that I wasn't feeling a hundred percent? Earthquakes? Fire and flood? Shit. ‘No,' I said, ‘I really haven't been feeling so great, Ralph.' ‘Flu? It's been going around.' ‘Nah. The flu missed me this time, actually. And I've been sleeping all right.' Which was true there had been no recurrence of the Sara Laughs dream in either the normal or the high-octane version. ‘I think I've just got the blues.' ‘Well, you ought to take a vacation,' he said, then sipped his coffee. When he looked up at me again, he frowned and set his cup down. ‘What? Is something wrong?' No, I thought of saying. You were just the first bird to sing into the silence, Ralph, that's all. ‘No, nothing wrong,' I said, and then, because I sort of wanted to see how the words tasted coming out of my own mouth, I repeated them. ‘A vacation.' ‘Ayuh,' he said, smiling. ‘People do it all the time.' People do it all the time. He was right about that; even people who couldn't strictly afford to went on vacation. When they got tired. When they got all balled up in their own shit. When the world was too much with them, getting and spending. I could certainly afford a vacation, and I could certainly take the time off from work what work, ha-ha? and yet I'd needed the Red Cross cookie-man to point out what should have been self-evident to a college-educated guy like me: that I hadn't been on an actual vacation since Jo and I had gone to Bermuda, the winter before she died. My particular grindstone was no longer turning, but I had kept my nose to it all the same. It wasn't until that summer, when I read Ralph Roberts's obituary in the News (he was struck by a car), that I fully realized how much I owed him. That advice was better than any glass of orange juice I ever got after giving blood, let me tell you. When I left the restaurant, I didn't go home but tramped over half of the damned town, the section of newspaper with the partly completed crossword puzzle in it clamped under one arm. I walked until I was chilled in spite of the warming temperatures. I didn't think about anything, and yet I thought about everything. It was a special kind of thinking, the sort I'd always done when I was getting close to writing a book, and although I hadn't thought that way in years, I fell into it easily and naturally, as if I had never been away. It's like some guys with a big truck have pulled up in your driveway and are moving things into your basement. I can't explain it any better than that. You can't see what these things are because they're all wrapped up in padded quilts, but you don't need to see them. It's furniture, everything you need to make your house a home, make it just right, just the way you wanted it. When the guys have hopped back into their truck and driven away, you go down to the basement and walk around (the way I went walking around Derry that late morning, slopping up hill and down dale in my old galoshes), touching a padded curve here, a padded angle there. Is this one a sofa? Is that' one a dresser? It doesn't matter. Everything is here, the movers didn't forget a thing, and although you'll have to get it all upstairs yourself (straining your poor old back in the process, more often than not), that's okay. The important thing is that the delivery was complete. This time I thought hoped the delivery truck had brought the stuff I needed for the back forty: the years I might have to spend in a No Writing Zone. To the cellar door they had come, and they had knocked politely, and when after several months there was still no answer, they had finally fetched a battering ram. HEY BUDDY, HOPE THE NOISE DIDN'T SCARE YOU TOO BAD, SORRY ABOUT THE DOOR! I didn't care about the door; I cared about the furniture. Any pieces broken or missing? I didn't think so. I thought all I had to do was get it upstairs, pull off the furniture pads, and put it where it belonged. On my way back home, I passed The Shade, Derry's charming little revival movie house, which has prospered in spite of (or perhaps because of) the video revolution. This month they were showing classic SF from the fifties, but April was dedicated to Humphrey Bogart, Jo's all-time favorite. I stood under the marquee for several moments, studying one of the Coming Attractions posters. Then I went home, picked a travel agent pretty much at random from the phone book, and told the guy I wanted to go to Key Largo. Key West, you mean, the guy said. No, I told him, I mean Key Largo, just like in the movie with Bogie and Bacall. Three weeks. Then I rethought that. I was wealthy, I was on my own, and I was retired. What was this ‘three weeks' shit? Make it six, I said. Find me a cottage or something. Going to be expensive, he said. I told him I didn't care. When I came back to Derry, it would be spring. In the meantime, I had some furniture to unwrap. I was enchanted with Key Largo for the first month and bored out of my mind for the last two weeks. I stayed, though, because boredom is good. People with a high tolerance for boredom can get a lot of thinking done. I ate about a billion shrimp, drank about a thousand margaritas, and read twenty-three John D. MacDonald novels by actual count. I burned, peeled, and finally tanned. I bought a long-billed cap with PARROTHEAD printed on it in bright green thread. I walked the same stretch of beach until I knew everybody by first name. And I unwrapped furniture. A lot of it I didn't like, but there was no doubt that it all fit the house. I thought about Jo and our life together. I thought about saying to her that no one was ever going to confuse Being Two with Look Homeward, Angel. ‘You aren't going to pull a lot of frustrated-artist crap on me, are you, Noonan?' she had replied . . . and during my time on Key Largo, those words kept coming back, always in Jo's voice: crap, frustrated-artist crap, all that fucking schoolboy frustrated-artist crap. I thought about her long red woods apron, coming to me with a hatful of black trumpet mushrooms, laughing and triumphant: ‘Nobody on the TR eats better than the Noonans tonight!' she'd cried. I thought of her painting her toenails, bent over between her own thighs in the way only women doing that particular piece of business can manage. I thought of her throwing a book at me because I laughed at some new haircut. I thought of her trying to learn how to play a breakdown on her banjo and of how she looked braless in a thin sweater. I thought of her crying and laughing and angry. I thought of her telling me it was crap, all that frustrated-artist crap. And I thought about the dreams, especially the culminating dream. I could do that easily, because it never faded as the more ordinary ones do. The final Sara Laughs dream and my very first wet dream (coming upon a girl lying naked in a hammock and eating a plum) are the only two that remain perfectly clear to me, year after year; the rest are either hazy fragments or completely forgotten. There were a great many clear details to the Sara dreams the loons, the crickets, the evening star and my wish upon it, just to name a few but I thought most of those things were just verisimilitude. Scene-setting, if you will. As such, they could be dismissed from my considerations. That left three major elements, three large pieces of furniture to be unwrapped. As I sat on the beach, watching the sun go down between my sandy toes, I didn't think you had to be a shrink to see how those three things went together. In the Sara dreams, the major elements were the woods behind me, the house below me, and Michael Noonan himself, frozen in the middle. It's getting dark and there's danger in the woods. It will be frightening to go to the house below, perhaps because it's been empty so long, but I never doubt I must go there; scary or not, it's the only shelter I have. Except I can't do it. I can't move. I've got writer's walk. In the nightmare I am finally able to go toward shelter, only the shelter proves false. Proves more dangerous than I had ever expected in my . . . well, yes, in my wildest dreams. My dead wife rushes out, screaming and still tangled in her shroud, to attack me. Even five weeks later and almost three thousand miles from Derry, remembering that speedy white thing with its baggy arms would make me shiver and look back over my shoulder. But was it Johanna? I didn't really know, did I? The thing was all wrapped up. The coffin looked like the one in which she had been buried, true, but that might just be misdirection. Writer's walk, writer's block. I can't write, I told the voice in the dream. The voice says I can. The voice says the writer's block is gone, and I believe it because the writer's walk is gone, I'm finally headed down the driveway, going to shelter. I'm afraid, though. Even before the shapeless white thing makes its appearance, I'm terrified. I say it's Mrs. Danvers I'm afraid of, but that's just my dreaming mind getting Sara Laughs and Manderley all mixed up. I'm afraid of ‘I'm afraid of writing,' I heard myself saying out loud. ‘I'm afraid to even try.' This was the night before I finally flew back to Maine, and I was half-past sober, going on drunk. By the end of my vacation, I was drinking a lot of evenings. ‘It's not the block that scares me, it's undoing the block. I'm really fucked, boys and girls. I'm fucked big-time.' Fucked or not, I had an idea I'd finally reached the heart of the matter. I was afraid of undoing the block, maybe afraid of picking up the strands of my life and going on without Jo. Yet some deep part of my mind believed I must do it; that's what the menacing noises behind me in the woods were about. And belief counts for a lot. Too much, maybe, especially if you're imaginative. When an imaginative person gets into mental trouble, the line between seeming and being has a way of disappearing. Things in the woods, yes, sir. I had one of them right there in my hand as I was thinking these things. I lifted my drink, holding it toward the western sky so that the setting sun seemed to be burning in the glass. I was drinking a lot, and maybe that was okay on Key Largo hell, people were supposed to drink a lot on vacation, it was almost the law but I'd been drinking too much even before I left. The kind of drinking that could get out of hand in no time at all. The kind that could get a man in trouble. Things in the woods, and the potentially safe place guarded by a scary bugbear that was not my wife, but perhaps my wife's memory. It made sense, because Sara Laughs had always been Jo's favorite place on earth. That thought led to another, one that made me swing my legs over the side of the chaise I'd been reclining on and sit up in excitement. Sara Laughs had also been the place where the ritual had begun . . . champagne, last line, and the all-important benediction: Well, then, that's all right, isn't it? Did I want things to be all right again? Did I truly want that? A month or a year before I mightn't have been sure, but now I was. The answer was yes. I wanted to move on let go of my dead wife, rehab my heart, move on. But to do that, I'd have to go back. Back to the log house. Back to Sara Laughs. ‘Yeah,' I said, and my body broke out in gooseflesh. ‘Yeah, you got it.' So why not? The question made me feel as stupid as Ralph Roberts's observation that I needed a vacation. If I needed to go back to Sara Laughs now that my vacation was over, indeed why not? It might be a little scary the first night or two, a hangover from my final dream, but just being there might dissolve the dream faster. And (this last thought I allowed in only one humble corner of my conscious mind) something might happen with my writing. It wasn't likely . . . but it wasn't impossible, either. Barring a miracle, hadn't that been my thought on New Year's Day as I sat on the rim of the tub, holding a damp washcloth to the cut on my forehead? Yes. Barring a miracle. Sometimes blind people fall down, knock their heads, and regain their sight. Sometimes maybe cripples are able to throw their crutches away when they get to the top of the church steps. I had eight or nine months before Harold and Debra started really bugging me for the next novel. I decided to spend the time at Sara Laughs. It would take me a little while to tie things up in Derry, and awhile for Bill Dean to get the house on the lake ready for a year-round resident, but I could be down there by the Fourth of July, easily. I decided that was a good date to shoot for, not just the birthday of our country, but pretty much the end of bug season in western Maine. By the day I packed up my vacation gear (the John D. MacDonald paperbacks I left for the cabin's next inhabitant), shaved a week's worth of stubble off a face so tanned it no longer looked like my own to me, and flew back to Maine, I was decided: I'd go