Puddle Girl Essay Example for Free

Puddle Girl Essay She gazes out the window, self-consciously adjusting the straps of her shirt. She shivers as a chill creeps out from the weathered window pane and draws a limp cardigan from the overstuffed chair she has perched herself upon. The pounding of the rain slowly begins to abate and diverts into a soft, gentle roll of tears from the sky. She clasps the cardigan closer to her body, as she mentally counts off the number of ribs she can feel through the heavy, wool blend. Haplessly she utters the sigh of a woman far beyond her years and reaches to open the beckoning door. Her frail, ivory hand encloses on the scuffed brass door knob and she abruptly looks about her, as if she is waiting for someone to reprimand her. She braces herself against the winds knocking chill and steps out into the blighting, crisp, after-rain air. Though she is wearing the two layers she had previously dressed herself in that grey morning and the four other layers she had wrapped herself in throughout the day, she still shivers, the drizzle gently pinpricking her spine. The soft, baby hairs rising on her arms, she raises her diminutive hand to touch the baby-fine smattering of gold silk upon her head, to find that it drifts off through her bony fingers to the earthen ground. She touches her head again and this time her gaze lands upon the aimless settlement of one golden strand. Whirling and twirling, its angelic decent is cushioned by the tender rains droppings that had accumulated into a softly swirling puddle. In an impulsive childish manner, she squats down alongside the water mass and peers at the blustery, silken strand. As it writhes and dances across the still body of water, it creates perfect, symmetrical ripples of movement and sooner than later, to the young girls objections, the hair is stifled by the peaceful puddles saturation. And just as her lips utter yet another far-matured sigh, a reflection subsequently appears and the girl, in a melancholy, self-induced habit stares at the image impressed upon the waters glass. There is a girl in the puddle and she stares back with a desolate stare. Where once sparkling blue eyes glistened is now replaced with the color of grey misery, the twinkle engulfed in the worlds shallow appetite. Her cheeks sunken with the sharp edge that only appears with years of self-destruction and facial expression contorted into the tightness of concentrated self-loathing. Convulsing, the young girl abruptly shatters the ebbing puddle girls image, sending her nose, eyes, and tight-lipped un-smile into all directions. Trembling from  anger, fear, paina mixture of such pure and raw emotion that to describe it would be impossiblethe young girl crumbles down onto the cold, unyielding cement. Cradling her head, allowing the swirling torrent of feelings to take over her beingonce again the rains begin to fall and as each drop rolls down her once rosy cheeks, she sobs and thinks of days gone past.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Poll

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan, was a great read. I came into the adventure without much background regarding what kind of book it was going to be, and to my astonishment it was more of an educational journey than pages of force-fed beliefs. Michael Pollan has a writing style that is both loose and intriguing and really kept my attention throughout. Having already read extensively concerning human nutrition and food, I am usually skeptical when beginning such reads as this one, but I was very surprised that Mr. Pollan was very objective, in that this was seemingly a field trip and journey from environment to plate. I will begin this report with a summary of this great book and delve deeper into the thoughts that the literary family has of it. I will then go on to explain its importance in the development of environmental policy and impact, and end with my thoughts regarding the material and the interaction among social and environmental values and impacts presented by the author Michael Pollan. Summary The book begins with the question of â€Å"What should we have for dinner?† and stands to answer that question the rest of the way. Speaking directly of Americans, Pollan explains in-depth how the Nation tends to jump from fad to fad, first being afraid of carbohydrates, and then switching to fats, and so on. He goes on to explain where this thought process might have come from with the history of the Carter administration in 1977, as dietary goals were issued and the red meat lovers of America were warned to cut back. From that time on it has been an ever-changing lipo-, carbo-, phobia, with a cycle of weight loss and gain. With this question at hand, Michael Pollan begins to dive de... ...ormative history as he travels from the cornfields of Iowa, to the feedlot, to the forest floor in search of chanterelles, and then coming full circle to the dinner table. The information given is not always pleasant, but it is necessary for an informed eater in America to be aware of. The effects of knowing can cause us to be more responsible in what we are purchasing at the grocery store (and essentially voting for). He shows that making the correct decision to the question â€Å"What should we have for dinner?† can also be the choice that tastes the best and is the best for you. Works Cited Kamp, D. (2006). â€Å"Deconstructing Dinner.† New York Times: Sunday Book Review. 26 April 2006.http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/books/review/23kamp.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Pollan, M. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York. Random. 2006. Print

