Monday, August 24, 2020

Week 3 student replys Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Week 3 understudy replys - Essay Example The post gives an edifying record of the association of Tempo Air in each phase of development, and until the house is really involved and being lived in by the property holder and his/her family. Obviously examination and testing is attempted, and that a definitive outcomes have to do with decrease of vitality charges, disposal of issues including dampness substance, and improvement of indoor air quality or IAQ. What seems dubious is the specific procedure embraced by Tempo Air throughout accomplishing its destinations. Why would that be a requirement for Tempo Air to be associated with the beginning periods of the home (or building) development when the matter of indoor atmosphere control is an issue that can be tended to simply after the structure has been built? Is it not simply a question of picking the correct brand of cooling units and the correct drive rating that it could convey? The post closes with a notice of ‘segmentation’ as isolating the organization Tempo Air from less trustworthy firms. I accept ‘segmentation’ in that sense doesn't allude to advertise division, which recognizes client gatherings. Division ought to allude to the gatherings of shoppers which the organization recognizes and focuses for its merchandise and ventures. Neuhaus, E and Schellen, H (2006) ‘Conservatism Heating to Control Relative Humaidity and Create Museum Indoor Conditions in a Monumental Building.’ Retrieved from http://www.monumenten.bwk.tue.nl/documenten/Conservation%20Heating%20to%20Control%20Relative%20Humidity%20and%20Crea.pdf An extremely educated inquiry is propounded by Kevin Gillin on the post depicting St. Jude Medical, a cutting edge clinical gadgets producer and merchant. The items and administrations of St. Jude are essential in expanding the lives of individuals, and the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare) may have material effect on the clinical gadgets industry (Forbes, 2013) to which St. Jude

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Combating Compassion Fatigue Essay

The nursing calling is an unpredictable field that can challenge you intellectually, truly, inwardly, and profoundly. Individuals who go into the field of nursing have day by day cooperates with patients’ and families needing clinical assistance and direction. Medical caretakers face various difficulties every day and must have the option to deal with their patients’ issues, yet stay solid and beneficial to maintain a strategic distance from empathy weariness and burnout. Empathy weariness is characterized as passionate, profound, and physical depletion coming about because of â€Å"witnessing and engrossing the issues and enduring of others† (Wisniewski, 2013). Sympathy weakness can prompt burnout with one’s expert profession and influence home life. Parental figures can likewise be influenced by empathy exhaustion and burnout from the jobs that they play with their friends and family. It is imperative to have the option to recognize the notice indication s of empathy weariness and burnout. This is a fight that can be â€Å"fought with a guarantee to individual wellbeing and well-being† (Chapman, 2007). Social insurance experts and parental figures should have the option to discover an adjust and keep up wellbeing in their own profound, physical, mental, and enthusiastic lives to help patient’s to ideal consideration. Techniques on stress the executives, solid way of life decisions, and assets accessible will be examined to help forestall and deal with these issues. â€Å"Nurses are the foundation of the clinical framework and go about as the primary line of patient clinical care† (Chen et al., 2009). Managing and adapting to pressure is essential for attendants to keep up to give satisfactory consideration. Empathy exhaustion is an inclination of sadness and a misfortune in the feeling of significance in one’s life. Side effects can be â€Å"strong sentiments of uneasiness, trouble concentrating, being unsteady or effortlessly surprised, peevishness, trouble resting, unreasonable enthusiastic desensitizing, and nosy pictures of another’s horrible materi al† (Portnoy, 2011). These indications should be perceived to get help or they can advance to long haul impacts andâ complications. There are five ideas of empathy exhaustion that should be routed to help with avoidance and burnout. The principal idea is subjective; indications can be unresponsiveness, confusion, inconvenience fixation, and cruelty. The subsequent idea is enthusiastic; signs can be nervousness, dread, vulnerability, sentiments of frailty, despondency, having terrible dreams, and stun. The third idea is conduct which can be absence of rest, cranky, change in craving, pulled back, and over and again having terrible dreams. The fourth idea is otherworldly. This territory can lead the person to scrutinize their job throughout everyday life and their calling, sentiments of being lost, and addressing confidence and individual convictions. The last idea is substantial, which means influencing one’s willful sensory system. This can cause fast pulses, inconvenience breathing, migraines, a throbbing painfulness, inconvenience staying or nodding off, and perspiring (Portnoy, 2011). There are various elements that can pave the way to and cause sympathy weariness. Triggers can be issues with the board , for example, nursing keenness, patient to nurture proportions, exhausted medical caretakers, individual issues, absence of help from collaborators or managers, and loss of the inclination that the attendant is having any kind of effect. To battle these elements in medical caretakers and different representatives in human services, administrators and associations should know about this dynamic issue and offer assistance (Portnoy, 2011). Making an open domain alongside instruction and preparing on the best way to manage these mind boggling issues is the initial step to tending to sympathy weakness inside the working environment. Gathering gatherings inside the work environment will offer the attendants an opportunity to share their contemplations and emotions, understanding that they are not the only one. Building bonds with colleagues and sharing patient encounters will assist with empowering positive solid propensities. Self-care is imperative for attendants to keep up to keep life in balance and to satisfactorily take legitimate consideration of our patients. Everyone has pressure, figuring out how to manage it is the way to bliss and a solid prosperity. Attendants are continually teaching our patient’s on w ay of life changes expected to keep up wellbeing, for example, a legitimate eating regimen, work out, and a solid emotionally supportive network. We thusly need to try to do we say others should do and keep up our wellbeing to be at our best to enable our patients to accomplish their best. Burnout and empathy exhaustion are some of the time discussed as one, however there are contrasts. Burnout is â€Å"state of passionate, mental, and physical depletion brought about by over the top and delayed stress† (Preventing Burnout, n.d.). Indications of burnout can be discouragement orâ detachment, feelings are inflexible, loss of expectation and inspiration, and a sentiment of not deserving of living. Burnout can be brought about by ways of life or business related issues. Working in a domain that you have an inclination that you have no control or absence of assets can prompt burnout. Self-care is expected to keep up constructive options to communicate one’s worry to stay away from burnout in one’s individual life. There are physical, passionate, and conduct indications of burnout. Physical signs are sentiments of being worn out constantly, being wiped out a great deal, change in resting propensities, body throbs, and successive cerebral pains. Passionate signs can be loss of inspiration, sentiments of powerlessness, sentiments of separation, feeling of uncertainty, and an expanded negative viewpoint throughout everyday life. Social signs can be seclusion from others, evasion of duties, medication or liquor misuse, missing work, and outrage coordinated at others (Preventing Burnout, n.d.). There are a few different ways to help forestall burnout. Figuring out how to oversee pressure and embracing a positive smart dieting, resting, and practicing propensities are genuine guides to begin with. It is critical to know when you need assistance and that it is accessible. Burnout can prompt sympathy weakness inside your expert vocation. Attendants who are drained, exhausted, and worry after some time without assistance can experience the ill effects of burnout and thusly fall into sympathy weakness. Attendants need sympathy to help direct patients in their clinical circumstances, on the off chance that the medical