The Tunnel Essay -- Personal Narrative Writing

The Tunnel My unforgettable senior football season was coming to a close. The whole team knew that this was the last game of football we would ever play together. After this game, it would never be the same. I had been waiting my whole life to experience what I was about to face in the next few hours. To me, and to the rest of my hometown, high school football isn’t just a game; it is a lifelong passion. I grew up watching my role models play the same game I was about to play where the football-frenzied town of Mahnomen won four state championships in a row. Since the seventh grade, my team was expected to make it to the state play-offs our senior year, and now we were playing for the state tittle. We didn’t have anybody extremely fast, strong, or even smart on our team. In fact, no senior would go on to participate in college football. We were just a few guys that would never give up no matter what the circumstances. Those guys were my team, like I was the one leading them all into a battle field, even though that was the feeling of half the other guys. My team had been nicknamed â€Å"The Cardiac Kids† because of our ability to pull out a victory by one point, which we had done in six games that season. Critics thought a team that could only squeak out so many victories by one point was bound to lose their composure in the play-offs. Throughout the season we had worked towards becoming the team we now were. We were proud of how far we had gotten. The only thing left to do was to play our hardest and to see how well we matched up against the best team in the state. All of this led up to the moment of the State Championship Game. From the locker room, we walked into the dark tunnel leading to the nervous light of The M... ...at is he didn’t like how he wrote about things he didn’t know about, when he could have been writing about important things that were happening to him because he did know about them. This makes me see the importance of my paper better. I also changed some things around in the paper. As you can imagine, when Dr. Morgan criticized writing about â€Å"The Big Game† I was like, â€Å"Oh Crap, now I have to write it all over again.† As you can see, I decided to stay with my original idea, but just focus on it at a different point. Instead of telling what happened, I focus more on why it affected me. Like when I wrote, †Because of what I learned that moment, I will be able to see when teamwork is needed and how to pursue it. You might not think that this is such an important quality, but this connects with me every day of my life.† I think this helps fit the assignment better.

Jewish Culture in Nursing

1. The Jewish culture has many concepts of taboo. One of the biggest items found was the importance of remembering the past. Past is a very important aspect in the Jewish community, even the breaking of a glass at the end of a wedding, symbolizes the destruction of a temple during an invasion from the Roman Army. (Giger and Davidhizar, 2008, p. 598) During childbirth, a husband may be in the room with his wife but may not participate other than coaching. He is not allowed to view or see the vaginal area or touch his wife.After the delivery, he may lean over to his wife, careful not to touch, and say â€Å"Mazal tov† or good luck, congratulations. (Giger and Davidhizar, 2008, p. 596) After delivery it is important to be careful around the baby. Jewish people believe that is the nipple is pulled to fast from the child, falling on the head, or failing to place a cap on the head of the infant are all causes of fallen fontanel. The symptoms of this include crying, fever, vomiting, and diarrhea; but modern practice shows us that the causes of these symptoms are from dehydration.The evil eye, or mal ojo, is a feared illness that is caused from someone admiring a child and that person has a frustrated wish to hold the child, but for a reason unknown, the person is unable to fulfill the wish. Hours later the child has fever, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite. Also, it suggests the child’s eyes will roll in the back of the head, and will become listless. This is probably the result of dehydration, but this is one perceived cause of a chronic illness. (Andrews and Boyle, 2008, p. 132) 2.If a follower of Judaism becomes ill, it is a common trend for the entire family to pull together and take care of the person. When the dying process starts a nurse should know that there is a strong need for a confessional. (Giger and Davidhizar, 2008, p. 606) If a person of Jewish faith passes away, the body must not be touched by a person of opposite sex. If this happen s the body will be considered contaminated. All articles of clothing and any personal items that have come into contact with blood must be left with the body and not be touched.Blood is sacred and must be buried along with the body. The body is removed to a sacred temple where the body is washed from head to toe in warm water, being careful not to turn the face towards the ground. The body will be dressed in white burial shrouds, tachrichim, and will be buried in a simple pine wood box. This is done so no one can distinguish wealth. (Klug, 2013, p. 1) This is all a part in a traditional ritual of the Jewish faith. 2B. This writer doesn’t believe in the above mentioned taboos.Reading this information has sparked an interest in the cultural beliefs held by Judaism. Current beliefs are influenced by religion and basic humanity procedures for the dying and deceased. Religion has influenced death as a passing of one person to heaven or hell. Humanity procedures that are followed a re the cleansing of a body, the placement in a casket, visitation and burial, and grieving by family and friends. 2C. Influence in practice is based off of the religions of the patients request or family beliefs.As a hospice nurse, personal beliefs do not affect work habits. There are many different patient rights that are noted and followed. Giger, J. N. , & Davidhizar, R. E. (2008). Transcultural nursing: Assessment and intervention (5th ed. ). St. Louis, MO: Mosby. Andrews, M. M. , & Boyle, J. S. (2008). Transcultural concepts in nursing care (5thed. ). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. Klug, L. A. (2013). Jewish Life. Jewish Funeral Customs: Saying Goodbye to a Loved One. Retrieved Feb. 5, 2013, from http://www. jewishfederations. org/funeral-customs. aspx? print=1