back to the place my subconscious mind had identified as shelter against the deepening dark; I'd go back even though my mind had also suggested that doing so would not be without risks. I would not go back expecting Sara to be Lourdes . . . but I would allow myself to hope, and when I saw the evening star peeping out over the lake for the first time, I would allow myself to wish on it. Only one thing didn't fit into my neat deconstruction of the Sara dreams, and because I couldn't explain it, I tried to ignore it. I didn't have much luck, though; part of me was still a writer, I guess, and a writer is a man who has taught his mind to misbehave. It was the cut on the back of my hand. That cut had been in all the dreams, I would swear it had . . . and then it had actually appeared. You didn't get that sort of shit in the works of Dr. Freud; stuff like that was strictly for the Psychic Friends hotline. It was a coincidence, that's all, I thought as my plane started its descent. I was in seat A-2 (the nice thing about flying up front is that if the plane goes down, you're first to the crash site) and looking at pine forests as we slipped along the glidepath toward Bangor International Airport. The snow was gone for another year; I had vacationed it to death. Only coincidence. How many times have you cut your hands? I mean, they're always out front, aren't they, waving themselves around? Practically begging for it. All that should have rung true, and yet somehow it didn't, quite. It should have, but . . . well . . . It was the boys in the basement. They were the ones who didn't buy it. The boys in the basement didn't buy it at all. At that point there was a thump as the 737 touched down, and I put the whole line of thought out of my mind. One afternoon shortly after arriving back home, I rummaged the closets until I found the shoeboxes containing Jo's old photographs. I sorted them, then studied my way through the ones of Dark Score Lake. There were a staggering number of these, but because Johanna was the shutterbug, there weren't many with her in them. I found one, though, that I remembered taking in 1990 or '91. Sometimes even an untalented photographer can take a good picture if seven hundred monkeys spent seven hundred years bashing away at seven hundred typewriters, and all that and this was good. In it Jo was standing on the float with the sun going down red-gold behind her. She was just out of the water, dripping wet, wearing a two-piece swimming suit, gray with red piping. I had caught her laughing and brushing her soaked hair back from her forehead and temples. Her nipples were very prominent against the cups of her halter. She looked like an actress on a movie poster for one of those guilty-pleasure B-pictures about monsters at Party Beach or a serial killer stalking the campus. I was sucker-punched by a sudden powerful lust for her. I wanted her upstairs just as she was in that photograph, with strands of her hair pasted to her cheeks and that wet bathing suit clinging to her. I wanted to suck her nipples through the halter top, taste the cloth and feel their hardness through it. I wanted to suck water out of the cotton like milk, then yank the bottom of her suit off and fuck her until we both exploded. Hands shaking a little, I put the photograph aside, with some others I liked (although there were no others I liked in quite that same way). I had a huge hard-on, one of those ones that feel like stone covered with skin. Get one of those and until it goes away you are good for nothing. The quickest way to solve a problem like that when there's no woman around willing to help you solve it is to masturbate, but that time the idea never even crossed my mind. Instead I walked restlessly through the upstairs rooms of my house with my fists opening and closing and what looked like a hood ornament stuffed down the front of my jeans. Anger may be a normal stage of the grieving process I've read that it is but I was never angry at Johanna in the wake of her death until the day I found that picture. Then, wow. There I was, walking around with a boner that just wouldn't quit, furious with her. Stupid bitch, why had she been running on one of the hottest days of the year? Stupid, inconsiderate bitch to leave me alone like this, not even able to work. I sat down on the stairs and wondered what I should do. A drink was what I should do, I decided, and then maybe another drink to scratch the first one's back. I actually got up before deciding that wasn't a very good idea at all. I went into my office instead, turned on the computer, and did a crossword puzzle. That night when I went to bed, I thought of looking at the picture of Jo in her bathing suit again. I decided that was almost as bad an idea as a few drinks when I was feeling angry and depressed. But I'll have the dream tonight, I thought as I turned off the light. I'll have the dream for sure. I didn't, though. My dreams of Sara Laughs seemed to be finished. A week's thought made the idea of at least summering at the lake seem better than ever. So, on a Saturday afternoon in early May when I calculated that any self-respecting Maine caretaker would be home watching the Red Sox, I called Bill Dean and told him I'd be at my lake place from the Fourth of July or so . . . and that if things went as I hoped, I'd be spending the fall and winter there as well. ‘Well, that's good,' he said. ‘That's real good news. A lot of folks down here've missed you, Mike. Quite a few that want to condole with you about your wife, don't you know.' Was there the faintest note of reproach in his voice, or was that just my imagination? Certainly Jo and I had cast a shadow in the area; we had made significant contributions to the little library which served the Motton-Kashwakamak-Castle View area, and Jo had headed the successful fund drive to get an area bookmobile up and running. In addition to that, she had been part of a ladies' sewing circle (afghans were her specialty), and a member in good standing of the Castle County Crafts Co-op. Visits to the sick . . . helping out with the annual volunteer fire department blood drive . . . womaning a booth during Summerfest in Castle Rock . . . and stuff like that was only where she had started. She didn't do it in any ostentatious Lady Bountiful way, either, but unobtrusively and humbly, with her head lowered (often to hide a rather sharp smile, I should add my Jo had a Biercean sense of humor). Christ, I thought, maybe old Bill had a right to sound reproachful. ‘People miss her,' I said. ‘Ayuh, they do.' ‘I still miss her a lot myself. I think that's why I've stayed away from the lake. That's where a lot of our good times were.' ‘I s'pose so. But it'll be damned good to see you down this way. I'll get busy. The place is all right you could move into it this afternoon, if you was a mind but when a house has stood empty the way Sara has, it gets stale.' ‘I know.' ‘I'll get Brenda Meserve to clean the whole shebang from top to bottom. Same gal you always had, don't you know.' ‘Brenda's a little old for comprehensive spring cleaning, isn't she?' The lady in question was about sixty-five, stout, kind, and gleefully vulgar. She was especially fond of jokes about the travelling salesman who spent the night like a rabbit, jumping from hole to hole. No Mrs. Danvers she. ‘Ladies like Brenda Meserve never get too old to oversee the festivities,' Bill said. ‘She'll get two or three girls to do the vacuuming and heavy lifting. Set you back maybe three hundred dollars. Sound all right?' ‘Like a bargain.' ‘The well needs to be tested, and the gennie, too, although I'm sure both of em's okay. I seen a hornet's nest by Jo's old studio that I want to smoke before the woods get dry. Oh, and the roof of the old house you know, the middle piece needs to be reshingled. I shoulda talked to you about that last year, but with you not using the place, I let her slide. You stand good for that, too?' ‘Yes, up to ten grand. Beyond that, call me.' ‘If we have to go over ten, I'll smile and kiss a pig.' ‘Try to have it all done before I get down there, okay?' ‘Coss. You'll want your privacy, I know that . . . just so long's you know you won't get any right away. We was shocked when she went so young; all of us were. Shocked and sad. She was a dear.' From a Yankee mouth, that word rhymes with Leah. ‘Thank you, Bill.' I felt tears prickle my eyes. Grief is like a drunken house guest, always coming back for one more goodbye hug. ‘Thanks for saying.' ‘You'll get your share of carrot-cakes, chummy.' He laughed, but a little doubtfully, as if afraid he was committing an impropriety. ‘I can eat a lot of carrot-cake,' I said, ‘and if folks overdo it, well, hasn't Kenny Auster still got that big Irish wolfhound?' ‘Yuh, that thing'd eat cake til he busted!' Bill cried in high good humor. He cackled until he was coughing. I waited, smiling a little myself. ‘Blueberry, he calls that dog, damned if I know why. Ain't he the gormiest thing!' I assumed he meant the dog and not the dog's master. Kenny Auster, not much more than five feet tall and neatly made, was the opposite of gormy, that peculiar Maine adjective that means clumsy, awkward, and clay-footed. I suddenly realized that I missed these people Bill and Brenda and Buddy Jellison and Kenny Auster and all the others who lived year-round at the lake. I even missed Blueberry, the Irish wolfhound, who trotted everywhere with his head up just as if he had half a brain in it and long strands of saliva depending from his jaws. ‘I've also got to get down there and clean up the winter blowdown,' Bill said. He sounded embarrassed. ‘It ain't bad this year that last big storm was all snow over our way, thank God but there's still a fair amount of happy crappy I ain't got to yet. I shoulda put it behind me long before now. You not using the place ain't an excuse. I been cashing your checks.' There was something amusing about listening to the grizzled old fart beating his breast; Jo would have kicked her feet and giggled, I'm quite sure. ‘If everything's right and running by July Fourth, Bill, I'll be happy.' ‘You'll be happy as a clam in a mudflat, then. That's a promise.' Bill sounded as happy as a clam in a mudflat himself, and I was glad. ‘Goingter come down and write a book by the water? Like in the old days? Not that the last couple ain't been fine, my wife couldn't put that last one down, but ‘ ‘I don't know,' I said, which was the truth. And then an idea struck me. ‘Bill, would you do me a favor before you clean up the driveway and turn Brenda Meserve loose?' ‘Happy to if I can,' he said, so I told him what I wanted. Four days later, I got a little package with this laconic return address: DEAN/GEN DELIV/TR-90 (DARK SCORE). I opened it and shook out twenty photographs which had been taken with one of those little cameras you use once and then throw away. Bill had filled out the roll with various views of the house, most conveying that subtle air of neglect a place gets when it's not used enough . . . even a place that's caretook (to use Bill's word) gets that neglected feel after awhile. I barely glanced at these. The first four were the ones I wanted, and I lined them up on the kitchen table, where the strong sunlight would fall directly on them. Bill had taken these from the top of the driveway, pointing the disposable camera down at the sprawl of Sara Laughs. I could see the moss which had grown not only on south wings, as well. I could see the litter of fallen branches and the drifts of pine needles on the driveway. Bill must have been tempted to clear all that away before taking his snaps, but he hadn't. I'd told him exactly what I wanted ‘warts and all' was the phrase I had used and Bill had given it to me. The bushes on either side of the driveway had thickened a lot since Jo and I had spent any significant amount of time at the lake; they hadn't exactly run wild, but yes, some of the longer branches did seem to yearn toward each other across the asphalt like separated lovers. Yet what my eye came back to again and again was the stoop at the foot of the driveway. The other resemblances between the photographs and my dreams of Sara Laughs might only be coincidental (or the writer's often surprisingly practical imagination at work), but I could explain the sunflowers growing out through the boards of the stoop no more than I had been able to explain the cut on the back of my hand. I turned one of the photos over. On the back, in a spidery script, Bill had written: These fellows are way early . . . and trespassing! I flipped back to the picture side. Three sunflowers, growing up through the boards of the stoop. Not two, not four, but three large sunflowers with faces like searchlights. Just like the ones in my dream.

