The Break That Teaches :: Personal Narrative Writing

The Break That Teaches "So, does this mean that we are finished now?" "I guess so." In three terrifying words that I dreaded hearing, everything was finished. Nine months of my life melted away from me and seemed to become meaningless as my girlfriend broke up with me, and I had no idea how I would cope with it. I had been "released" from relationships before by other girls, but this time was unlike any other. Sarah and I had a special bond. I had taken this relationship for granted, and the event that took place in our church's office was one of the biggest lessons of my life. The day began at a very quick pace. I was working at my college in the morning, and knew that I was going to be in a hurry in order to make it on time to my friend's wedding. My girlfriend was invited to attend the wedding with me, but I doubted that she would come. We were having problems at the time, which created some awkwardness between us. In fact, almost a week earlier, I thought that we were going to break up, but much to my pleasure, we had lasted another six days. I was inconceivably surprised when I saw her speeding into our driveway in her flashy red Sunbird convertible. When I came downstairs and met her in the kitchen, I was intimidated. She looked astonishing in her white dress, but the frown on her face expressed frustration, tiredness, and anger. I was not sure at all what to expect during the wedding and for the rest of the day. The short drive in my car to the wedding was awkward. I attempted conversation. â€Å"So, how was the party last night?† I asked, simply so I could hear more than the tires of the car against the hot asphalt. â€Å"Good,† she replied. â€Å"Were there lots of people there?† I wondered. â€Å"I guess so,† she curtly answered. Since there was not much response from Sarah at all, I felt as if I was talking with myself. My mind was wandering everywhere it could at a rapid pace.

Cloning Position Paper

The United States government should not fund cloning because cloning would not be an asset for the country right now. It would take a substantial amount funding away in having to accommodate both cloning research and regular scientific research. Looking at it as a whole, cloning is also a matter that a majority of U. S. citizens have not come to terms with. On a global scale, cloning would also create unnecessary competition between the U. S. nd other powerful countries. If the government were to support cloning research, research funds with either have to be split or added onto. With funds being split, progress and and vital advances would be deferred among research that is already going on today. Since our country is well into national debt, adding funds on to enable cloning research would not be wise. America, as one people, are not wholly agreed on the circumstances of cloning research.For some, cloning is crossing an important and moral religious line, let alone a scientific one . For others, cloning is seen as a threat to human and animal rights. If our country is not already equally divided on the issue of cloning, the majority is likely not for cloning. If the U. S. facilitates cloning research, it is likely that other powerful countries will follow lead. There are already many countries who do cloning research, so why make it even more of a global competition?I may also add that there is a wide range of international debt, the U. S. is not the only one experiencing deficit. If any countries should be allowed cloning research, it should be Canada or Sweden; countries that actually have stable economies. Realistically, the U. S. is not yet prepared to fund cloning research. Why can't we just give the glory to a country who could use it? We don't need to reign supreme over every notable advance ever made, or even try to.