Ocean carrier Essay

The purpose of this report is to evaluate whether Ocean Carriers Inc. should immediately commission a new capesize carrier that would cost $39 million, and would be completed two years hence, in order to finalize a lease of the ship for a three-year period with a potential charterer in very good faith. The contrasting tax regulations between the two countries where the company locates its office, and the different cost-benefit circumstances under different length of time in service are considered in the analysis. Taking all available information into consideration, we highly recommend that the company should purchase the new capesize carrier, have it registered under the Hong Kong office, and put it on a scheme for a 25-year service. Industry Prospects Capesize carriers are mainly used to carry iron ore and coal worldwide. The daily hire rates are therefore determined by the total exports of iron ore and coal, the distance between the exporting countries and the destinations, and the fleet size of capesizes in service. According to the market trends, in the next few years, Australian production in iron ore is expected to be strong and Indian iron ore exports are expected to take off. However, imports of iron ore and coal are expected to be stagnant in next two years. Therefore, total exports of iron ore and coal will be flat in the coming two years, and will rise remarkably in the following few years. Besides, as East Asia countries absorb the largest portion of the iron ore imports, the joining of India to the iron ore exporting won’t significantly increase travel distance because Australia is almost the same distance away by water. Moreover, in 2001 and 2002, 63 and 33 new capesize vessels would be delivered adding up to about 17% of total capesizes currently in service. Consequently, in the first two years, the supply of capesizes would be greater than the demand, the daily hire rates are expected to decrease. But in the mid-to-long run, the daily hire rates are expected to increase continuously. Revenues and Costs – Intuitions Before going into the numbers, we want to discuss some intuitions of this project that support the decision of purchasing the capesize. First, the increasing mid-to-long run daily hire rates will provide basis for promising future cash flows. Secondly, although the daily hire rate for the first two years are expected to be low, the charterer had already offered a rate higher than expected to compensate the company. Thirdly, a great portion of the expenditures come from the preparation for special surveys which should be renewed every five years if the ship needs to stay in the business. The high escalation of costs between the second and third surveys, and the fourth and fifth surveys, indicates that maximum net present value of the project would be achieved when the carrier serves for either 15 years or 25 years. Free Cash Flows In this part, we will discuss the detailed numbers. Some assumptions are made based on the economic outlook and company characteristics when calculating free cash flows. We assume that inflation rate is 3% per annual, and that operation cost would increase 1% above inflation rate per annual. We assume that discount rate is 9%, and will discuss the impact of a rate change later. Provided that the scrape value is estimated to be $5 million at the end of the fifteenth year, we estimate that the value would decrease to $4 million due to more wear in the steel. Please refer to Exhibits 1 to 4 for the calculations of estimated free cash flows and NPVs. We can see that if the company chooses to purchase the capesize, have it registered in Hong Kong instead of USA, and runs it for 25 years, the NPV will be the highest compared to other alternatives. Besides, the Hong Kong option (have the vessel registered in Hong Kong) dominates the USA option (have the vessel registered in USA) because no tax is required in Hong Kong in these operations. Also, the 25-year option dominates the 15-year option because, even if the scrap value is reduced to zero after 25 years, the NPVs for options that keep the capesize for 25 years are still higher than for 15 years. Sensitivity Analysis In the above calculations for the NPVs, we assume discount rate to be 9%. If the discount rate is higher, the NPVs for the projects will be reduced because the benefits from recording depreciation and tax deferring will increase. For example, we found that the USA-25-year option will produce a positive NPV if the discount rate is lowered to 6.67%. However, even if the discount rate is as low as 0.1%, the HK option still dominates the US option, and the 25-year option still dominates the 15-year option. Conclusion To sum up, if Ocean Carriers Inc. purchase a $39 million capesize carrier immediately, register it in Hong Kong, sign the three-year contract with the charterer, and keep the vessel in business for 25 years, based on estimations, it would acquire the largest possible NPV of $3.89 million on the project.