Dreams Essays (944 words) - Dream, Rapid Eye Movement Sleep, Sleep

Dreams Essays (944 words) - Dream, Rapid Eye Movement Sleep, Sleep Dreams DREAMS Dreaming is an experience that has fascinated people for a very long time. Although researches about dreams have been limited in the past, it has developed tremendously in its field of science. There are many explanations why people dream, but there are three main theoretical explanations for why there is dreaming: the biological view, the cognitive view, and the psychoanalytic view. I will be assessing a dream of my own, using all three perspectives. All three views have been debated thoroughly in the past, but it is the psychoanalytic view that has created the most attention to me. In the end, I will show why I find the psychoanalytic view most valuable. I recently had a very simple dream of going fishing with my dad at a lake. The dream was very vivid, in that I went through a series of steps. The initial step was setting up the fishing gear, the second step was the actual fishing, and the last step was catching fish. I frequently have this dream and it has reoccurred throughout my life. Maybe dissecting my dream with these three theories will help explain why I dream of this so frequently. Perhaps one of the most important discoveries for neurobiology of dreams occurred in 1953. It was the discovery of the rapid eye movement(REM)(Piero, 3). REM is a stage of sleep marked by rapid eye movements, high frequency brain waves, and dreaming (Huffman, 144). It is this stage that influenced the coming of the first theory I will talk about, the biological view or also known as the activation-synthesis hypothesis. It was Alan Hobson and Robert W. McCarley in 1977, who showed that most physiological and cognitive characteristics of REM sleep are associated with the same brainstem physiological control system that activates body and mind in the waking state (Antrobus, 2). In other words as certain cells in the sleep center of the brain stem are activated during REM sleep, the brain struggles to make sense out of random stimulation by manufacturing dreams (Huffman, 147). So when I dreamt of fishing on a lake with my dad, my brain was just processing an experience when I was in my w aking state. This seems logical because I frequently go fishing, therefore explaining why I would dream of this particular situation. The second theory explaining dreams is the cognitive view. The cognitive view states that dreams are a form of information processing, that help people sift and sort our experiences, solve problems, and think creatively. That dreams are an extension of everyday lifea form of thinking during sleep (Huffman, 150). One way this view may be applied to my dream was that my brain was trying to solve a problem. The information that it is trying to sort out is how to catch a fish in my dream. It is very clear the steps that I go through are in order to solve a problem. It goes through clear steps of special techniques while fishing and certain setups of the fishing line. These two are very important while fishing that could be the difference between having no fishes to a lot at the end of the day. This would explain why I am constantly dreaming of fishing. I am trying to figure out how to catch a lot of fish. One of the oldest and I find most interesting theory is the psychoanalytic view or called wish fulfillment theory. This theory was presented by Freud, which suggests that dreams are disguised symbols of repressed desires and anxieties (Huffman, 149). What I find interesting about this theory is how it believes that dreams have a direct relationship with peoples wishes. Unfortunately, most people focus on the content of dreams than the form of dreaming. This would impact Freuds work because scientist were looking for the meaning, rather than for the source(Piero, 3). I find this theory most valuable because if the source is suppressed anxieties, and the dreams help your body relieve some, it is very important or else one might have a breakdown. Reasons why I may have manifested fishing on a lake could possibly mean that I am releasing some suppressed desires. Something that would have provoked me to dream