Aggressive in behaviour Essay

I will use this as my title for the purposes of planning. In 1998, 47% of female prisoners had dependent children (Flynn, 1998:75). In 1999 this was estimated to be more like 55% – based on those with children sixteen or under. With the female prison population numbering around 3,250, the number of women estimated to have young children is 1788 (Harris, 2000:iv). So I feel it would be useful to try and locate around 10% of this number and ask for permission to interview and study their children. This figure would still mean a lot of work for the researchers – and there would need to be several – as not all of those approached would give permission for the research to involve their children. As a result, I have determined that the best methods of research will be interviews and observations. The reason I have chosen these methodologies is because they are more informal, and when working with children, it is more likely to yield results than questionnaires. Questionnaires are problematical for younger children, who may be unable to write and face to face techniques are more likely to obtain information – questionnaires are not always filled in or returned to the researchers (Bell, 1999:130). The benefits of interviewing and observation preclude the use of questionnaires, in part because they allow a certain flexibility for the researcher to further investigate any new ideas which may become apparent (Browne, 1997:406, 414). Observation is beneficial to the researcher because it can allow for additional details to be noted which the child might be unable or unwilling to express. Interviews permit a degree of familiarity between the researcher and the subject, and in turn may present opportunity to further discuss any points which the researcher feel are relevant. In questioning children, the ethics are complex. Permission to interview the child has to be obtained, and it might be unclear from whom it should be procured. The British Psychological Society in 1996 set down a code of ethics and conduct in which it was stipulated that if the research affects someone not able to give valid consent, i.e. a child under the age of eighteen, then it needs to be obtained from whomever has legal authority to give it (Lindsay, 2000:14-15). The first people deemed to be those with parental responsibility are the natural parents. Exceptions to this include a carer who has a resident order under the 1989 Children Act, anyone holding a temporary emergency protection order or the local authority if the child is in care (Masson, 2000:37). If the mother is in prison, as is necessary for his research, obtaining information regarding their children might be a contentious point. It will involve the co-operation of the prison management in addition to the parents, children, and the child’s’ place of education. There being only sixteen prisons in England and Wales which house female prisoners (Flynn, 1998:57), I feel it would be easier to gain the information from a women-only establishment as the administration may be more familiar with the inmates and perhaps will be in a position to assist the research. This would require asking the prison to identify those prisoners with children, which I believe is a detail which would perhaps already be on a database. If this is not the case, it would then involve asking the women in the prison to come forward. This would undoubtedly cause difficulties, as they may not wish to do so, perhaps through disinterest in the research or an unwillingness to be set part from the others as a result of it. Women who have been separated from their children, for whatever reason, may be emotional as a result, and therefore sensitivity is an absolute necessity. The disruption to the prison is also something which needs to be taken into consideration, but:  Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ¢â‚¬ ¦most prisoners find it a welcome change to talk to outsiders†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Ã‚  (King, 2000:303). Once women with children between the ages of two and seventeen years have been identified and approached, their permission to interview their children must be obtained. Authorisation should also be secured from the person caring for the child away from the prison, as it is actually ethically wrong to ask permission for such things from the parent not currently the full-time carer (Masson, 2000:38). I do not know the ethics on continuing on the sole permission of the carer rather than the mother. This is the only clear means of getting access to the information required, as it would be too difficult to poll schools for the information. They would not be able to divulge the data on the children without parental permission anyway. If permission is not given by the mother or the carer, the child will not be contacted in any way. It might be interesting, however, to ask why the parents did not want to take part. Once permission has been gained, the next step is to decide where would be best for the child to hold the interviews. The parents may have suggestions themselves, as they may prefer to have the interview conducted in their presence. This is something which will have to be taken into consideration in the conduct of the project, as it may have a bearing on the behaviour of the child. The presence of a parent, teacher or carer may influence the way the child acts, albeit perhaps indirectly, so affecting their responses to the questions. It would undoubtedly be better to interview all the children under the same conditions, but this might not be possible so it would be advisable to be prepared to be flexible. The best place would be somewhere neutral to the child perhaps a local community centre, preferably interviewing the child twice – once with a parent, carer or teacher in the room, then once without them there. I believe this might show a variance in the child’s attitude and behaviour towards the researcher and their questions, as they will have ‘an audience to play to’ when someone they know well is in the room. It is essential, however, to interview the child in a setting in which they are comfortable. If the parents feel it would be best to interview at their home, then places such as the garden or even the stairs may provide a sense of security for the child (Masson, 2000:43). Otherwise another place to carry out an interview might be the child’s school. If the child is hostile to their school-life however, this may introduce elements of bias into their interview compared to other children who may have been interviewed at home or at a community centre. The practicality of eliciting reliable information from a child (under eighteen years of age), is a point which quickly becomes clouded with other issues. The words of an adult may be too complex or the sentence structure poorly formed, so that a child become confused. This has been proven to be the case by several authors (Walker, 1994, Dockrell, Lewis & Lindsay, 2000), and includes children up to the age of eighteen. Minors, even those nearly eighteen, are not always proficient in language skills, and may have difficulty understanding the wording of questions or in formulating their own answers (Walker, 1994:4). There is a need to be sure of how a child is answering a question put to them, as they could be responding to a part of a question rather than the whole question.