caretaker is worried and requiring help herself, at that point how might she manage the patient? Burnout can be mended, tending to the issues and discovering â€Å"your balance by rethinking needs, setting aside a few minutes for yourself, and looking for support† (Preventing Burnout, n.d.). There is a three â€Å"R† approach when managing burnout; per ceive, opposite, and strength. Acknowledgment of burnout, inversion of the harm caused from pressure, and building versatility to manage the worry by dealing with one’s passionate, mental, physical, and otherworldly wellbeing. Recognizable proof is one stage into tending to sympathy weakness and burnout. One can recoup from burnout. There are three systems that one ought to stay aware of, slow down, get support, and rethink your objectives and needs (Preventing Burnout, n.d.). When managing work burnout there are a couple of alternatives that you can do to improve the conditions. Going on vacation, requesting another task, talking with the board about issues, and explaining your activity obligations are a couple of recommendations to begin with. Parental figure burnout can transpire at anyâ given time. The jobs of guardians are similarly significant like that of nursing. Parental figures are liable for the immediate consideration of a friend or family member and can encounter empathy weakness just as burnout. Being associated with a cherished one’s consideration can cause physical, mental, enthusiastic, and profound trouble. The strength of the parental figures is significant for the accomplishment of the person who is accepting the consideration. Advancing approaches and intercessions that will assist the guardians with avoiding passionate depletion is the objective. Guardians need to stay mindful of their needs and convictions and realize when to request help should they need it. Instruction is the beginning to helping patients, families, and parental figures; discussing sympathy exhaustion and burnout permits individuals to see that they are not the only one and that help is accessible. There are various assets accessible to help those looking for help, for example, The Gift from Within association that spends significant time in helping in dividuals manage injury and stress. There is additionally a Compassion Fatigue association that targets teaching individuals on how significant self-care is and that it is so imperative to know the signs and side effects (Portnoy, 2011). All in all, sympathy weariness is simply the misfortune and burnout is the enthusiastic depletion that one can feel. Medical caretakers and medicinal services experts are at higher dangers of having these issues come up; anyway parental figures can experience the ill effects of these issues simply. The objective to fighting these points is to carry attention to them and to keep teaching individuals on the approaches to deal with them. Some of the time requesting help is difficult, yet it is the initial phase the correct way to turning into a solid prosperity who can deal with pressure. Looking for direction from experts will profit the individual in trouble just as their families. To be inwardly, truly, intellectually, and profoundly stable one must deal with themselves in all parts of life. One must have empathetic mindful, empathic limits, mindfulness, otherworldliness and expectation, and self-pardoning to prevail throughout everyday life (Bush, 2009). References Shrub, N. (2009). Empathy exhaustion: would you say you are in danger? Oncology Nursing Forum, 36(1), 24-28. doi:10.1188/09.ONF.24-28 Chapman, E. (2007). Radical adoring consideration: Building the recuperating clinic in America. Nashville, TN: Vaughn Printing Chen, C., Lin, C., Wang, S., and Hou, T. (2009). An investigation of employment stress, stress adapting methodologies, and employment fulfillment for medical attendants working in center level emergency clinic working rooms. Diary Of Nursing Research (Taiwan Nurses Association), 17(3), 199-211. doi:10.1097/JNR.0b013e3181b2557b Portnoy, D. (2011). Burnout and Compassion Fatigue Watch for the Signs. Diary of the Catholic Health

Friday, July 17, 2020

Airbnb - Strategies for Renting Your Accomodation Online

Airbnb - Strategies for Renting Your Accomodation Online Airbnb is a new way for travelers to find short term accommodation at better prices. As one of the founder’s Joe Gebbia says,“We’re helping people be more resourceful with the space they already have and we’re connecting people around the world. We can see ourselves doing this for a decade to come â€" a generation.” © Shutterstock.com | mirtmirtIn this article, we will look at 1) what is Airbnb?, 2) the business model, 3) How to list successfully on Airbnb, and 4) advantages and disadvantages of listing on Airbnb.WHAT IS AIRBNB?The CompanyAirbnb is a consumer-to-consumer e-commerce platform that helps people find accommodation for short term rentals. At present, the company has close to 800,00 listings and is spread over 33,000 cities in 192 countries.To use the service, potential renters and hosts are required to register and make an online profile. As with many other C2C channels, a host who lists on the website has recommendations and reviews against their profile. These reviews and ratings are left by previous guests. There is also a response rating and private messaging service available to users.The company was founded in August 2008 and is based in San Francisco, California. The company managed to raise $119.8 million in venture funding by 2011. These funds came from a variety of firms i ncluding Y Combinator, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, DST Global Solutions, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst Partners, as well as from other independent partners. In 2014, the company received further funding from TPG capital. HistoryThe company was created by Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia. The idea took shape in October 2007 when they moved to San Francisco. The company began as AirBed Breakfast and was created during an Industrial Design Conference that was organized by the Industrial Designers Society of America.At this point, the site offered short term living arrangements along with breakfast. This allowed the people attending the conference to find accommodation in a saturated rental and hotel market. Since the two founder had trouble paying their own rent, they converted their living room into a bed and breakfast of sorts, where as many as three guests could stay, using air mattresses and being provided with homemade breakfast.By 2008, a third partner joined the compa ny. Nathan Blecharczyk was a Harvard graduate and a technical architect. The company continued to focus on events that were of a high-profile nature and where attendees could have problems finding affordable boarding and lodging. The website for the business was officially launched in August 2008. To fund their operation, the founders worked on creating breakfast cereals. These special edition products included ideas such as Barack Obama and John McCain inspired cereals. In a short time, as many as 800 boxes of these cereal sold for $40 each and this allowed the company to raise enough money for its incubation as well as attract the attention of Y Combinator’s Paul Graham. By 2009, Graham invited the company to join Y Combinator’s winter incubator session for three months of training. This left them in the position to come back to San Francisco with a profitable business model to present to potential investors.In the same year, the website changed from Airbedandbreakfast.com to a shorter form, Airbnb expanded to a greater number of properties that included entire apartments and houses, private rooms, castles, boats, manors, tree houses, igloos and private islands among other properties.Within a year, there were 15 employees working in the apartment where the business began. Eventually, the company moved to its first office space and continued to grow. By 2010, $7.2 million were raised in a series of funding and by 2011, the company gained further investment from A Grade Investments. The actor Ashton Kutcher was a partner in this firm, and he announced the investment as well as his role as a strategic brand advisor to the company.In 2014, the company made design revisions to its site and mobile app and introduced a new logo.International ExpansionThe company also grew internationally during this time. In May 2011, the company expanded to Germany by acquiring a local competitor by the name of Accoleo. This was the first international move and the company set up its office in Hamburg. A second international office was setup in London by October of the same year. By 2012, six new offices were set up in Paris, Milan, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Moscow and Sao Paulo. In 2013, Dublin was designated headquarter for Europe. Given the service’s popularity