Coca Cola Company Marketing Report

Coca Cola Company Marketing Report Introduction Coca Cola Company is the leading beverage firm in the world. Started in 1886, this firm has managed to become one of the America’s most profitable companies. Its trademark was officially registered in the United States in 1944. Kline (2010) reports that the firm has experienced a consistent growth in its market share in the local market. The firm is currently operational in over 200 countries across the world.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Coca Cola Company Marketing specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The brand ‘Coca Cola’ has been rated as one of the best brand in the world. In the year 2008, it was rated the most valuable brand in America and the world at large, beating some of the renowned brands like Apple, General Electric and Amazon.com. The firm has been experiencing consistent growth even in the face of the economic slowdown in the United States and other major world markets. According to Biswas (2011), it has been in a position to withstand some of the external challenges posed by various factors in the environment. In order to bring to focus the environmental factors that have influenced this firm, a SWOT analysis will be used. SWOT Analysis The strength of this company lies in various factors. One of the major strengths of this firm is its brand name (Grossman, 2011). As Stated above, the brand Coca Cola is one of the strongest brands in the world. This has made it be able to maintain its market share in the face of an increasingly competitive market. This firm also has financial strength. It has been in operation for over 100 years, amassing huge wealth in the process. As such, this firm is in a position to implement its projects, including those of research and extension. The firm also operates in various countries outside the home market. As such, it has been able to balance its production when one section of its market is experiencing economic gr owth while the other has recession. Despite the above strengths of this firm, Lippman (2004) says that there are some weaknesses that it has, a fact that has seen some of its competitors like Pepsi Cola eat up a section of its market share. One of the weaknesses that many environmentalists have repeatedly talked about is environmental degradation. The plastic bottles that this firm uses in packing its drinks are causing havoc to the environment. It is apparent that this firm is yet to develop solution to this problem because as Tanke (2000) notes, Coca Cola Company is yet to replace the plastic bottles with better alternatives.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Within the environment that this firm operates are some opportunities that have made it experience massive growth in its market share. According to Panagariya (2008), Coca Cola Company has exploited vacuum th at existed in many countries in the world, especially in the developing countries. Weiss (2011) says that there was no competition for this firm in the overseas markets and this Company was able to make the most out of it. Technological advancements have also enabled the firm to conduct trade much easily due to improved means of communication and transport means. The economic boom that America experienced soon after the Second World War was another opportunity that helped this firm to expand its market. The threats that this firm has had to deal with include competition. The market has gotten increasingly competitive. Charantimath (2006) notes that many firms like Pepsi Cola have come up with products, which are close substitutes of those that are offered by Coca Cola. They have eaten into the markets of Coca Cola. Political instability in some countries is another threat that this firm has had to deal with. When there is an internal strife, like the one experienced in Egypt and Lib ya in the recent past, this firm would lose millions of dollars due to the destruction of its assert in those countries. During such periods, the firm would also lose the profits they get from the country, while yet they will have to pay the employees. This would hurt the firm financially. Competitor Analysis Although there many competitors of Coca Cola in this industry, the main competitor that has been able to keep it at close watch is Pepsi Cola. Just like Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola is also an American firm. According to Clinton (2011), it has a considerably huge market share in the American market and other countries overseas. This firm has been in a position to understand the emerging market trends and respond to them as appropriate, making it develop a niche in the market. As a result of this, it has been in a position to emerge as the main competitor of Coca Cola Company. The firm has diversified its production lines as a way of ensuring that it is not affected by the failure in o ne of the lines. The brand of this firm is also strong. Pepsi Cola is known in various countries beyond America. It has managed to outsmart Coca Cola in South Africa, one of the most promising emerging markets in the third world countries (Clement Henry, 2010). The firm is also doing well locally and in other European nations.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Coca Cola Company Marketing specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Market Analysis The market is getting increasingly competitive. The beverage industry is getting new products like fruit juices that never existed before. These products have been propositioned as healthy as they are taken directly from the natural fruits. According to Baily (1996), this has seen a massive shift from consumption of the cola products to the consumption of the natural fruit juices. This is a competition that Coca Cola least expected. It would have expected its competitor to be a firm l ike Pepsi Cola producing similar products to its cola products. Given this new trend, this firm must readjust its operations in order to counter this new challenge. Environmental Analysis Environmental analysis can take various fronts (Andrzej Buchaman, 2007). The competitive environment of this firm has been discussed comprehensively in the above discussion. Other environmental factors like technology, environmental conservation concerns, and economic growth are some of the other factors that would affect the operations of this firm Internal Analysis Coca Cola is a huge company with huge market share, capital base and very many employees. Other internal analyses of this firm have been looked at in the above SWOT Analysis. Marketing Objectives Marketing has experienced a complete shift from what it used to be in the past. After the Second World War, there was a huge market for many of the manufacturers in the world, Coca Cola included. By this time, the concern was to produce in ma ss and take them to the ready market in various countries in the world. The market had no options but to accept the products that were availed to them (Barthe, 2010). However, this has completely changed over the past few years. Technology has reduced the world into a global village, breaking the physical barrier that existed before. Information is also changing the world market. Customers have easy access to information. They can easily get the information about specific products they need, where to get them at competitive prices. As Shachaf (2008) says, customers are currently demanding for more value at a lesser cost. The suppliers are also getting more patronizing, especially those that operate in semi autonomous manner. They ask for more at lesser value they give. A business unit would be trapped in between a more demanding customer and a more patronizing supplier (Hirschey, Kose Makhija, 2004). This is not the only predicament in which a firm like Coca Cola finds itself.Adver tising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Other cases of environmental conservation are also demanding for an attention. The firm must therefore develop a marketing plan that would work in the current business world. The firm must develop concise objectives that would enable it navigate through the market that has gotten more challenging. For Coca Cola Company, the following are some of the objectives that it may need to achieve in order to maintain its market position. To broaden the scope of the Cola brands. The current brands are broad enough, but given the new competition that is emanating from the fruit juices, the firm must refocus its strategy. The objective of broadening the scope of the Cola brands is aimed at ensuring that this firm would be in a position to introduce new competitive fronts that would counter the effect of new market competition. This would also result in increased profitability. Enhance creativity in the process of serving the customers. The research and development team of Coca Cola Company has always ensured that it provides its customers with new products often enough. However, the rate at which market is experiencing changes demands that this firm becomes more creative (Safizadeh, Field Ritzman, 2003). This creativity can be demonstrated in the way of packaging the products. Customers should be made to feel that there are changes happening within the firm which are geared towards ensuring that the customers are satisfied. Transform the bottling companies into active partners who are able to be the drivers of positive change for this firm. For a long time, the bottling companies have basically relied on the Coca Cola Company to issue directives and necessary advice in the production process. They have basically acted as the processing centers which would not give any advice on the management, production or any other concern to the company (Schmitt Lane, 2009). By transforming them into partners, this company will be empowering them to be in a position to develop creat ive ways of conducting their production. The partners can also be of great benefit to this firm because they can be the managers of local competition in various countries. Embrace technology as the agent of positive change. The society is greatly influenced by the changing technologies around the world. As Warner (2011) says, the current business society has embraced technology. Coca Cola can rely on technology to reduce the cost of