CanGo Analysis Essay

1. CanGo has too many activities without having specific goals or setting priorities. As they find something that needs to be accomplished, it is always as soon as possible without setting definite time deadlines. Setting priorities is one way to insure that the tasks which need immediate attention are worked on first, while other task can be delayed because they are not as important. Being able to schedule people to complete specific task requires careful planning while know what resources are available. According to the Business Dictionary, a resource is â€Å"an economic or productive factor required to accomplish an activity† (Resource, 2013). CanGo needs to make a chart showing what its resources are which includes how much time each employee is able to work, how much money they can spend or invest, and what needs to be done by when. This can be accomplished in a number of different methods depending on the personnel who will be responsible for compiling the data. As shown on the Adaptive Path website, one method would be to use a spreadsheet which shows three major criteria and then apply a scale to them graphing the results. Equally important, once the priorities are determined, is setting specific deadlines for completion of task so that the employees know exactly when a report is needed, or when another department needs a specific resource if a resources needs to be shared or allocated, such as an employee working on multiple tasks. When setting the times, it is also important to know if one task needs to be completed before another on starts or if tasks can be worked on by different employees concurrently.  Setting up a written schedule or calendar, for example in Microsoft Outlook which everyone can view would be a good tool so each employee knows who is working on what and when it needs to be done. 2. CanGo needs to find out their customer base so that they can market to current customers and bring in new customers. There are a few ways to find their customer base. This first step to help find a customer base is to make the company a brand name. They need to make the company known to everyone for the great services and products offered. This will make the company more noticeable on any search engine or social media. Another step to finding the base would be to use onsite analytics. Google is the best known option for this. This will analyze the sites traffic patterns. It shows what websites they come from, how long they stay on your site and each individual page. This can even determine what page the customers get to and then leave (Staff Editor). If there is a certain page that customers’ get to and then leave the site, than this is the page that needs to be looked over and re-done. CanGo should also take advantage of social media. If CanGo used a social media outlet such as Facebook, their fans could leave comments and say what they like and dislike about the company. This can help fix any problems within the company. The final step in reaching a good customer base is to make sure their website is user friendly. Make sure the homepage has the most important content on it and that it has easy to understand menus for the customers to navigate. The company should also make sure to look at the reviews both good and bad and leave all of them on there. By showing that you are not trying to hide anything the customers will have more respect for the company. . CanGo wants to implement a new technology that involves a new layout that incorporates barcoding and automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS). Jack is proposing this new implementation by contrasting the new technology versus CanGo’s current technology. Jack assures Juan that every cost has been included in the detailed analysis, but when Juan asks about how they are going to deal with the IT department, Jack replies that they need to make sure that the entire department is focus about 70 % of their time to this project in multiple locations. He also remarks that the department has to be pulled off from their current projects, so this implementation can be a priority. Prior to make the final decision of purchasing ASRS technology, there needs to be some deeper discussion as to what would happen to the security of the company’s network if the IT department had to spend more time on data integration. According to Ehow website, â€Å"the information technology department in an organization is responsible for the architecture, hardware, software and networking of computers† meaning that putting the IT department full time on the implementation of ASRS technology, can cause improper function of the mainly IT department functions, for instance, server maintenance (Kelchner, n. d. ). Agreeing to Wisegeek website statement, â€Å"if maintenance is not conducted on a computer network, regardless of whether the network is small or large, pplication software usually will not run as well as expected. In some cases, a network may even experience total or partial network failure if proper maintenance is not conducted. † Jack’s proposal can cause CanGo extra costs that have not been accountable for and put the entire company’s network at risk (server maintenance, n. d. ). In other to make this analysis effective, Jack should meet up with the IT department first and discuss how the implementation of this new technology will impact IT’s current work schedule. Jack and the IT department need to come with a plan that includes a work schedule for the new implementation without interrupting current projects. Therefore, if extra hours are demanded to complete the implementation whether CanGo will pay overtime to the IT department employees or temporary IT employees will be hired, this cost has to be added to the analysis. When choosing a strategy, every single department that is involved in the implementation should be contacted and informed about the project prior to present the final analysis.  It seems that Jack didn’t contact or discuss the implementation of ASRS technology with the IT department. 4. CanGo consumer buying process is in question when one of CanGo’s employee shares an elevated statistic that reveals over 75% of online shoppers don’t end up buying the products that they have selected in the website; as a result, Andrew replies that CanGo’s website mirrors the consumers choice by applying product recognition, informative search, alternating evaluation, etc. It seems that CanGo does not have an ongoing method for tracking hits vs. purchases on their website. The problem is that CanGo is not evaluating their consumer buying process properly. Andrew clearly wonders if that high statistic applies to CanGo clients. According to Aspire website, â€Å"using website metrics and tracking your leads and conversions should play a vital role in measuring what’s working and what’s not on your company’s website. Building up a history of metrics will enable you to identify trends and opportunities, analyze your traffic data to consistently improve your site’s effectiveness, and monitor your lead generation process, conversion rates, and your return on investment. CanGo should invest in website metrics because this will allow CanGo to conduct proper follow up that will confirm if the implemented consumer buying process is satisfactory (Website metrics, n. d. ). 5. CanGo needs to monitor the changes in purchases so that they can modify their marketing strategy. There are a few ways that CanGo can monitor changes. The company should start using web bugs on their site. A web bug is a graphic in a website or a graphic-enabled e-mail message. The Web bug can confirm when the message or page is viewed and record the IP address of the viewer (Privacy Rights Clearinghouse). This can help determine how many people are viewing their homepage and any other page on their site. CanGo can also apply direct marketing to their site. Direct marketing is a sales pitch targeted to a person based on prior consumer choices (Privacy Rights Clearinghouse). An example would be if the customer buys a romantic novel, then there will be suggestions for other romantic novels in a similar nature. Another method CanGo can use is behavioral marketing. Behavioral Marketing is the practice of collecting and compiling a record of individuals’ online activities, interests, preferences, and/or communications over time. Companies engaged in behavioral targeting routinely monitor individuals, the searches they make, the pages they visit, the content they view, their interactions on social networking sites, and the products and services they purchase (Privacy Rights Clearinghouse). After they have done the tracking they are able to show advertisements to the customers based on their behavior. This type of marketing is used through cookies, flash cookies, device fingerprinting and many other technologies. Whenever the customer goes to websites or social media that have advertisements on the side, the company’s ad would be there if the services were something that interested the customer. 6. CanGo seems to lack knowledge of unfamiliar territory. Since the online entertainment market is becoming saturated with entrepreneurs entering the industry, CanGo can definitely benefit from researching this particular market before they enter it. There are many reasons for any company that’s entering a new market to research it first. One reason is because it’s a way of keeping up with market trends, and in today’s fast paced world it’s paramount to stay on top of the industry and business trends. Lacking knowledge of unfamiliar territory can be extremely costly to an organization. Expanding into a new market involves a great deal of market research in addition to target customers. CanGo needs to develop an in-depth understanding of market growth rates, forecasted demand, competitors, and potential barriers to entry. CanGo isn’t entering a relatively undefined market, however, its new territory for the company. Needless to say maintaining a competitive edge is an important aspect of management today because organizations exist in a more global environment than in the past. Within most industries organizations compete with other companies that are able to provide the same goods and services. According to Steve Jobs, â€Å"Some people say, ‘give the customers what they want. ’ But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, ‘if I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse! ’’ People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page. † This was a pretty controversial quote but it was how he actually felt. Unfortunately, although he was extremely successful and considered a genius by many there we’re times in his career where understanding customers’ wants could have led to even more success, such as with his computing company NeXT. There are both and cons to researching a market before entering but the pros definitely outweigh the cons. researching your market is also very vital to understanding your target market and increasing sales. There are many reasons for CanGo to conduct research on a market they’re entering, for instance, identifying potential customers. It’s important who will be using your product or service. Are they male or female? How old they are? and so on. It’s also important to understand CanGo’s existing customers such as; why would customers choose their product over their competition. A market should be prioritized based on the strategic fit and the ability for CanGo to serve them. CanGo should be able to answer questions like: Are there gaps in this marketplace that can be filled? If so can they do better than their competitors? What value can they deliver to this market and how much are they willing to pay for it? (Isaacson, 2011).