in Australia, Thailand and Indonesia, a new office was also created in Sydney in 2013. In the same year, the company announced plans to focus more aggressively on the Asian market with a new office in Singapore.THE BUSINESS MODEL © Flickr | Gustavo da Cunha PimentaAirbnb’s business model under the business model canvas structure can be analyzed in the following way:Customer Segments Two main categories of people are seen to use Airbnb. These are personal travelers and business travelers. Personal travelers are more price sensitive and therefore flexible about the accommodation itself. While business travelers, especially those that plan to stay longer than a day or two are more likely to focus on the place itself rather than the rental amount. Another segment comprises of locally situated people such as expatriates or students.Channels The website uses several channels to reach customers. These include advertisements online, PR and word of mouth. Online marketing is aggressively focused upon, with advertisements found on a large number of affiliate sites and major search engines. PR is also a strong channel as the story of the founders is widely known, and they appear in conferences and other press event s fairly often. Word of mouth is generated by a great user experience. This means that the company works hard on ensuring that customers have an exceptional experience both before booking and after.Customer Relationships The company keeps a balanced focus on building relationships with both hosts and renters. Hosts are the public face of the company and have many options now for listing their properties. For this reason, the company works on setting up online and offline events and support to strengthen the relationship. Similarly, the renters are the ones who pay for the service. A good user experience and support is key to maintaining this relationship.Revenue Streams The company makes money by charging a commission from both the renter and the host. Both these are kept on the lower side to encourage people to continue to use the platform. The company makes efforts to discourage transactions from being completed away from the site to prevent the commission from being lost.Value Proposition The company offers hosts a chance to earn money from an underutilized asset (Their house or spare room) and offers this service internationally that increases the customer base significantly. For the renter, there is a level of trust that the property on offer is not a scam and that they can find a place to stay for a more reasonable amount than most hotels can offer.Key Activities Major activities for the business include marketing, product development and platform development and maintenance. Apart from this, there is also the community management with home owners, through online and offline events.Key Resources A key resource for the company is its wide international network of travelers. In addition to this, well networked founders and the Airbnb brand are now key resources as well. The team also has some of the best technical and design talent in the field that allows the platform to run smoothly and remain accessible and user-friendly.Key Partners A key partner for Airbnb are tourism ministries in different countries as well as other tourism related networks. Other partners include payment partners as well as investors.Cost Structure The company has three main categories of costs. These can be broadly understood as technology, marketing and sales. Technology means the cost of top programmers and technical experts as well as things such as server space and software, etc. Marketing includes advertising and PR internationally. Sales teams are present at all major offices to further the business.Airbnb USPAirbnb differs from its competitors by being more than just a space for classified advertisements. The website facilitates the entire process of listing and booking and handles all financial transactions. This means that payments are made on time and are secure. For example, a guest has to be checked in for 24 hours before the host is paid. It is free to list a property, and the commission is only charged when a transaction goes through. Th e website also offers a review system that allows actual users to write reviews. This helps make reviews more accurate. Another aspect is the extensive network globally which helps international travelers and hosts to connect with each other easily.HOW TO LIST SUCCESSFULLY ON AIRBNB © AirbnbTips for HostsHosts are people who list their properties or rooms for rent on the website. There are some basic things that every potential host of Airbnb should keep in mind. These are:Startup Costs It is important to remember that there may be some initial costs such as extra sheets and towels, as well as other household goods, and grocery items. There may also be some costs associated with maintaining the property by getting it cleaned before and after a renter.Act like a Host, Not a Landlord The Airbnb business model means that the people coming into the house are guests and not tenants. This means that a good host should make an effort to anticipate their needs. This means providing a clean house, food, extra towels, any instructions or tips for the home or the city and other items such as tea, coffee and wine. Some hosts may consider hiring a cleaning service to avoid the hassle of having to do so themselves on a regular basis. Another good idea is to send guests a w elcome email with information such as WiFi passwords and ensure that all relevant appliances such as a cooling or heating are turned on.Make Your Listing Look Attractive A successful listing on the website needs to have not only good reviews but also detailed and attractive photos. The website offers the services of a professional photographer at no cost to do this for a host. Make sure that you complete all the verifications and profile fields on the website to make sure your listing is well placed in the search results.Be Prepared to Make A Time Investment A successful Airbnb host invests some time and effort into related activities each day. This means keeping the listing optimized, responding quickly to any queries and guest related activities such as handing over keys, cleaning, answering questions, etc. It is a good idea to have the app installed on your smartphone with some responses prepared in advance to be able to quickly reply to potential guests.Be Clear on the Type of Guests You Want Not every type of traveler may be a good fit for every host. It is a good idea to be clear about who is acceptable as a guest to you. Some hosts may prefer families while others may want to avoid children.Be Prepared for a Bad Experience Though this is not common, there can be the occasional misfit who can damage or steal property. The website requires a police report to be filed in such an instance, and an insurance claim is then processed. Tips for RentersAs with hosts, there are also some basic things that renters can do to ensure a positive Airbnb experience. These include:Consider Picking a Live-in Host If a traveler wants to be able to live like a local for a few days, then a good idea would be to pick a live-in host. This is usually a more desirable option for people traveling alone. This way, there can be an informal tour guide and a temporary companion.Use Your Own Account to Make a Booking Often a reservation may be made from a friend’s account or ev en a boss or employee’s account. This can create confusion later when it is time to review the guest and for the guest to review the host. Often this step is then ignored which is unfortunate for both parties.Communicate Before Booking It is a good idea to check if the place is available before trying to make a booking. This is good for the host as it allows them to answer a query without turning away a booking and therefore maintaining a good record for reservations. It can also help save time for the renter.Read Listing Carefully It is a good idea to go through the information in the listing before deciding to either make the booking or emailing a host with questions. Most common queries are usually addressed in the listing along with any specific caveats.Don’t Treat the House as A Hotel As a renter, you are a guest in someone else’s house. It is common courtesy to pick up after yourself, leave a clean house and be considerate of neighbors.Create a Detailed Profile A com plete profile will go a long way in helping hosts finalize your request for a booking. Even if there is no renter history or reviews, an honest and detailed profile will make a positive impact. This includes an actual photo and other basic details.Haggle A host on Airbnb may be more flexible on prices than a hotel. This means there is often room to haggle on the price. It is a good idea to keep this in moderation, however because the risk is that the host will turn down a booking if the potential renter is too aggressive.Book in Advance More experienced users of Airbnb will make it a point to charge last minute travelers higher prices. This is especially true if the traveler is linked to a special event or conference. So making a reservation in advance will help mitigate this.Pay Attention to the Host’s Rules Every host has different rules for their listing. Some may allow pets or smokers while others may prefer families without children or singles. Some may even ask you to eit her pay for cleaning or do it yourself and failure to do so may lead to a penalty. Some hosts may charge extra for a guest in case of multiple travelers.ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF RENTING ON AIRBNBA few pros and cons of using Airbnb are:ProsThere is an opportunity to meet new people from within the country and also all over the world. This is true for both renters and hosts.Travelers can find accommodation that offers greater value for money as well as a different experience from a hotel.Hosts have the opportunity to make money from an unutilized resource such as a spare room or an empty house.Airbnb offers support to its users, and there is an insurance coverage for property damage or theft.Users can rate each other i.e. both renters and hosts which helps create credibility.ConsOne major risk is damage to property. Though not too common, but there are stories of difficult renters who left a damaged house and missing items in their wake.Guests may also have to deal with propert ies that do not match the listing. In addition, there may be unresponsive and unhelpful hosts that make the stay unpleasant.There may also be the occasional scammer, such as a person renting someone else’s apartment without the actual owner knowing. Image credits:  Airbnb and  Flickr | Gustavo da Cunha Pimenta under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Feudalism in England Under William the Conqeuror - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1632 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2019/02/15 Category Society Essay Level High school Tags: Feudalism Essay Did you like this example? After his victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 William the Conqueror became the first Norman King of England. Immediately William set out to consolidate his power in England by taking vast swaths of land and redistributing it to Norman lords who would rule on his behalf. This was the beginning of the feudal system in England. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Feudalism in England Under William the Conqeuror" essay for you Create order Scholars are split on whether or not William actually created feudalism or just capitalized upon a system that was already in the making, but it is clear that the Normans utilized the feudal system in order to cement their power in England. The structure and control the feudal system offered allowed William to maintain control of England throughout his reign. To understand how the structure of feudalism affected the Norman rule of England, feudalism must first be defined. Feudalism describes both a social and governmental structure where a monarch delegates land and power to vassals who rule on his behalf in exchange for military assistance. While arrangement of feudal power varied from place to place there were four common elements seen throughout feudal government: the fief, the castle, the knight, and vassal commendation . The process through which a lord would become a vassal of the king was called commendation. Commendation was a ceremony that usually consisted of two parts, an act of homage and an oath of fealty . The act of paying homage involved the inferior coming before the king bareheaded and weaponless, as a sign of submission, and then clasping the hands of the king to signify his obedience to him. The king would then produce a bible or other holy relic, which the vassal would place his hands upon in order to swear his oath o f fealty. These oaths generally involved the vassal swearing to support the king and honor his act of homage by acting in the interest of the monarch. In return for this act, the king would grant the vassal a fief. A fief is a parcel of land given to a lord to rule on the king’s behalf. These lords would hold the land ‘in fee’ for the king so that the king could maintain control over larger areas of land without being directly involved in the day to day governance of each area. The monarch in these situations still maintained the rights to the land that the vassal has control over, making it easy for the king to ensure his vassal stayed in accordance with his wishes because the vassals land rights could be revoked at any time. Land was not the only object that could be held in fee, government roles and hunting rights were also commonly granted in exchange for fealty. A fief’s main purpose was to provide income for the lord so that he had the means to prov ide for his knights. Fiefs usually consisted of some amount of land, which varied widely, as well as a number of un-free peasants tied to the land that would work for the lord. The majority of the fiefdoms under the rule of William the Conqueror were taken from Anglo-Saxons and redistributed to Norman lords. The seat of power for most fiefs was a castle. Castles were integral to the control of England because they gave the Norman aristocracy defensible positions through which they could amass armies and be safe from any rebellious Anglo-Saxons. Placing castles in each of the new fiefdoms formed following the Norman conquest not only gave the Normans a physical advantage in term of defensive outposts but also a distinct psychological advantage that the imposing stone structures provided . These nigh-impenetrable fortresses were placed in strategic positions that made them incredibly difficult to overwhelm and easy to defend. While castles provided the defensive and strategic advantage over the English, knights were the true military backbone of the feudal system implanted by the Normans. Knights were mounted soldiers that abided by a code of honor known as chivalry. Vassals of the king would grant knights an estate or manor with a certain number of peasants attached to it in order to supp ort the costs associated with being a knight. The horse, armor, and weapons necessary to be a knight were astronomically expensive, and without a portion of land it would have been impossible to attain knighthood. It took anywhere from fifteen to thirty peasant families to generate enough money to sustain one knight . The Normans used knights as a powerful tool to quell insurrections and stabilize life in Medieval England. With the common elements of feudalism defined thusly it becomes easier to see how William the Conqueror and his Norman allies manipulated the political and societal structure in their favor. Immediately after the Battle of Hastings was completed William set about consolidating land previously held by Anglo-Saxon lords and redistributing it to those loyal to him among the Norman aristocracy. Most of the English lords fled the country to find refuge in Scotland, Scandinavia, or Constantinople. Before William came in to power the power structure of the lords in England was very horizontal. There were thousands of lords who shared power with less authority granted to the king than under William. In many instances land was granted to English lords in perpetuity before Norman rule, thereby removing the kings power to take back the land he had granted his vassal. This was not the case under Williams rule. William established a more pyramidal structure to his rule in England. The Normans had a tradition of having stronger bonds between their lords and king than did the English. Whereas the English king only controlled his vassals through land rights, the Normans generally had a system where the ruling Duke, or in this case king, relied on his ‘military familia’ which consisted of a group of lords that were tied to the king through family bonds . The soldiers fielded by the ‘military familia’ were professionals who fought on horseback. They were superior to the un-mounted thegns who comprised the majority of pre-Norman English forces as well as had deeper family ties to the monarch. William utilized these stronger bonds between ruler and ruled in order to maintain a tight grip on the fiefs of England. After the Norman Conquest all of the land held by over 4000 Anglo-Saxon lords was taken and given to around 200 Norman and French lords . By displacing the former lords who would most likely not be loyal to him William ensured that any who would oppose him would not have access to the land or finances needed in order to field an army. In addition, by granting this land to Normans who were loyal to him William was granted access to all of the resources he was denying his opponents. Now William not only had control of his forces from Normandy, but