production hence lower the prices of the products to competitive levels. Develop market proposition that would make it be seen as the preferred firm in this industry. This firm’s main objective is to attract and retain its customers through consistent customer satisfaction (Manaschi, 1998). As such, the firm plans to re-engineer its marketing strategies to reflect its new production methods and products that are responsive to customer needs. Targeting and Positioning Target marketing is one of the current marketing strategies that many business u nits have found to be relevant. Bird (1977) says that it starts with market segmentation. A business unit must be in a position to segment a large market and then identify those segments that are relevant. This is because the entire market cannot be equally attractive. For the Coca Cola Company, the market segment that has been identified to be the most attractive is the youth (Ruddar Sundharam, 2009). The youths are attracted to the products of this company, especially because they can easily be carried from one location to another and that they make the best snacks for such forums as party or picnics. Coca Cola Company has this market segment as its target market. it should therefore develop strategies that would help it further attract this market segment. In order to attract this segment, it has to developed market positioning strategies that would make it appealing to the youths. Coca Cola has position itself as the source of happiness (Kurtz Boone, 2010). In its Coca Cola Su mmer television commercial 2010 that was largely broadcasted in various channels of television and on YouTube, Coca Cola leaves no doubt of its intention to attract the youth. In this commercial, the firm is telling the youths that opening a bottle of Coca Cola is like opening happiness (Freeman, 2010). To the youth therefore, they go for a Coca Cola drink when they are looking for happiness. It has successfully propositioned itself as a firm that has the interest of youths at heart by making them believe that it is the genesis of happiness. Moran (2011) described this as a good move. However, it may need further adjustment to appear more attractive. The firm should attempt to convince the youths that its products are do not have any negative health consequences to its consumers. Growth Strategies The ultimate objective of every firm is always to ensure that it experiences growth in the market share and assert base. As Majer (2011) notes, this may not be easy to achieve, given the c urrent market competition. There are many businesses that are coming up, most of which offer similar products. Besides Pepsi Cola as the main competitor of Coca Cola Company, there are the local firms in various countries that are producing the fruit juices. These products are direct substitutes to the Cola products. Growth strategies must therefore be developed in order to secure this firm from a possible negative growth. One of the strategies that this firm should consider developing is the increment of its product lines (Lacity, Willcocks Feeny, 2004). This should be one of the main objectives of this firm especially in those countries where most people are shifting from consumption of Cola products to other substitutes that are believed to be more health conscious. It should consider going local by producing the line of products that are acceptable. This would help it regain the section of the market share that it might have lost to the local firms. it would also help it attrac t new market segments that were not previously covered by its initial products. This would lead to growth of this firm both in its market share and capital base. Selection of Competitive Advantage Sandwick (1987) once said that in the current world where the market is very dynamic, it is very important for a firm to develop competitive advantage as early as possible and make the maximum of it as fast as it can. This is because the in the current market, no competitive advantage is permanent. What is considered as a competitive advantage today may not be the case tomorrow (Pfiester, 2010). Coca Cola has to be in a position to select competitive advantage early enough and put in place structures that would enable it exploit it maximally. Given the competition from the local firms that are producing fruit juices, this firm has the financial advantage against them. These firms have the potential of driving the Cola products out of the world market and therefore they should not be taken lightly (Lisa Amy, 2006). The firm should use their economic strength and develop a different line from its current products that would directly compete with this local firm (Minja, 2009). Although the ultimate goal may not be a total elimination of these local firms, Coca Cola should make an effort to put to check their effects on its products. To other firms like Pepsi Cola, Coca Cola should take advantage of the fact that it has broader market coverage and therefore can make more profits. Marketing Mix Program Marketing Mix Program is one of the important factors that a firm should consider when developing business strategies that work, according to Wellington (2001). Coca Cola should start by defining the product aspect of the mix. It should determine which product would be suitable for its current markets. After determining the product that it can produce in the best way, it should determine people who would make the market for the product (Lall Narula, 2004). It should then come up with a price that would take care of the cost of production and the profit margin expected while still ensuring that the targeted people are able to pay. The firm can then design promotional procedures that would be convincing to the target group. Conclusion Business environment is getting more competitive. Coca Cola Company must therefore be ready to face this competition and develop strategies that would enable it be in a position to manage this competition. As can be seen from the above discussion, this firm has the responsibility of making its products be seen as competitive in the market. It must exploit its strengths and overcome some of the identified weaknesses within the local and international market. It should also take advantage of the opportunities that avail themselves in the external market to increase its market share. Finally, Coca Cola must identify some of the threats that are in the external environment and develop measures to overcome them. This way, it will be in a position to maintain its current market lead in the beverage industry. References Andrzej, A. Buchaman, A. (2007). Organizational Behavior. London: Prentice Hall. Baily, C. (1996). A guide to field research. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press. Barthe, G. (2010). Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation: 11th Ed. New York. Springer. Bird, A. (1977). Team structure and success as related to cohesiveness and leadership. Journal of Social Psychology, 103(2), 217-223. Biswas, S. (2011). Commitment, involvement, and satisfaction as predictors of employee performance. South Asian Journal of Management, 18(2), 92-107. Charantimath. (2006).Total Quality Management. New Delhi: Pearson Education. Clement, M. Henry, R. (2010). Globalization and the Politics of Development in the Middle East. New York: Cambridge University Press. Clinton, H. (2011). U.S Department of State, Diplomacy in Action. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, Inc. Freeman, E. (2010). Strategic Managem ent: A Stakeholder Approach. New York: Cambridge University Press. Grossman, R. J. (2011). The care and feeding of high-potential employees. (Cover story). Hrmagazine, 56(8), 34. Hirschey, M., Kose J., Makhija, K. (2004). Corporate Governance. Amsterdam: Emerald Group Publishing. Kline, J. (2010). Ethics for International Business: Decision-Making in a Global Political Economy. New York: Routledge. Kurtz, L., Boone, L. (2010). Contemporary Marketing. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Lacity, M., Willcocks, L., Feeny, D. (2004). Commercializing the Back Office at Lloyds of London: Outsourcing and Strategic Partnerships Revisited. European Management Journal, 22(2), 127-140. Lall, S., Narula, R. (2004). Foreign Direct Investment And Its Role In Economic Development: Do We Need A New Agenda? The European Journal of Development Research, 16(3), 464-477. Lippman, T. (2004). Inside The Mirage: Americas Fragile Partnership with Saudi Arabia. New York: Basic Books. Lisa, G. Amy, D. (2006).T he Essential Guide to Federal Employment Laws. California: Nolo. Majer, C. (2011). The silent killers of productivity and profit. T+D, 65(2), 62 Manaschi, A. (1998). Comparative Advantage in International Trade: A Historical Perspective. Cheltenham, UK: Edwards Elgar Publishing. Minja, D. (2009). Ethical leadership practices. KCA Journal of Business Management, 2(1): 1-14. Moran. D. (2011). Climate Change and National Security: A Country-Level Analysis. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. Panagariya, A. (2008). India: The Emerging Giant. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pfiester, E. (2010). Boosting Small and Medium Enterprises in Saudi Arabia. Web. Ruddar, D. Sundharam, K. (2009). Indian Economy. New Delhi: Chand Group. Safizadeh, M., Field, J., Ritzman, L. (2003). An Empirical Analysis of Financial Services Processes with a Front Office or Back-Office Orientation. Journal of Operations Management, 21(5), 557-576. Sandwick, J. (1987). The Gulf Cooperation Council: modera tion and stability in an interdependent world. Michigan: Westview Press. Schmitt, J., Lane, N. (2009). An International Comparison of Small Business Employment. Web. Shachaf, P. (2008). Cultural Diversity and Information and Communication Technology Impacts on Global Virtual Teams: An Exploratory Study. Information Technology Journal, 45(2), 131-142. doi:10.1016/j.im.2007.12.003. Tanke, M. (2000). Human Resources Management for the Hospitality Industry. Albany: Cengage Learning. Warner, B. (2011). Organization Change: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Weiss, W. H. (2011). Building morale, motivating, and empowering employees. Supervision, 72(9), 23. Wellington, A. (2001). Health Insurance Coverage and Entrepreneurship. Journal of Contemporary Economic Policy, 19(4).