Causes of the Decline and Fall of the Western Roman Empire

The fall of the Roman Empire was inevitable by A. D. 476. Christianity had weakened the bonds that had held it together, the people became corrupt, and it got too big. It was also because of the barbarian attacks. All empires eventually fall and Rome’s time had come to an end. When discussing the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire one has to see that this occurred over many years and had many different facets. Each issue has to be addressed independently with the understanding that they simultaneously combined to the dissension within the Empire and the falling of the borders that had been established during its height. By the end of the second century AD, the empire encompassed most of the Mediterranean, including Spain, France, most of Britain, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, Egypt, and Northern Africa. The collapse of the Roman Empire was a calamity; it leads to the Dark (Middle) Ages. Seeing all the bad that came of it, the destruction of art, the collapse of great cities, the deterioration of the system of roads, the ruin of the Mediterranean trade, and the loss of European unity–it's difficult to imagine any good came of it. But some good did result. The break up of the empire led to the abolition of slavery in Europe. Of course, this, in turn, led to more poverty and the increase of latifundia because the poor people lost their land to the aristocrats. But the slaves were better off as peasants than as slaves. Christianity was a major cause of the fall of Rome. Although Rome had religious tolerance, Romans, especially Jews, didn’t accept Christianity. A lot of people converted to Christianity because they lost faith in the Romans. At first most Christians were Jews but less strict. Many values were different but they still followed Jewish dietary laws and shared many beliefs with the Jews. The early Christians also got circumcised. Even Jesus got circumcised because he was born a Jew. Then he thought he was God’s messenger but many other people during that time also thought that so most people started off not believing him. The Christians started adopting the values that they have today during the time that Saul/Paul was alive. At first he started off as a Jew who hated Jesus and hated the Christians but then he converted and traveled around spreading the thoughts of Christians but he said that Christians didn’t need to follow the Jewish dietary laws and they didn’t need to get circumcised. The Romans and the Jews didn’t like the message that Jesus was spreading so they crucified him. One impact that Jesus had was that more people didn’t want to join the military and they didn’t want to participate in the community. Since the people stopped participating in government and they didn’t join the army, the Roman army composed of the Barbarians from Germany. These Barbarians lead disorganized attacks and even attacked other Roman Barbarian groups. Because of these sloppy attacks, Rome’s army fell and it was no longer the military superpower it was before. Also, many of the lands that Rome had conquered wanted independence and broke free of the Roman Empire. Herbert J. Muller argues in his book Uses of the Past that Rome got rich by conquering new lands and because of trade with new markets and when the Barbarian attacks went unsuccessful they got no more land therefore losing their source of wealth. Edward Gibbon argues the opposite in his book The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. He says that the Roman Empire fell because it was too widespread. He says that there was too much land for the government to govern and because of that the government lost money. By the end of the Roman Empire it was widespread and had many land. By conquering these lands they got many slaves from war and from these new lands. The abundance of slaves lead to the growth of latifundia, large estates owned by the rich. These slaves were willing to work hard for little pay so the rich got richer and the poor grew poorer. The poor coloni [farmers] lost their lands and the aristocrats bought them out. Then the poor farmers went to the city and became dependent on handouts from the government such as free grain. There were many causes for the fall of the Roman Empire. Some causes were the rise of Christianity, the fall of the army, the abundance of slaves and the size of the empire. Because of all these reasons and many more Rome couldn’t survive which lead to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman empire survived and became the Byzantine Empire. Rome’s fall lead to the Dark Ages but Rome has an impact in our everyday culture because they influenced the Greeks of whose culture we have copied in order to build our own culture.