also controlled the financial and military might of England. English lords had no choice but to vacate the country or to strike deals with their new masters. For those that were willing to make deals with the Normans, William would again use the ritual of vassal commendation to accept oaths of fealty from them. The English lords who fled remained a problem though. There were many rebellions staged by former English lords against Norman Englan d between 1066 and 1085. Every time, William retained control of England because of the political structure he had in place. For example, the first rebellion occurred in 1067, and was staged by the three sons of Harold Godwinson. King William had already returned to Normandy, just six months after his victory at the Battle of Hastings. The rebels had established themselves in Ireland and were raiding the Western coast of England. The Norman lords who had been established there utilized their castles and mounted forces to repel the invaders long enough for William to return from Normandy and gather men from his surrounding magnates then march to the Western coast. Because William had consolidated land and titles under his ‘military familia’ he had loyal men to defend his throne even in his absence. Perhaps the best example of William utilizing his newly formed feudal hierarchy was in the Harrying of the North in 1069. The earldom of Northumbria was semi-autonomous under previous English kings. In 971 Edgar the Peaceful had promised the earls of the North that interference of the king would be m inimal in exchange for their obedience to the crown. William the Conqueror did not want to continue this practice. After the lord he had established in the North, Robert de Comines, was brutally murdered by the locals William formed an army to march North. Despite the small size of his army, William proceeded to obliterate much of the North and decimate the rebel forces there. This was made possible in large part due to the prowess of the mounted knights who rode with him, the large retinue of loyal lords he could choose to support him, and the amount of defensive fortifications and castles he could utilize along the way. The amount of destruction wrought by William in such a short amount of time is a clear example of how the rigid structure and authority provided to him by his newly formed feudal hierarchy allowed him to act swiftly and effectively in bringing down his opponents. Despite multiple other attempts at rebellion following the Harrying of the North none proved successful. William established Norman lords in all of the earldoms of the North, which prevented any rebels from finding refuge. Even when Edgar Ethling, one of the last rebel Anglo-Saxon lords, sought help from the Danes to overthrow William the Conqueror they were unable to do so. William had such a strong hold on all of the lands of England that the Danes were unable to leave their sh ips and establish themselves on land to last the winter.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Womens Value of Money - 1342 Words

In our current society women have become a double edged sword. Beyond marrying and having children women have begun making huge advancements in their careers. The female society has grown strongly independent and competitive with men, and in many cases money lies at the center of this conflict. Women simply care just as much, if not more, about money when compared to men. Women are required to shop and spend more money on products in our society. Women have begun earning college degrees and entering high paying and competitive job fields while acting as the sole breadwinners of their families. Many women have now adopted a feminist attitude in which many young women now feel required to earn their own income. Due to the increasing changes†¦show more content†¦Due to the increasing wage gap women have had to step up to the plate to stay in the career race (Chemaly). In 2010, 60 million adults, thirty percent of the US population, had at least a bachelor’s degree. Thirt y-six percent of the entire United States female population held college degrees, a greater percentage than the twenty-nine percent of the entire United States male population (â€Å"More Working Women†). In 2011, a census showed that US women hold 10.6 million advanced degrees compared to 10.5 million for men. Women have begun to rise in career fields and now equate for half of the workforce. The number of stay-at-home mothers has decreased and stay-at-home fathers have somewhat increased (Magan). In fact forty percent of wives earn more than their husbands. Furthermore, according to recent Pew Center Research studies, twenty-two percent of women are heads of household whether due to divorce or being widowed (Chemaly). Also according to Pew Center Research, women ranging from ages eighteen to thirty-four care more about receiving high paying jobs than men do. When surveyed in 1997, fifty-six percent of women rank having a high paying career as one of the most important aspec ts of life. That number grew to sixty-six percent by 2011. Men, however, changed only one percent from their fifty-eight percent in 1997. In simpler terms, women are now taking their education and career futureShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of From The Frying Pan Into The Fire 1506 Words   |  7 Pagesfamily look like in the twenty-first century? Probably both men and women are working in order to make money to support families. Women’s gender roles have changed significantly within fifty years. Because of Capitalism, women now have more rights than before, and some women now make more money than men. Capitalism combines the principle efficiency and the aim for profit, which presents as the more money one person can make shows the ability this person maintain. 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A Dirty Job Chapter 5 Free Essays

string(19) " it away from her\." 5 DARKNESS GETS UPPITY Hey, Ray,† Charlie said as he came down the steps into the storeroom. He always tried to make a lot of noise on the steps and usually fired a loud and early â€Å"hello† to warn his employees that he was coming. He’d worked a number of jobs before coming back to take over the family business, and had learned from experience that nobody liked a sneaky boss. We will write a custom essay sample on A Dirty Job Chapter 5 or any similar topic only for you Order Now â€Å"Hey, Charlie,† Ray said. Ray was out front, sitting on a stool behind the counter. He was pushing forty, tall, balding, and moved through the world without ever turning his head. He couldn’t. As a San Francisco policeman, he’d caught a gangbanger’s bullet in the neck six years ago, and that was the last time he’d looked over his shoulder without using a mirror. Ray lived on a generous disability pension from the city and worked for Charlie in exchange for free rent on his fourth-floor apartment, thus keeping the transaction off both their books. He spun around on the stool to face Charlie. â€Å"Hey – uh – I wanted to say that, you know, your situation, I mean, your loss. Everybody liked Rachel. You know, if I can do anything – â€Å" It was the first time Charlie had seen Ray since the funeral, so the awkwardness of secondary condolences had yet to be forded. â€Å"You’ve done more than enough by picking up my shifts. Whatcha working on?† Charlie was trying desperately to not look at the various objects in the shop that were glowing dull red. â€Å"Oh, this.† Ray rotated and pushed back so that Charlie could see the computer screen, where there were displayed rows of portraits of smiling, young Asian women. â€Å"It’s called Desperate Filipinas dot-com.† â€Å"Is this where you met Miss LoveYouLongTime?† â€Å"That was not her name. Did Lily tell you that? That kid has problems.† â€Å"Yeah, well, kids,† Charlie said, suddenly noticing a matronly woman in tweed who was browsing the curio shelves at the front of the store. She was carrying a porcelain frog that was glowing dull red. Ray clicked on one of the pictures, which opened a profile. â€Å"Look at this one, boss. It says she’s into sculling.† He spun on his stool again and bounced his eyebrows at Charlie. Charlie pulled his attention from the woman with the glowing frog and looked at the screen. â€Å"That’s rowing, Ray.† â€Å"No it’s not. Look, it says she was a coxswain in college.† Again with the eyebrow bounce, he offered a high five. â€Å"Also rowing,† Charlie said, leaving the ex-cop hanging. â€Å"The person at the back of the boat who yells at the rowers is called the coxswain.† â€Å"Really?† Ray said, disappointed. He’d been married three times, and been left by all three wives because of an inability to develop normal adult social skills. Ray reacted to the world as a cop, and while many women found that attractive initially, they expected him eventually to leave the attitude, along with his service weapon, in the coat closet when he arrived home. He didn’t. When Ray had first come to work at Asher’s Secondhand, it had taken two months for Charlie to get him to stop ordering customers to â€Å"move along, there’s nothing to see here.