How To Avoid Writer Burnout When Its Your Day Job

How To Avoid Writer Burnout When Its Your Day Job He was submerged in words all day. He wrote thousands and thousands of words in any given week on assigned topics, laughing at blog posts that insisted that the most important way to be a great writer was to write X amount of words every day, as if mere quantity had that much to do with it. When he got home after work, the thought of writing for his own blog and fiction projects made him ill, and he was lucky to do much more than sit in front of the TV and turn off his mind completely. For a writer, he didnt write much when he wasnt on the clock. He had writer burnout. You might feel as if you have used up all the words you have left to use. How To Tell If You Have Writer Burnout Writer burnout happens when your day job requires your writing abilities non-stop, but those same abilities are what you also use on your own time for creative enjoyment. If the balance tips too far either way (too much used on the job, too much used for yourself), there will either be severe burnout from giving your best to the job and leaving nothing for yourself, or youll perform poorly at work as you save the best for yourself and give little to your job. Writer burnout happens when you use up all of your creative reserves and become a machine.Writer burnout isnt a matter of writers block, of not having ideas. Many writers who have the start of a serious burnout issue might be churning out fairly decent content and appear to have nothing wrong. Theyve adapted to the pressure of being forced to write a certain amount in a particular way during a specific time frame by creating a routine, an almost internal factory for creating. At least at the start, they keep functioning. Their factory system keeps them going. But gradually it takes them longer to finish writing projects. Their writing isnt as deep or exciting, and readers can tell. Their factory formulas start to show. They resent their low-quality work, the pressure to write within constraints, and the fact that they dont write on their own free time. They get the job done, but barely. If this is you, then youre on your way to writer burnout. We all have different levels of creative energy, and we all have different levels of creative energy reserves. We can even operate on a deficit for short periods of time, eating into those reserves that weve built up. Burnout happens when you have been operating on a deficit for a long period of time. Your writing reserves are all used up, and you turn into a machine. If youre on the path to writer burnout, you need to make changes in what youre doing and rebuild your reserves if you ever want to get back to enjoying writing again. I have a theory that burnout is about resentment. And you beat it by knowing what it is youre giving up that makes you resentful. -Marissa Mayer Change How You Write You can change the way you write in an attempt to slow down, and then reverse, writer burnout. Changing how you write is an option when youre still able to limp along but have a mild sense of panic when you think of continuing on for the next month or half year. 1. Diversify Your Writing If you spend most of your day writing thousands of words in the form of bullet-list blog posts, try writing something completely different on your off time, like a short fiction story, or even poetry. Try writing for pleasure. Write about something you dont normally write about, a topic youve never considered before. Write anything BUT work-topic blog posts or white papers or matter-of-fact content. Forgo anything that smacks of marketing, anything where the letters SEO might come into play, and have some fun. No one has to read it but you. Heck, really change things up and use pen and paper instead of your computer. 2. Stop Writing Content And Copy Why not change the way you think about your writing? Instead of using the buzz words content and copy think of your writing as something more. Its writing, its fiction, its literature, its philosophy. Your words are your story, your creation, your ideas and its perfectly fine if the most they do is bring you enjoyment. Sometimes the phrases we use now to describe our writing are clinical, as if the product of our minds was mere copy meant to be red-penned into submission, or content, which sounds like nothing more than a product to be traded and used. It is easier to find inspiration from great writers than from the great copywriters or great content producers of our time. 3. Reduce The Stop-And-Start Are you able to sit down and write with relatively little distraction, or is a ringing phone or crying child causing you to have to constantly stop in the middle, and then come back and start up again? Are you tasked with lots of non-writing related tasks that cause you to break up the day and actually get less done? That constant stopping and starting is as wearing to your writing as driving a car at high speed, slamming on the brakes, and repeating it over and over again. See if you cant work out a way to set aside large chunks of time (and a quiet place) per writing project to reduce the energy drain that it takes to keep starting back up after youve ground to a halt. It should be an easy sell; much time is wasted when you have to come back to a project and re-read everything to figure out where you were headed with your writing. Diversify your writing, and stop calling it content or copy if youre feeling burned out.Protect Your Writing Reserves You might be so far into the red when it comes to your writing reserves that the only thing you can do is stop the truck. Stop, evaluate, and set up a new system. You need to replenish the reserves and put something back into your creativity bank before you can go on. 1. Reduce Your Writing (Temporarily) You may need to write a bit less, sort of like taking a break from running to give the blister a chance to heal a bit. You must give yourself permission to ignore, for a time, all of the online advice that tells you to press on and write long blog posts regularly or you will take an SEO hit. While thats valid advice, it doesnt do any good to whip a tired horse. Work writing. Reducing the number of posts that need to be written each week is a purely by-the-numbers solution. Youre burned out on writing? See if you can write less for a period of time. Personal writing. I have several personal blogs of my own that I enjoy writing for. They are of different topics than what I write at work and are often a refreshing change. I have been writing many of these blogs for years. However, Ive begun to consider the reality that I may not have an unlimited amount of words to write in any given day, no matter what the topic. As much as I would hate to give up my personal writing projects, even for just a while, I may have to make that difficult choice. If your day job requires a heavy load of writing, proofing, editing, and more writing, and if you are nearing the edge of your finite pool of writing tricks, you might have to reserve your writing energy for your day job alone. Perhaps taking a short break to build up some writing reserves are all it takes. This is not an easy choice, as it can easily cause resentment to build inside of you. 2. Rethink Extracurricular Activities There are a few things we do to supplement our work that help us excel and stay on top of our game. While they arent bad and may actually be a requirement, they can have the unfortunate side effect of feeding writer burnout. Take a break from proofreading. Proofreading is much like writing. If youre reading the work of others, youre not reading it for pleasure. Youre reading it to catch typos, errors, and check the structure. In some ways, it is more draining than writing on your own because you are trying to find  editorial balance  between how youd write it and how it was written. After a while, you might start to notice that typos get by, or you cant be sure what is good writing any more. Take a break from proofreading, or set aside a day or two where all you will do is proofread and you wont mix proofreading and original writing on the same day so that you can compartmentalize your mind for each task. Restrict your work-related reading.  The process of writing isnt just the moment you sit down in front of your keyboard and start typing. It involves the gathering of ideas, thoughts, and making connections.  Writing for your job often means you spend time reading on topics that pertain to what you need to write about. If youre getting burned out, its not just on the act of writing, but on the topics you are being asked to write about. Pull yourself away from the blogs, the feeds, the ebooks, the articles, and read something completely unrelated to work.  One strange side-benefit to doing this is you might actually find yourself coming up with more unique ideas than you would if you kept your reading so fixed inside the work-related sphere. Reading outside of your work-related topics helps you avoid using using buzz words, and helps you question the validity of concepts that only an outsider is capable of doing.

Leadership in Infromation Technology Research Paper

Leadership in Infromation Technology - Research Paper Example However, little population ranks self-knowledge as most critical. Using means, the rank order of knowledge domains is as follows: Business environments (1.5) Technology (2.14) Self and human resources (2.57 and 2.57) Finance (3.86) Much of the literature available addresses leadership at a strategic level. Clearly the most critical role of effective IT leaders is perceived to be the communicator role, followed by facilitator, guide, partner, and collaborator. Informal management styles seem to be preferred in technology intense organizations. (Lewis, S. & Lewis, 2005) The roles of tactician, technical guru, and human resources leader receives middle rankings while commander, servant, dictator, king or queen receive the lowest ranking for effective IT leaders. Congruent with this ranking of roles for effective IT leaders, team building is considered the most important function, followed by management, then creating. Leadership in Information Technology in Private Industry When the inf ormation technological skills of leadership are combined with an ability to use software to solve IT problems as in Acorn Computer City, New York, leaders of the organization are better equipped to move among the various agencies comprising our society. It was assessed whether leaders of IT firm can be trained, what characteristics are important for IT leaders of the organization, and what is the best environment to encourage IT leadership. While strategic leadership is possible at all levels within the organization, there is a need for work on leadership at the project leader/project manager level. As Sear (2008) pointed out, IT leaders have a difficult time making the transition from skilled technical work to project leader. Not only are they better able to use software to manage their... The concept of communication with a physician via e-mail is not really a future capability; it is available now and used to a very limited extent. What stands in the way of its widespread use is not the absence of cutting-edge communication technology, but rather a broken payment system. Physicians are paid relatively well for procedures, relatively poorly for office visits, and not at all for telephone or e-mail advice. Increasing the bandwidth for patients without fixing reimbursement is more likely to lead to a future state where frustrated patients complain, "My doctor doesn't return my phone calls or answer my e-mail." One of the more contentious but critically important issues today is the so-called misalignment of the costs and benefits of health IT. Essentially, the argument is that under our current fragmented healthcare system, physicians and hospitals pay for IT, and most of the benefit flows to payers. The Center for Information Technology Leadership modeled the cost and benefit of an ambulatory computerized physician order entry system, and concluded that 89 percent of the benefit accrued to payers, with only 11 percent flowing to providers (Johnston et al. 2003). Nelson references the landmark Wang study, which looked at system benefits of an advanced EHR in an office practice. Wang concluded that primarily by reducing pharmacy expenditures and avoiding redundant testing, payers would save about $86,000 per physician over five years-thus making the first real economic argument for payers funding EHRs for physicians.

