Summer Reading Assignment: About a Boy

Mr. Wilson English 11 5 September 2012 Summer Reading Assignment: About a Boy Insensible Will, who lives comfortably off of the money from a popular Christmas song his father wrote, comes up with the idea to join a Single Parents Alone Together, (SPAT), group in order to pick up single moms. What he chooses to overlook however, is the fact that he does not have any children. This sparks a chain of events beginning with him meeting Marcus, an awkward young teenage boy who is being raised by a depressed, single mother.Marcus is constantly tormented at school and feels as though he has no one to turn to. He becomes very fond of Will who is tolerant with him at first and begins to grow attached to his high strung personality. Marcus begins to gain confidence, learn how to deal with his mother, and win the affection of an older punk rocker girl named Ellie at his school. However spending time with Marcus begins to show Will just how empty his life really is. Marcus and Will cross paths at a SPAT get together when Marcus’s mom asks her friend Susie to bring him.That day is the when both Marcus and Wills’ life change forever. When arriving home from the SPAT party Susie, Marcus, and Will walk into Marcus’s mom Fiona passed out in her own vomit. In the mix of it all Marcus doesn’t even see that his mom had tried to overdose on pills. From that day forward Marcus constantly worried about his mother’s depression instead of worrying about himself, and how he gets picked on everyday at his school. It wasn’t until he met Will that Marcus realized why he was getting picked on.Fiona, Marcus’s mom, was in denial and believed that Marcus was just fine wearing ugly shoes, and listening to Mozart. Will helps him to find himself, and to shed his nerdy and dorky skin. As the months passed Marcus began to change and he started hanging out with this punk rocker girl Ellie. At first Marcus believed that he was in love with Ellie and tha t he could spend the rest of his life with her but after taking her to go see his father Marcus realizes she is just too different and crazy. At the end of the novel Will knows for sure that Marcus will be ok when he complains about Will askingFiona to take out sheet music of Marcus’s old favorite nerdy singer. He knows the days of Marcus letting kids bully him, steal his shoes, and mock him for his old haircut are gone. Will did not only help Marcus, but Marcus helped him. Before he was ever involved with Marcus, Will was a pot smoking, lazy, self centered person. However after everything he went through with Marcus, Will changed, and for the better. At the end of the novel Will had found love with this beautiful single mother, Rachel. Even Will realized that himself.He had lost his shell and his cool and his distance, and he felt scared and vulnerable, but he got to be with Rachel, and that’s all that mattered. Fiona at the beginning of the novel was a suicidal, depr essed, and horrible mother. Even after trying to kill herself she was still horrible. She didn’t even notice how hard of a time Marcus was having at school and she wanted to take away Will from Marcus when he was the only thing making her son happy. But as Marcus changed so did Fiona. She was longer so depressed and no longer hated Marcus as her son.Even though she has lost a big part of Marcus, she got to stay away from the hospital because she was no longer depressed. Change makes you flexible, and helps go with the flow. Change makes you smarter. If things never changed, you’d never learn anything new. And every time you learn something new its makes you smarter than you were yesterday. Change reminds us that anything is possible. It’s easy to think that anything that’s stuck will always be that way. Marcus, Fiona and Will all learned how to improve their lives and it was all because of each other.

Not Always Right

Brooke is a stunning, red-haired, fair-skinned, girl with dazzling blue-green eyes. On her skinny figure she wore light distressed Jeans and a long-sleeve grey sweater? she rocked It. I had never talked to her In my life and I had never heard anything bad about her; I Just made assumptions of my own. Before asking her anything, I told her that she could tell me anything and that it would be safe with me and I meant it. She has good grades, likes photography, and says that she doesn't typically have issues with her friends.Then, I asked her if she was self-conscious and she said yes; she also said yes when I asked her if she considered herself to be depressed. She told me that she had family issues and that her and her parents do not get along?to this I relate In so many ways. We talked about family problems for the entire first half of our conversation. When this topic came to an end I asked a question that I'm sure she saw coming. I asked her is she cut and she said, â€Å"l used t o but things have gotten better for me. She started cutting in 7th grade because of self-hatred, depression, ND family issues. I wasn't surprised because too many freshman girls do this as well, including me. The main things I learned about her were that I was wrong and that we have a lot In common. To be honest, I learned more from this experience about myself than I learned about Brooke. When I asked Brooke to speak with me, I had an Idea that the assumptions about her in my head were no doubt, correct. Because I had judged her so roughly, I did not think she would be able to change my mind?call me stubborn.Also, I came to realize that Brooke and I have a lot in common: the way we deal with problems, being self-conscious, and being required to adjust to family issues. This made me realize that I tend to Judge people who I share similarities with; I also found other relationships where I did or do this. I do this because I try so hard to be myself and be original, but being complet ely unique is hard to do in a world of 6,973,738,433 people. She is a gorgeous girl and I am insanely jealous of her; I know for a fact that I edge people am jealous of.When we were talking, I found my original idea of her completely deteriorating. The more I think about my colonization with Brooke, the more I realize that I am wrong. Now, I realize that I enjoy talking to her. I hope we keep talking and maybe even one day become friends. I hope that eventually she will see me as someone she can talk to about her problems instead of cutting herself. When I spoke with her, I felt like I could be honest and be myself and I rarely feel this way with anybody.I'm surprised y my slight ability to open up more than I usually do during that conversation because I always hold everything in. For example, when she asked me if I cut, my good friends. I'm thankful for the change to begin getting to know Brooke, and I hope that we continue getting to know each other. I will not say that I am goin g to stop Judging people because Vie tried to do so before?it doesn't work, but from now on I will try my best to get to know a person to a fuller extent before Judging them. I'm glad I got this chance to figure out that I was wrong about Brooke.