† Ray spent a lot of time being disappointed in himself and humanity in general. â€Å"But, dude, rowing!† Charlie said, trying to make it all better. He liked the ex-cop in spite of his awkwardness. Ray was basically a good guy, kindhearted and loyal, hardworking and punctual, but most important, Ray was losing his hair faster than Charlie. Ray sighed. â€Å"Maybe I should search for another Web site. What’s a word that means that your standards are lower than the desperate?† Charlie read down the page a little. â€Å"This woman has a master’s degree in English lit from Cambridge, Ray. And look at her. She’s gorgeous. And nineteen. Why is she desperate?† â€Å"Hey, wait a minute. A master’s degree at nineteen, this girl is too smart for me.† â€Å"No she’s not. She’s lying.† Ray spun on the stool as if Charlie had poked him in the ear with a pencil. â€Å"No!† â€Å"Ray, look at her. She looks like one of those Asian models for Sour Apple Flavored Calamari Treats.† â€Å"They have that?† Charlie pointed to the left side of the front window. â€Å"Ray, let me introduce you to Chinatown. Chinatown, this is Ray. Ray, Chinatown.† Ray smiled, embarrassed. There was a store two blocks up that sold nothing but dried shark parts, the windows full of pictures of beautiful Chinese women holding shark spleens and eyeballs like they’d just received an Academy Award. â€Å"Well, the last woman I met through here did have a few errors and omissions in her profile.† â€Å"Like?† Charlie was watching the woman in tweed with the glowing frog, who was approaching the counter. â€Å"Well, she said that she was twenty-three, five feet tall, a hundred five pounds, so I thought, ‘Okay, I can have fun with a petite woman.’ Turns out it was a hundred and five kilos.† â€Å"So, not what you expected?† Charlie said. He smiled at the approaching woman, feeling panic rise. She was going to buy the frog! â€Å"Five foot – two-thirty. She was built like a mailbox. I might have gotten past that, but she wasn’t even twenty-three, she was sixty-three. One of her grandsons tried to sell her to me.† â€Å"Ma’am, I’m sorry, you can’t buy that,† Charlie said to the woman. â€Å"You hear the expression all the time,† Ray went on, â€Å"but you hardly ever meet anyone really trying to sell his own grandmother.† â€Å"Why not?† the woman asked. â€Å"Fifty bucks,† Ray said. â€Å"That’s outrageous,† the woman said. â€Å"It’s marked ten.† â€Å"No, it’s fifty for the grandmother Ray is dating,† Charlie said. â€Å"The frog is not for sale, ma’am, I’m sorry. It’s defective.† â€Å"Then why do you have it on the shelf? Why is it marked for sale? I don’t see any defect.† Evidently she couldn’t see that the goofy porcelain frog was not only glowing in her hands, it had started to pulsate. Charlie reached across the counter and snatched it away from her. You read "A Dirty Job Chapter 5" in category "Essay examples" â€Å"It’s radioactive, ma’am. I’m sorry. You can’t buy it.† â€Å"I wasn’t dating her,† Ray said. â€Å"I just flew to the Philippines to meet her.† â€Å"It is not radioactive,† the woman said. â€Å"You’re just trying to jack up the price. Fine, I’ll give you twenty for it.† â€Å"No, ma’am, public safety,† Charlie said, trying to look concerned, holding the frog to his chest as if shielding her from its dangerous energy. â€Å"And it’s clearly ridiculous. You’ll note that this frog is playing a banjo with only two strings. A travesty, really. Why don’t you let my colleague show you something in a cymbal-playing monkey. Ray, could you show this young woman something in a monkey, please.† Charlie hoped that the â€Å"young woman† would win him points. The woman backed away from the counter, holding her purse before her like a shield. â€Å"I’m not sure I want to buy anything from you wack jobs.† â€Å"Hey!† Ray protested, as if to say that there was only one wack job on duty and he wasn’t it. Then she did it, she quickstepped to a rack of shoes and picked up a pair of size-twelve, red Converse All Stars. They, too, were glowing. â€Å"I want these.† â€Å"No.† Charlie tossed the frog over his shoulder to Ray, who fumbled it and almost dropped it. â€Å"Those aren’t for sale either.† The tweed woman backed away toward the door, holding the sneakers behind her. Charlie stalked her down the aisle, taking the occasional grab at the All Stars. â€Å"Give them.† When the woman butt-bumped into the front door and the bell over the jamb jingled, she looked up and Charlie made his move, faking hard left, then going right, reaching around her and grabbing the laces of the sneakers, as well as a scoop of big, tweedy ass in the bargain. He quickstepped back toward the counter, tossed the sneakers to Ray, and then turned and fell into a sumo stance to challenge the tweed woman. She was still at the door, looking as if she couldn’t decide to be terrified or disgusted. â€Å"You people need to be put away. I’m reporting you to the Better Business Bureau and the local merchants’ association. And you, Mr. Asher, can tell Ms. Severo that I will be back.† And with that, she was through the door and gone. Charlie turned to Ray. â€Å"Ms. Severo? Lily? She was here to see Lily?† â€Å"Truant officer,† Ray said. â€Å"She’s been in a couple of times.† â€Å"You might have said something.† â€Å"I didn’t want to lose the sale.† â€Å"So, Lily – â€Å" â€Å"Ducks out the back when she sees her coming. The woman also wanted to check with you that the notes for Lily’s absences were legitimate. I vouched.† â€Å"Well, Lily is going back to school, and as of right now, I’m back to work.† â€Å"That’s great. I took this call today – an estate in Pacific Heights. Lots of nice women’s clothes.† Ray tapped a piece of notepaper on the counter. â€Å"I’m not really qualified to handle it.† â€Å"I’ll do it, but first we have a lot to catch up on. Flip the ‘Closed’ sign and lock the front door, would you, Ray?† Ray didn’t move. â€Å"Sure, but – Charlie, are you sure that you’re ready to go back to work?† He nodded to the sneakers and frog on the counter. â€Å"Oh, those, I think there’s something wrong with them. You don’t see anything unusual about those two items?† Ray looked again. â€Å"Nope.† â€Å"Or that once I took the frog away from her, she went right for a pair of sneakers that are clearly not her size?† Ray weighed the truth against the sweet deal he had here, with an apartment and under-the-table income and a boss that had really been a decent guy before he went 51/50, and he said, â€Å"Yeah, there was something strange about her.† â€Å"Aha!† said Charlie. â€Å"I just wish I knew where I could get a Geiger counter.† â€Å"I have a Geiger counter,† Ray said. â€Å"You do?† â€Å"Sure, you want me to get it?† â€Å"Maybe later,† Charlie said. â€Å"Just lock up, and help me gather up some of the merchandise.† Over the next hour Ray watched as Charlie moved a set of what seemed randomly chosen items from the store to the back room, directing him to under no circumstances put them back out or sell them to anyone. Then he retrieved the Geiger counter that he’d obtained on a sweet trade for a stringless oversized tennis racket and tested each item as Charlie instructed. And, of course, they were as inert as dirt. â€Å"And you don’t see any glowing or pulsating or anything in this pile?† Charlie asked. â€Å"Sorry.† Ray shook his head, feeling a little embarrassed that he was witnessing this. â€Å"Good first day back to work, though,† Ray said, trying to make it all better. â€Å"Maybe you should call it a day, go check on the baby, and make that estate call in the morning. I’ll box this stuff up and mark it so Lily won’t sell or trade it.† â€Å"Okay,† Charlie said. â€Å"But don’t throw it out, either. I’m going to figure this out.† â€Å"You betcha, boss. See you in the morning.† â€Å"Yeah, thanks, Ray. You can go home when you finish.† Charlie went back to his apartment, checking his hands the whole way to see if any of the red glow from the pile of objects had rubbed off on them, but they seemed normal. He sent Jane home, fed and bathed Sophie, and read her to sleep with a few pages from Slaughterhouse-Five, then went to bed early and slept fitfully. He awoke the next morning in a haze, then sat bolt upright in bed, eyes wide and heart pounding when he saw the note sitting on the nightstand. Another one. Then he noticed that this time it wasn’t his handwriting, and the number was obviously a phone number, and he sighed. It was the estate appointment that Ray had made for him. He’d put it on the nightstand so he wouldn’t forget. Mr. Michael Mainheart, it read; then upscale women’s clothing and furs, with a double underline. The phone number had a local exchange. He picked up the note, and under it was a second piece of notepaper, this one with the same name, written in his own handwritin g, and under it, the numeral 5. He didn’t remember writing any of it. At that moment, something large and dark passed by the second-story bedroom window, but by the time he looked up, it was gone. A blanket of fog lay over the Bay and from Pacific Heights the great orange towers of the Golden Gate Bridge jutted through the fog bank like carrots from the faces of sleeping conjoined twin snowmen. In the Heights, the morning sun had already opened the sky and workmen were scurrying about, tending yards and gardens around the mansions. When he arrived at the home of Michael Mainheart the first thing Charlie noticed was that no one noticed him. There were two guys working in the yard, to whom Charlie waved as he passed, but they did not wave back. Then the mailman, who was coming off the big porch, drove him off the walkway into the dewy grass without so much as an â€Å"excuse me.