Disneyland Success and Failures in the international business market Research Paper

Disneyland Success and Failures in the international business market - Research Paper Example The theme parks and resorts of Disneyland provide a major source for the culture and brand of the company that the Disneyland Company has to protect. However, the management in 1990 nearly led to the collapse of the international company, due to poor management that affected the brand of Disneyland. Disneyland is a company that forged forward into the international business market a few years after its establishment in the year 1955. The company managed to establish itself firmly in the international market after it gained the favor of the public and the customers in its original situation in California. Walt brothers started the company that includes an amusement park, a theme park, and park resorts in several countries. The demand for the park grew that Disneyland had to expand to a bigger area in the United States. The motivation and determination of the company to expand into the international market could not have any deterrent, especially due to the intense demand by their potential customers in other countries (Chase & Apte, 2007). Disney land acts as a major tourist attraction. Its choice for a country to expand into had to have the consideration of the strength of the country to attract visitors and tourists into the country in large numbers. The company started with a strong concept, where the amusement parks had the integration with the famous children stories especially about fairy tales and other fantasies. The company has managed to sell the American idea of the fairy tales to all its customers, who find Disneyland an exciting and satisfying experience. The following research concentrates on the performance of Disneyland in the International business market. The company that offers exciting experiences to people of all ages has managed to expand to several countries. The performance in these countries

Abortion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 5

Abortion - Essay Example But on the other hand, reasons for abortions have not always included health risks. The key questions continually in debate are about the constitutional rights to an abortion, whether the fetus is a person and the morality of an abortion. The legal and moral decisions are based somewhat on the whether one believes that the fetus is a person. Dr Schwarz contends that the fetus is a person, as he describes, â€Å"a fully real person, the same person he will later be. He is only smaller, less developed, in a different environment, and more dependent, in comparison to a born baby†. He believes that the term fetus means â€Å"young one† and so it indicates a young human person. We have to consider what is the difference between the fetus in the womb and the child that is born few minutes after. He argues that once the fetus exhibits the traits which determine personhood, i.e. consciousness, (especially the capacity to feel pain), reasoning, self-motivated activity and the capacity to communicate, then in fact it must be considered a person. This is in keeping with the views of the pro-life supporters who believe that the fetus is a human being from the moment of conception- once the egg and sperm unite. According to this view the fetus has legal rights from this moment of conception. On the other hand there are pro-choice defenders (who believe that the mother has the right to decide on an abortion) who believe the fetus is only a potential human being when it becomes viable, that is, able to survive outside its mother’s womb. Until then the mother carrying the fetus has legal rights over the fetus and can decide whether or not to have an abortion. However according to Encarta, there is no definite consensus on whether the fetus is a person on not. . As they explain, â€Å" Embryology, the study of fetal development, offers little insight about the fetus’s status at the time of

History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

History - Essay Example The civil rights movement can be considered to have been created by Martin Luther King Jr. due to his influence. After his death, there was a lack of similar leadership, though the inception of the civil rights movement meant that the minority races could stand for their own rights. This was illustrated by the Asian and Mexican communities who joined hands with the black community to fight for their freedom. Martin Luther King’s message of equality did not change. However, without his influence; there was nobody to carry on his push for equality in the United States. This led to the white community oppressing the minority communities and asserting their dominance. (Lansford 65) The only individual who ever came close to carry on Martin’s message and vision was civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson. His attempt was based on establishing change in the United States, and he wanted to do that from the top, by becoming the president. He attempted to become president i n 1988, as he perceived being president would be the best way of being able to implement the vision embraced and conceptualized by Martin Luther King. A major barrier affected the mentality of minority groups, as there had never been a non-white US president. The Civil Rights movement had grown into an important factor due to the influence of Martin Luther King. ... Therefore, the Civil Rights movement has had a major influence in the development of the United States. Essay 2 Under the presidency of Richard Nixon in the 1960s, there was uproar in the ideologies that Nixon condoned in the American society. The most disputable factor was the abortion movement that resulted in abortion becoming legal in California in the 1960s. Another factor was America becoming part of the war in Vietnam, even when it was not necessary. These two factors created a counter-culture that was a rejection of the factors, represented or condoned by Nixon at the time. Counter-culture was the ideology in which individuals in the United States had developed distaste for the mannerisms and methodologies that Nixon implemented in the 1960s. It was the cause of the backlash at the time (Lansford 135). The domestic policies that Nixon used were deemed unacceptable; the major highlight being the legalization of abortion. In a society that was majority Christians and a good num ber catholic, the legalization of abortion in California was a factor that was simply unacceptable, because abortion is not acceptable in Christianity. Nixon based his decision as a measure of birth control and regulation of the American population. This was deemed unacceptable to the Christian fraternity as they considered it ‘Un-Godly’ for an individual to take the life of another individual. It created a huge uproar and dissatisfaction in the presidency of Nixon, and as a result, they were eager to remove him from office as he had decided to go against the wishes of the majority of the American population. In truth, Nixon needed to consider weighing up the options, the implications of creating and

Chemical catalyst Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Chemical catalyst - Essay Example Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for their work on â€Å"palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis" which in itself is evidence strong enough to validate the significance of catalysis in the fields of modern science, and particularly in industrial processes. Around 9 billion US Dollars defines the volume of the recent market for catalysts in the Global markets. (Dautzenberg, 2002). ‘Catalysis’ is defined as a phenomenon and ‘catalyst’ is the substance which is responsible for that phenomenon. A Catalyst is a substance which can usually rev up the rate of a chemical reaction but remains unaltered itself (physically and chemically) after the reaction. Sometimes particular substances can also slow down the rate of a chemical reaction. Such type of substances are known as inhibitors (Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica, 2011). According to the involvement in the phases, i.e., state of aggregation, catalysts are divided into three broad categories- (i) homogeneous catalyst (ii) heterogeneous catalyst and (iii) biocatalyst [Cavani &Feruccio, 1997; Hagen, 2006]. As the name suggests, homogeneous catalyst implies to the situation where the substrate and the catalyst are in the similar phase (gas or liquid). A very common example of a homogeneous catalysis is the conversion of carbon monoxide to carbon- di-oxide catalyzed by nitric oxide where both the substrate and catalyst are in gaseous phase. The fundamental advantages of homogeneous catalysis are that this type of catalysis is atom economic in respect to the other catalysis processes and additionally has higher selectivity in producing the desired product for its milder reaction condition. However, there are disadvantages associated with homogeneous catalysis as well. The problematic regarding homogeneous catalysis is the work up procedure of the reaction . The procedure for catalysis recovery is expensive, there is always a problem of waste management and above all a fair chance of