Working With The Plcs Group I Am Part Of At Our School

For my CAP project, I am focusing on working with the PLCs group I am part of at our school. Currently I am part of two PLCs, a 5th grade team which consists of 3 teachers, and an upper grade science PLC that consists of 4th-6th grade science teachers. All the teachers that are part of these PLCs are in their first year of teaching, except for me, who has been teaching 5th grade math and science for the past four years. These PLCs meet every other week. Through our PLCs, we have been able to share some great resources, collaborate, as well as address concerns we have as teachers of a dual language school. When I started the CAP project, I asked the teachers from these PLCs fill out a google questionnaire based on questions around†¦show more content†¦My vice principal helped me analyzed my own assessment inventory; we set one of my teacher growth goals based on my inventory results. We also spent time going over the results of what teachers had answered on the survey. The la st time I met with her, we reviewed my teacher growth goal as well as giving me ideas and resources. This has helped us change the structure of our PLCs and focus more on resources as well as student data. I have other people in mind as stakeholders for this project. In my opinion, I think the teachers that were part of this project are also stakeholders. At one of our PLCs we went over the results. Based on this, we had individual conversations as well as discussed ways we wanted to guide our PLCs and set goals. I also told the teachers how I was not an expert and did not have all the answers, but together we would work on getting better around the areas we decided to focus on as a PLC. I have two more stakeholders in mind. One would be our principal. He is a big believer in sending teachers to professional developments and conferences. Last year, he had me go to a PLC conference over the summer because I had shown interest in bring back PLCs to our school. 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