† â€Å"Excuse me!† Charlie said, sarcastically, but the mailman was wearing headphones and listening to something that was inspiring him to bob his head like a pigeon feeding on amphetamines, and he bopped on. Charlie was going to shout something devastatingly clever, then thought better of it, for although it had been some years since he’d heard of a postal employee perpetrating a massacre, as long as the term â€Å"going postal† referred to anything besides choosing a shipping carrier, he felt he shouldn’t press his luck. Called a wack job by a complete stranger one day and shouldered off the sidewalk by a civil servant the next: this city was becoming a jungle. Charlie rang the bell and waited to the side of the twelve-foot leaded-glass door. A minute later he heard light, shuffling steps approaching and a diminutive silhouette moved behind the glass. The door swung open slowly. â€Å"Mr. Asher,† said Michael Mainheart. â€Å"Thank you for coming.† The old man was swimming in a houndstooth suit that he must have bought thirty years ago when he was a more robust fellow. When he shook Charlie’s hand his skin felt like an old wonton wrapper, cool and a little powdery. Charlie tried not to shudder as the old man led him into a grand marble rotunda, with leaded-glass windows running to a vaulted, forty-foot ceiling and a circular staircase that swept up to a landing that led off to the upper wings of the house. Charlie had often wondered what it was like to have a house with wings. How would you ever find your car keys? â€Å"Come this way,† Mainheart said. â€Å"I’ll show you where my wife kept her clothes.† â€Å"I’m sorry about your loss,† Charlie said automatically. He’d been on scores of estate calls. You don’t want to come off as some kind of vulture, his father used to say. Always compliment the merchandise; it might be a piece of crap to you, but they might have a lot of their soul poured into it. Compliment but never covet. You can make a profit and preserve everyone’s dignity in the process. â€Å"Holy shit,† Charlie said as he followed the old man into a walk-in closet the size of his own apartment. â€Å"I mean – your wife had exquisite taste, Mr. Mainheart.† There was row upon row of designer couture clothing, everything from evening gowns to racks, two tiers high, of knit suits, arranged by color and level of formality – an opulent rainbow of silk and linen and wool. Cashmere sweaters, coats, capes, jackets, skirts, blouses, lingerie. The closet was shaped like a T, with a large vanity and mirror at the apex, and accessories on each wing (even the closet with wings!), shoes on one side, belts, scarves, and handbags on the other. A whole wing of shoes, Italian and French, handmade, from the skins of animals who had led happy, blemish-free lives. Full-length mirrors flanked the vanity at the end of the closet and Charlie caught the reflection of himself and Michael Mainheart in the mirror, he in his secondhand gray pinstripe and Mainheart in his ill-fitting houndstooth, studies in gray and black, stark and lifeless-looking in this vibrant garden. The old man went to the chair at the vanity and sat down with a creak and a wheeze. â€Å"I expect it will take you some time to assess it,† he said. Charlie stood in the middle of the closet and looked around for a second before replying. â€Å"It depends, Mr. Mainheart, on what you want to part with.† â€Å"All of it. Every stitch. I can’t stand the feel of her in here.† His voice broke. â€Å"I want it gone.† He looked away from Charlie at the shoe wing, trying not to show that he was tearing up. â€Å"I understand,† Charlie said, not sure what to say. This collection was completely out of his league. â€Å"No, you don’t understand, young man. You couldn’t understand. Emily was my life. I got up in the morning for her, I went to work for her, I built a business for her. I couldn’t wait to get home at night to tell her about my day. I went to bed with her and I dreamed about her when I slept. She was my passion, my wife, my best friend, the love of my life. And one day, without warning, she was gone and my life is a void. You couldn’t possibly understand.† But Charlie did. â€Å"Do you have any children, Mr. Mainheart?† â€Å"Two sons. They came back for the funeral, then they went home to their own families. They offer to do whatever they can, but†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"They can’t,† Charlie finished for him. â€Å"No one can.† Now the old man looked up at him, his face as bereft and barren as a mummified basset hound. â€Å"I just want to die.† â€Å"Don’t say that,† Charlie said, because that’s what you say. â€Å"That feeling will pass.† Which he said because everyone had been saying it to him. As far as he knew, he was just slinging bullshit clichs. â€Å"She was – † Mainheart’s voice caught on the edge of a sob. A strong man, at once overcome by his grief and embarrassed that he was showing it. â€Å"I know,† Charlie said, thinking about how Rachel still occupied that place in his heart, and when he turned in the kitchen to say something to her, and she wasn’t there, it took his breath. â€Å"She was – â€Å" â€Å"I know,† Charlie interrupted, trying to give the old man a pass, because he knew what Mainheart was feeling. She was meaning and order and light, and now that she’s gone, chaos falls like a dark leaden cloud. â€Å"She was so phenomenally stupid.† â€Å"What?† Charlie looked up so quickly he heard a vertebra pop in his neck. Hadn’t seen that coming. â€Å"The dumb broad ate silica gel,† Mainheart said, irritated as well as agonized. â€Å"What?† Charlie was shaking his head, as if trying to rattle something loose. â€Å"Silica gel.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Silica gel! Silica gel! Silica gel, you idiot!† Charlie felt as if he should shout the name of some arcane stuff back at him: Well, symethicone! Symethicone! Symethicone, you butt-nugget! Instead he said, â€Å"The stuff fake breasts are made of? She ate that?† The image of a well-dressed older woman macking on a goopish spoonful of artificial boob spooge was running across the lobes of his brain like a stuttering nightmare. Mainheart pushed himself to his feet on the vanity. â€Å"No, the little packets of stuff they pack in with electronic equipment and cameras.† â€Å"The ‘Do Not Eat’ stuff?† â€Å"Exactly.† â€Å"But it says right on the packet – she ate that?† â€Å"Yes. The furrier put packets of it in with her furs when he installed that cabinet.† Mainheart pointed. Charlie turned, and behind the large closet door where they had entered was a lighted glass cabinet – inside hung a dozen or so fur coats. The cabinet probably had its own air-conditioning unit to control the humidity, but that wasn’t what Charlie was noticing. Even under the recessed fluorescent light inside the cabinet, one of the coats was clearly glowing red and pulsating. He turned back to Mainheart slowly, trying not to overreact, not sure, in fact, what would constitute an overreaction in this case, so he tried to sound calm, but not willing to take any shit. â€Å"Mr. Mainheart, I appreciate your loss, but is there something more going on here than you’ve told me?† â€Å"I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you mean.† â€Å"I mean,† Charlie said, â€Å"why, of all the used-clothing dealers in the Bay Area, did you decide to call me? There are people who are much more qualified to deal with a collection of this size and quality.† Charlie stormed over to the fur cabinet and pulled open the door. It made a floof-tha sound that the seal on a refrigerator door makes when opened. He grabbed the glowing jacket – fox fur, it appeared to be. â€Å"Or was it this? Did the call have something to do with this?† Charlie brandished the jacket like he was holding a murder weapon before the accused. In short, he thought about adding, are you fucking with me? â€Å"You were the first used-clothing dealer in the phone book.† Charlie let the jacket drop. â€Å"Asher’s Secondhand?