History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

History - Essay Example The civil rights movement can be considered to have been created by Martin Luther King Jr. due to his influence. After his death, there was a lack of similar leadership, though the inception of the civil rights movement meant that the minority races could stand for their own rights. This was illustrated by the Asian and Mexican communities who joined hands with the black community to fight for their freedom. Martin Luther King’s message of equality did not change. However, without his influence; there was nobody to carry on his push for equality in the United States. This led to the white community oppressing the minority communities and asserting their dominance. (Lansford 65) The only individual who ever came close to carry on Martin’s message and vision was civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson. His attempt was based on establishing change in the United States, and he wanted to do that from the top, by becoming the president. He attempted to become president i n 1988, as he perceived being president would be the best way of being able to implement the vision embraced and conceptualized by Martin Luther King. A major barrier affected the mentality of minority groups, as there had never been a non-white US president. The Civil Rights movement had grown into an important factor due to the influence of Martin Luther King. ... Therefore, the Civil Rights movement has had a major influence in the development of the United States. Essay 2 Under the presidency of Richard Nixon in the 1960s, there was uproar in the ideologies that Nixon condoned in the American society. The most disputable factor was the abortion movement that resulted in abortion becoming legal in California in the 1960s. Another factor was America becoming part of the war in Vietnam, even when it was not necessary. These two factors created a counter-culture that was a rejection of the factors, represented or condoned by Nixon at the time. Counter-culture was the ideology in which individuals in the United States had developed distaste for the mannerisms and methodologies that Nixon implemented in the 1960s. It was the cause of the backlash at the time (Lansford 135). The domestic policies that Nixon used were deemed unacceptable; the major highlight being the legalization of abortion. In a society that was majority Christians and a good num ber catholic, the legalization of abortion in California was a factor that was simply unacceptable, because abortion is not acceptable in Christianity. Nixon based his decision as a measure of birth control and regulation of the American population. This was deemed unacceptable to the Christian fraternity as they considered it ‘Un-Godly’ for an individual to take the life of another individual. It created a huge uproar and dissatisfaction in the presidency of Nixon, and as a result, they were eager to remove him from office as he had decided to go against the wishes of the majority of the American population. In truth, Nixon needed to consider weighing up the options, the implications of creating and

Civil Procedures Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Civil Procedures - Thesis Example 22). See the Appendix for a summary of the different parts of FRCP. The American legal system used to be a part of the British Empire in North America, which was loosely organized in the terms of national coherence simply because of the colonial rule. After independence, the lack of coherence in the legal system of the country became more conspicuous. The different district courts and regional bodies spread across the United States had formulated their own procedural systems that varied widely from one court to another. According to Wright and Miller (2002), the Process Act of 1792 was one of the first important and concrete attempts to bring about a uniform civil procedural paradigm throughout the federation. With the expansion of the United States throughout the early 19th century, legal issues surfaced time and again regarding the member states that were joining the initial thirteen colonies. US Congress took effective measures to overcome this problem and avoid confusions due to simultaneous application of both the common and civil laws. By the Tariff Act of 1828, US Congress provided a roadmap for the different states to follow a standard civil procedural system (Wright and Miller, 2002). However, debate and lack of legal coordination at the federal level continued. Major political and military developments during the Civil War and the World War I necessitated a federally recognized legal system all across the United States so that the union could be strengthened and harmonized. Finally in 1935, the Federal Supreme Court compiled the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) that became the backbone of the bijuridical legal framework of the United States (Spencer, 2010; Wright and Miller, 2002). Despite the successful implementation of FRCP, each state in the United States has considerable autonomy regarding the

Life in times of Second World War Essay Example for Free

Life in times of Second World War Essay I think it’s tougher to live through a war for an ordinary citizen than a soldier. A soldier in the battle field has little else to worry but about the next battle combined with his own fate. What’s more, a soldier always believes that the final outcome of the war can be influenced by his actions. Therefore he has a sense of participation and assurance to the results. However, for a civilian, a person detached from the field of action, there is nothing to do but to wait and hope. Many would say this situation is far better than to risk life in the battlefield; however, my personal experience says that the feeling of inaction and helplessness that comes being a civilian is choking. There is nothing more depressing than listening to war news while being unable to influence its outcome in any significant way. I was suffering from stomach ulcer when the war had started and the military doctors had refused to accept me in the services. It’s true that as a wartime civilian I actively engaged myself in health institutions, where serving the wounded gave a sense of contribution to the war efforts and belongingness to the conflict that had so deeply afflicted the lives of over 10 million people. The first phase of the war Although we had declared war upon Germany in ‘39, there was no feeling of anticipation of war or sense threat anywhere in London. No one really took the announcement any more serious than a brawl between two children (Wilson, 41). I was a teacher in a boy’s school and the shining and exciting faces of children represented as if an exciting cricket match was awaiting then. Then everything suddenly changed. I heard with a growing sense of threat the advancements that belligerent German armies made through continental Europe Wood and Depster, 155). It was incredible how nothing seemed to stand before them. Belgium, Poland, France, each falling like a pack of cards before. And then the first bomb struck London in September ‘40. So far I can recall, there was no panic, but a doomed sense of determination that we all felt, eager to carry out our own duties in the process (Fusell, 29). The local authorities had tutored us well on the use of gas masks and bunkers in times of raids. Blackouts were everyday event. Whenever there was a raid by German warplanes, which was daily, the entire city switched itself off, plunging everything in absolute darkness. It was a unique experience-a sense of thrill combined with dread as our warplanes rose high to combat the German bombers. (Fusell, 15) I took shelter in a large bunker that was built in the back park. Many people, with a garden space in their home, had built Anderson shelter and stayed put there. Many like me, choose the public shelter. I don’t know about others, but just sitting there quietly with so many people around inspired me with comfort and security (Air Ministry, 16). Public shelters were less safe of course, and being of larger dimensions they were easily prone to attack. As it happened, unfortunately some of them were struck by bombs and many innocent lives were lost (Fusell, 15). If anything this further resolved us to face the flying German menaces. Every morning when I left the shelter and moved through streets of London, smoldering buildings, shattered vehicles and running ambulances met the sight. I knew people had died during the German raids and it gave me a guilty feeling, having survived the night when many of fellow citizens could not. The bombing lasted for two full months and every day I followed the same routine of spending the night in the dark, blacked out shelter. After the end of bombing by end of October, I thought perhaps things would return to normalcy. I really wanted that. The scarred face of London, the wreckage of buildings and lives lost filled me with disquiet. But as news came pouring in of German advances and expansion of war in Africa and Asia, I did not see any end to the conflict (Wilson, 65). The daily life had suddenly changed its character. In almost a complete reversal of the situation, the security, comfort and ease of former days were replaced by a continued sense of urgency and parsimony that pervaded the entire London Wood and Depster, 155). Gone were the days of daily parties, weekly sojourns, weekends at country houses, and the luxuriant English life style. I had personally been only occasionally involved in these attractions, but as I used to travel from my school to home in the evening, music and revelry were heard from many of the pretty bungalows and houses-this was in the pre war day. It had all suddenly died out. Most of the men had left for war, and women had stepped out to fill the vacant positions Wood and Depster, 155). England did not produce sufficient quantity of food to meet its own requirements and imported most of the food grains and items for its consumption (Wood and Depster, 155). Wartime conditions had severely restricted the food supply and we saw implementation of rationing system, where food was allocated through family quota (Gorrora, 71). I was never a glutton, but over the years, tea had become one of my daily requirements. With war, rationing and quota, tea vanished from the market. Other items of daily requirements-sugar, beef, and milk also became extremely scarce. No one complained of the scarcity, but everyone felt the pinch of it. After the London bombing I volunteered to join an emergency medical camp, which brought a constant engagement and action in my life. But it was not the type of engagement I could cherish. Meeting severely injured men, women and children, soldiers who had lost their limbs or were dying due to diseases, gangrene and fatal wounds was an unbearable exercise for my will and personal stamina (Wilson, 71). However, despite my personal sense of despair, there was a rising hope within England that it would stand against the Axis powers and this hope in itself was a motivation enough for me to work in the hospital day and night. There were many nights in continuation when I hardly closed my eyes for an hour Our hope and endurance finally paid off when after 5 years of bloodshed, the war finally culminated. We were already prepared by the general tidings for this news, but the immense relief brought by even this known information is indescribable (Wilson, 101). It appeared that after being buried alive for years, I had once again appeared on the surface, free to breath the fresh air, free to see the sun, free to live again. Reference Wilson, E. Dangerous Sky: A Resource Guide to the Battle of Britain. Greenwood Press, 1995. 128 pgs. Wood, D. and Depster, D. D. The Narrow Margin: The Battle of Britain and the Rise of Air Power 1930-40. Hutchinson, 1961. 538 pgs. Air Ministry. The First Great Air Battle in History: The Battle of Britain, an Air Ministry Record of the Great Days from August 8th to October 31st, 1940. Garden City Publishing, 1941. 56 pgs. Fussell, P. Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World WarBook; Oxford University Press, 1990. 330 pg Burdett, Gorrara, C and Peitch, H. 1999. European Memories of the Second World War. Berghahn Books, 1999. 338 pg