Comprehending As Well As Critiquing and Valuing Evidence Article

Comprehending As Well As Critiquing and Valuing Evidence - Article Example For proper creation of digital stories, Choi indicates some principles that should be followed. These includes thinking about the purpose of using digital storytelling, analyzing the reading content, making a storyboard, and finding the best image to provide visual background information (Choi, 2012). Key problems of digital story telling includes lack of assessing the computers, lack of technical expertise for teachers and students, and long time spent in creating stories. Choi concludes that ESL/EFL teachers who want to incorporate digital storytelling in classrooms should have the ability to develop appropriate and context digital stories. One of the positive aspects of this article is that Dongseok Choi clearly describes the importance of using the latest technology in storytelling. The author uses literature from other sources such as Jessica, Beatham, and Roney among other to show comparison. However, the comparison among the major contributors could be done in a better way by use of graphs which lacks in the article. This article provides clear picture of how teachers should be computer literate for them to be productive especially when dealing with students. In order for teachers to prepare their ESL/EFL students to appropriately communicate, it is vital to be prepared just as the way the teachers require the scheme of work for any other lesson. The article Web 2.0-Assisted Language Learning: Using Technology to Enhance Reading Comprehension, by Fatemeh Behjat, Mohammad Sadegh Bagheri, Mortaza Yamini was written in Islamic Azad University. The article that involved 113 male and female participants majoring in English in Islamic Azad University, indicates the extent to which web 2.0 is useful to improve EFL students’ reading comprehension (Fatemeh, Mohammad and Mortaza, 2012). The article research question was which of the web2.0 tools, weblogs or wikis

Two sides on branding Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Two sides on branding - Essay Example Naomi Klein's book,as it title implies is a criticism to the proliferation of branding strategies launched by business organisations in order to capture customers.The selection lifted from her book outlined the evolution of branding-from its earliest beginning, downfall, recovery, and recent expansion.The concept of branding, according to Klein, began with the company's recognition that production is not the main core of their operations but marketing. The earliest proponents of marketing like Nike and Microsoft stated that manufacturing is only an "incidental" part of their operations and that they are not selling "products" but "images of their brands." This early beginnings started a new age of branding previously homogenous, mass-produced commodities replacing the old shopkeeper who traditionally scoops out generic products like sugar, flour, and cereal in barrels. The popularity of Dr. Brown, Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and Old Grand Dad became synonymous with the ascent of branded generic commodities.However, the death of branding came one Marlboro Friday as Phillip Morris is threatened by the intense competition from lower priced unbranded competitors. With this happening, a dramatic shift in customers' buying behavior was illustrated-from prestige to price consciousness.The article concluded with the "rebirth" and expansion of branding. This phenomenon was lead by established companies like Body Shop and Starbucks which were able to safeguard and even expand their market share by investing in their brand images. These, together with other successful companies like Nike, began the more rapid proliferation of branded products which does not only market the attributes of the product by created a "concept" to establish an "emotional connection" with its clients. Naomi Klein concluded that with this age of branding, customers are easily manipulated by branding tactics as marketers can establish a good brand even with the lowliest products. She argued that instead of focusing on production and improving products, companies are embarking and spending time, effort, and money in creating a good brand for which they ask customers for a premium. The Economist-Who's Wearing the Trousers The article lifted from the Economist, hold an antagonistic position on Naomi Klein's book. Though it also recognizes the good arguments raced by Klein, the Economist offer a very different view on what the first author referred to as "brand bullies." Basically, the article presented in the Economist can be summed up into two points-the first one being the exaggeration of Naomi Klein's argument on the power of brands, and the second one on the manipulation of the customers by the branding strategies of the large corporations. The Economist recognizes the importance of brands in selling a company's products. However, it claims that Klien's article exaggerated the role of branding in the strategies of the large business organizations. The article proved this by citing the case of the companies who spent bulk of financial resources in creating a good brand only to fail. As the company treats a "brand" as one of its primary assets, a brand can also be regarded as liability as it makes a company highly responsible in the damages which it can give to customers. Customer loyalty is not only rooted on their perception on brand. This is evidenced by the recent research which shows that customers of all ages shift from brand to brand. This also strengthens the claim of the Economist claim that customers are not highly manipulated by company's branding tactics. It is also irrefutable that companies' are spending a lot of money to retain their customers and develop their products to safeguard their brand. Between the Two Articles Naomi Klein and the Economist hold two seemingly different arguments about branding, company's performance, and customers. The two articles summarized above show some same

Journal - wk2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Journal - wk2 - Essay Example Visual, kinaesthetic, and auditory learning styles provides opportunity for the students in that it helps them to attach with, absorb, and recall information being handed over. While it is rather tricky and confusing to vary teaching approaches to serve each student’s learning preference, changing and shifting the method in which teaching is being carried out bring about positive upshots in that it reduce the possibility for the students to get a bit lost, unfocused, and unfastened with the material or information. Considering the fact that each student could only retain information that they individually conceived and developed, it is therefore effective to draw on the pre-existing knowledge of the student. This will improve the student’s understanding over the same information. Although is very possible that each student could have no prior knowledge about a particular information, the introduction of new concepts could be easily inculcated to their thoughts with the help of the different learning