Basic Memory Management Without Swapping Computer Science Essay

Basic Memory Management Without Swapping Computer Science Essay Program execution is the main propose of computer system .During execution programs are together with the data they access with in main memory. To keep track of what memory is in use and what memory is free is called memory management. Allocate the free memory to the process when any process needed the free space and de-allocates it when they don’t need the free space. Ideally, programmers want memory that is Fast Large Nonvolatile There are two classes of memory management systems, those that transfer processes to and from disk during execution are the swapping or paging .And those that don’t are the simple and might find this scheme in embedded device, phone, smart card, or PDA. Basic Memory Management without Swapping or Paging There are three simple ways of organizing memory, operating system with one user process. How to divide memory Two approaches are one divide the memory into fix equal partitions and the other is partition size can be loaded into any other par tition. Equal-sized partitions Any unused space in the partition is wasted called internal fragmentation. And process which is larger than partition cannot be run. Fixed size partitions In fixed partition processes are in queues that are fits in it, but some partitions may be idle because jobs are available in small partitions and only the large partition free. Memory management in Operating systems Linux Memory Management: There are two main component of Linux memory management. The first one component is to assign and freeing the space, after using the physical memory. The second component deals with virtual memory. Physical memory management Linux divide its physical memory into three different parts because it has different hardware characteristics. These three parts are the following: Zone DMA Zone NORMAL Zone HIGHMEM. Page allocator is the primary physical memory manger in Linux. For every zone separate allocator is exist which allocate and freeing the space for the zone. The allocator uses the Buddy system to keep all records about physical pages which is available at the time in memory. Memory splitting into Buddy system Virtual memory management There are many types of virtual memory regions in Linux. Backing store for the region is the first property of this memory. Which describe the pages region that from where it is to come. Mostly region is back by nothing which represents the demand-zero memory. Windows Memory Management: The window provide many ways to the application for using memory like virtual memory, heaps, memory mapped files and thread local storage. Virtual memory VirtualAlloc() is the method which is used to allocate the virtual memory and virtualFree() method is use to de-allocate the space into virtual memory. The virtual address in which the memory is allocated through these functions applications are enable. They operate on multiple pages which are in memory and the starting address must be greater than 0*10000. Heaps Applications used the memory space also through heap. In this environment address space is already reserve. When API process is start (also called initialized) it creates the 1-MB default heap.

E-Commerce business model Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

E-Commerce business model - Coursework Example In fact, the business has been making a profitable use of its e-commerce platform to attract new customers as well as retain existing customers. For this purpose the business model that this business has adopted is known as business2customer (B2C) model. This business model allows GAP Enterprise to perform transactions directly with its customers. The web site contains a wide variety of dresses for both males and females including with other accessories. In this report I will analyze the business structure of GAP Enterprise by paying a particular attention on its e-commerce business. In this report I will discuss its e-commerce model and how it makes use of its e-commerce business to attract its customers. In this report I will present some of recommendations regarding e-procurement, e-marketing, and improvement of online ordering and for Internationalization of the GAP website. Introduction In the past few years, traditional business practices have been replaced with modern and inno vative business environment. In this scenario, e-commerce is a very attractive trend that has attained the attention of the majority of business organization. Basically, e-commerce is a way of carrying out business tasks using the Internet or over the Internet. In this scenario, business and customers can communicate with each other. There are so many benefits of using an e-commerce business platform (Laudon & Laudon, 1999; Turban et al., 2005). This report will present a detailed analysis of an ecommerce platform. For this report I have chosen GAP’s e-commerce platform. Basically, this firm uses a business2customer business model for attracting different customers. In this report I will present an analysis of its different aspects. Though, the GAP Corporation is a web based e-commerce platform however it also works through a physical store can provide its customers with a wide variety of products varying from outfit and accessories such as head to toe with a well established brand. In addition, GAP Enterprise is aimed at offering and meeting the customer’s requirements and expectations in a unique manner. Thus, currently the GAP has also established the business offering a full range of â€Å"accessories and furnishings† for business customers to individualize their home, with a unique style of living and wearing. This report presents a detailed analysis of GAP’s e-commerce platform, e-commerce model and major recommendations for e-procurement, e-marketing, improvement of online ordering and for Internationalization of the GAP website. Figure 1Web site of GAP Enterprise, Image Source: www.GAP.com Organizational Overview Gap Inc. is a well-known retailer which presents a wide variety of accessories, clothing, and personal care products specially designed for women, men, babies and children under the Gap, Old Navy, banana republic, Athleta and Piperlime brands. Additionally, the staff working at Gap Inc. consists of more than 132,000 people. In addition, it has more than 3,000 corporate stores and more than 250 franchise stores all around the world. Some of the well-known brands of Gap Inc. are: (Gap Inc., 2012) Gap GapKids babyGap GapMaternity GapBody Banana Republic Old Navy Piperlime Athleta Figure 2 A Banner to Attract the customers Attraction for Customers GAP Inc. offers a wide variety of accessories and dressing styles developed through high quality fabrics and materials. Historically, this business started by offering outfit and access