† â€Å"Starts with an A,† Mainheart said, slowly, carefully – obviously resisting the urge to call Charlie an idiot again. â€Å"So it has nothing to do with this jacket?† â€Å"Well, it has something to do with that jacket. I’d like you to take it away with all the rest of it.† â€Å"Oh,† Charlie said, trying to recover. â€Å"Mr. Mainheart, I appreciate the call, and this is certainly a beautiful collection, amazing, really, but I’m not equipped to take on this kind of inventory. And I’ll be honest with you, even though my father would be spinning in his grave for telling you this, there is probably a million dollars’ worth of clothes in this closet. Maybe more. And given the time and space to resell it, it’s probably worth a quarter of that. I just don’t have that kind of money.† â€Å"We can work something out,† Mainheart said. â€Å"Just to get it out of the house – â€Å" â€Å"I could take some of it on consignment, I suppose – â€Å" â€Å"Five hundred dollars.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Give me five hundred dollars and get it out of here by tomorrow and it’s yours.† Charlie started to object, but he could feel what felt like the ghost of his father rising up to bonk him on the head with a spittoon if he didn’t stop himself. We provide a valuable service, son. We are like an orphanage to art and artifact, because we are willing to handle the unwanted, we give them value. â€Å"I couldn’t do that, Mr. Mainheart, I feel as if I’d be taking advantage of your grief.† Oh for Christ’s sake, you fucking loser, you are no son of mine. I have no son. Was that the ghost of Charlie’s father, rattling chains in his head? Why, then, did it have the voice and vocabulary of Lily? Can a conscience be greedy? â€Å"You would be doing me a favor, Mr. Asher. A huge favor. If you don’t take it, my next call is to the Goodwill. I promised Emily that if something ever happened to her that I wouldn’t just give her things away. Please.† And there was so much pain in the old man’s voice that Charlie had to look away. Charlie felt for the old man because he did understand. He couldn’t do anything to help, couldn’t say, It will get better, like everyone kept saying to him. It wasn’t getting better. Different, but not better. And this fellow had fifty more years in which to pack his hopes, or in his case, his history. â€Å"Let me think about it. Check into storage. If I can handle it, I’ll call you tomorrow, would that be all right?† â€Å"I’d be grateful,† Mainheart said. Then, for no reason that he could think of, Charlie said, â€Å"May I take this jacket with me? As an example of the quality of the collection, in case I have to divide it among other dealers.† â€Å"That would be fine. Let me show you out.† As they passed into the rotunda, a shadow passed across the leaded-glass windows, three stories up. A large shadow. Charlie paused on the steps and waited for the old man to react, but he just tottered on down the staircase, leaning heavily on the railing as he went. When Mainheart reached the door he turned to Charlie, extending his hand. â€Å"I’m sorry about that, uh, outburst upstairs. I haven’t been myself since – â€Å" As the old man began to open the door a figure dropped outside, casting the silhouette of a bird as tall as a man through the glass. â€Å"No!† Charlie dove forward, knocking the old man aside and slamming the door on the great bird’s head, the heavy black beak stabbing through and snapping like hedge clippers, rattling an umbrella stand and scattering its contents across the marble floor. Charlie’s face was only inches from the bird’s eye, and he shoved the door with his shoulder, trying to keep the beak from snapping off one of his hands. The bird’s claws raked against the glass, cracking one of the thick beveled panels as the animal thrashed to free itself. Charlie threw his hip against the doorjamb then slid down it, dropped the fox jacket, and snatched one of the umbrellas from the floor. He stabbed up into the bird’s neck feathers, but lost his purchase on the doorjamb – one of the black talons snaked through the opening and raked across his forearm, cutting through his jacket, his shirtsleeve, and into the flesh. Charlie shoved the umbrella with all he had, driving the bird’s head back through the opening. The raven let out a screech and took flight, its wings making a great whooshing noise as it went. Charlie lay on his back, out of breath, staring at the leaded-glass panels, as if any moment the shadow of the giant raven would come back, then he looked to Michael Mainheart, who lay crumpled on his side like a stringless marionette. Beside his head lay a cane with an ivory handle that had been carved into the shape of a polar bear that had fallen from the umbrella stand. The cane was glowing red. The old man was not breathing. â€Å"Well that’s fucked up,† Charlie said. How to cite A Dirty Job Chapter 5, Essay examples

Saturday, April 25, 2020

Page #1 Essays - Crime, Violence, Abuse, Dispute Resolution, Ethics

Page #1 Teenage violence in schools has become a tremendous concern to many people. School violence over the past number of years has been increasing and family life, the things that occur in schools and the neighborhoods that the teenagers (that commit the crimes or violent acts) live in are some of the major factors. These are not necessarily the only causes to teenage violence. Family Lifestyle and the behavior of members within the family have been shown to have a direct affect on a teenager's behavior in school. A child can be influenced very easily by any older person, especially a family member, because he always looks up to that family member. If a person in the family is involved in a criminal activity then the children can be turned on by this and become interested in doing the same thing. If the guardian or parent of a teenager does not punish him for doing something wrong, this can only lead to repetition of the bad behavior. Failure to stop a child from doing something wrong could lead the child to believe that his behavior is acceptable. Also, a child thinks that the people that are supposed to love him don't even care that he is doing something bad so he will continue to do it. Teenagers also commit acts of violence to get their parents' attention. If parents ignore what their teenagers are doing, then the teenagers will continue to do more nega tive things just to get their parents to notice them. Another reason why family lifestyle is a cause to teen violence is, if the teenager is abandoned at a young age than there is no one to teach him wrong and right (Kim 82). Page #2 There are many different situations that can occur in school that can cause teenagers to do violent things. When a student has an argument with other students or a teacher that student may only know how to deal his anger by striking out. Often, teenagers do not know how to talk things out and instead, react violently. If a teenager doesn't like what someone (a faculty member or another student) has said to him, he might also let out his anger in violent ways. Sometimes, even if the other person has not done anything wrong to him, but rather to another person he can still get angry (school violence). The neighborhood that a teenager lives in can also cause him to be violent. If a teen lives in a bad neighborhood, where violent acts are going on all the time (besides for when he is in his house) and he will most probably be influenced by it (Kim 81). As a teenager sees more and more negative behavior happening daily in his surroundings, these behaviors will become acceptable and result in the teenager committing these same negative behaviors. Some of these negative behaviors include theft (lunch money, jewelry), vandalism, demands, threats, bullying, murder and rape (Kim 79). The following situations are examples of common behavior by teenagers; two boys did an act of vandalism in their school in New Jersey. The two boys vandalized their busses. The damage amount was $60,000, and the school had to close down for two days because there was no transportation. Another act of vandalism happened in Oregon Page #3 when a boy was upset about his semester grades. He brought explosives into the school office and destroyed his records and the records of all the other students. It cost $43,000 in repair for all the damages (Landau 81). Some teenagers don't get caught at what their doing out of their own intimidation behavior towards other teens. After they bully some kid or even hurt him, the victim may feel so intimidated and he will be scared to tell on him (Landau 80). The teenagers that do get caught sometimes end up doing whatever it is they were caught doing or doing something even worse. This happens because either, they get very little discipline or they are just so angry that they were caught they do the same thing again (or something even worse) out of anger (Landau 79). The results of violence in schools can vary from requiring every student to have a picture