Evaluation of the Queens Head Hotel Strategy Essay

Evaluation of the Queens Head Hotel Strategy - Essay Example Future recommendations for food and beverage operation will be provided and then advice Cullum about converting the other hotel restaurants in the group to a Giuseppe’s using the situation analysis as well as academic references to support the findings. Queen Head generates high revenue from providing food and beverage services to their customers. O’fallon and Rutherford (2011) noted that food and beverage is a term that is used in the hospitality industry to describe items in banquets and outside catering services. The department of food and beverage consists of kitchens, internal and external catering, restaurants, room service, and internal and external banqueting. The hotel requires a huge quantity of various staff members to cater to the needs and services of the customers outside and inside the hotel in order to facilitate the smooth running of the business. Developing a positive image on Facebook and other social media activities strengthens the food and beverage operations, as they are able to target many customers especially the middle-aged who frequently need to meet friends and hang out in the best restaurants. Giles-Gash family who operates about ten ventures in Southwestern part of England own Queens Head hotel. The hotel has a 50-cover restaurant, 50 bedrooms, a leisure complex, and a bar. Cullum is the younger son of the Giles-Gash who joined the business after completing his hospitality degree. Strianese et al. (2012) noted that the hotel provides a spectacular setting with its 16th Century fireplaces and bespoke chandeliers. They have a live performance venue where their customers can dance all night during the DJ nights. Cullum made a lot of money after taking over Giuseppe’s businesses as lots of profits were made during the first few months when the restaurant was new and it developed loyal customers during that period hence hope for more productivity. Hill et al. (2010) defined the trading position as the number of securities borrowed or owned by dealers or individuals. Queens Heads mainly deals with the hotel and restaurant business where they provide different traditional British cuisines to their customers and hold various events such as weddings and funeral teas.  

Obtain a copy of the annual report for Intercontinental Hotel Group Coursework

Obtain a copy of the annual report for Intercontinental Hotel Group PLC for the year ended 31 December 2011 - Coursework Example Financial performance and position of the Group â€Å"The big picture is 9 hotel brands, over 153 million guests annually, more than 672,000 rooms in over 4,500 hotels in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world† (IHG website, 2012), The nine renowned brands being Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites, EVEN Hotels, Hualuxe Hotels and Resorts. Performance of the Brands The performance of all the brands during 2011 compared to the previous year has improved (Exhibit – I). Total gross revenue has increased by 8% to 20.2 bn in 2011 compared to $18.7 bn in 2010 for the group as a whole. Exhibit - I $ in bn. However, the performance in terms of cost and profitability in respect of the brands could not be worked for comparison due to inadequacy of details furnished in this respect. Performance can be analyzed with reference to classific ation of the business into Franchised, Managed and Owned & Leased. 12 months ended 31 December in $m 2011 2010 % Change Revenue Franchised 502 465 8.0 Managed 124 119 4.2 Owned and leased 204 223 (8.5) Total 830 807 2.9 Operating profit before exceptional items Franchised 431 392 9.9 Managed 52 21 147.6 Owned and leased 17 13 30.8 500 4 26 17.4 Regional overheads (49) (57) 14.0 Total Operating Profit 451 369 22.2 It could be observed that operating profits vary considerably due to incidence of expenses and overheads at varying levels. For example, in franchised revenue is up by 8% and operating profit is up by 9.9%, where as in managed hotels it is 4.2% and 147.6% and owned & leased hotels (-) 8.5% and 30% respectively . Key Performance Indicators The key performance indicators measure the group’s progress in the business. The KPIs over the past three years and their growth have been good. Year 2009 2010 2011 Net Rooms Supply 632325 0647161 658348 Gross Revenue ($ bn) 16.8 18 .7 20.2 CSR (Green engage hotels) 911 1122 1722 2011 2010 Earnings per share (EPS) 1.30 0.98 Revenue per available room: Revenue per available room is up by 6.2%. (Annual Report, p. 2) The Group’s reportable segments segmental information The reportable segments in the business have been classified based on the geographical locations of the hotels. There are five segments viz. Americas, Europe, AMEA (Asia Middle East and Africa) and Greater China and the central segment. Operating profit has increased in all the geographical segments. Since the central segment carries the burden of general support services provided by it to all the segments, the figures are not comparable. RevPAR growth in the Americas at 7.5% and Europe at 4.7% respectively has contributed significantly for the overall performance of the business. It is important to note that gross revenue includes revenue related to Franchised, Managed and Owned & Leased. 2011 2010 % Change % Change in revenue Operating Pro fit Americas 451 369 2.2 2.9 Europe 104 78 33.3 2.4 AMEA 84 82 2.4 1.4 Greater China 67 54 24.1 15.2 Central (147) (139) (5.8) 7.7 Operating Profit Before Exceptional Items 559 444 25.9 8.6 It could be observed that as in the case of franchised, managed and owned and leased classification of the business, % change in operating profit is inconsistent with the % change in revenue due to incidence of expenses and overheads in different reportable segments at varying levels. Impact of exceptional items on profitability The operating profit