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Nurses and the Affordable Care Act - Coursework Example For instance, through this legislation, the government intends to encourage nursing education and mitigate shortages of nursing professionals in many of its states offering them with loan facilities as well as the opportunity to get a proportion of their loan cancelled. According to Wakefield (2010), the legislation also offers a wider opportunity for deserving nurses to appear in leadership positions within the sector. In the words of Davis, Abrams and Stremikis (2011) too, â€Å"the Affordable Care Act invests $1.5 billion over 2011–2015 for the National Health Service Corps to provide scholarships and loan forgiveness for primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants practicing in health professional shortage areas.† Applying the above discussed facts of Affordable Care Act, it becomes apparent that the government is taking realistic and effective measures to encourage participation of nurses in almost every sphere of the healthcare sector in America. This would help in dealing with the major issues prevalent in the domain. At the onset, it will address the long-lasting inhibition amid the nurses that they lack adequate opportunities to be in the leadership position of the industry. On the other hand, it is expected to ensure diversity as well as uniformity in the trend of delivering nursing services to the population in rural areas of the nation, apart from those regions suffering from shortage of these professionals. Therefore, with greater growth opportunities and financial aids, it gets justified that the new legislation serves with a greater voice and diverse set of choices to the nurses influencing the future of these professionals as a group as well as

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Rising Expectations of Nation Building - Essay Example This has led to the sustainable development handed down from the various presidents that have led in the United States. This system of governance characterized by presidency has had a major revolution in the countries and continuous development. Therefore, the various presidents have contributed immensely towards the growth of the states which have been actualized through their different styles of leadership. Leadership styles refer to the different ways in which the various leaders formulate laws, provide the way forward to their people and motivate them for better outcomes. The effectiveness of a leader in his work will vary depending on the styles of governance. A good leader tends to apply various modes of governance while a bad leader will only resort to a particular mode. The types of leadership styles range from autocratic, democratic to free reign. An autocratic leader fails to consult the followers but will instead dictate what is to be done and how it is to be achieved (Tan nenbaum & Schmidt, 2003). A leader who improvises the free reign allows the followers to participate in the decision making. In this case, the people perform the task at hand but the leader becomes the one in charge. It is based on the notion that nobody can do everything and therefore, the leader selects some tasks as priorities and delegates the rest. A democratic leader will employ a few representatives in the decision making process while he sustains the final decision authority especially where the decision involves separate parts which are held by various people. In this case, the employees work as a team and have to be very skillful and with full information of their surroundings. In their leadership the leaders take into consideration the various human needs by trying to come up with teams, providing psychological support and providing accessible help to their surbordinates. They also motivate the people to work so as to increase production through the provision of work stru cture and goals. The United States Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy are said to be great democrats (Schriesheim, 2002). Their contributions to nation building are immense and they have used most of the styles of leadership to enhance their effectiveness. A major style that led to President’s Kennedy success as a leader is his being a delegate. He elected some economic advisors to carry out decisions relating to the economic affairs and a committee for the legislature. In this manner, he was usually involved in the running of the state economic affairs. He also delegated work to his brother in- law to head the Peace Corps whose main aim was to deliver assistance to most of the underdeveloped countries of the world through the provision of construction materials, farming equipment, education facilities and health. In his quest to fight the communist as had been briefed by Eisenhower, President Kennedy dispatched Johnson to meet Diem of Vietnam so as to assure him o f his support. He provided military helicopters and more advisors to help n the fight. In being a delegate the president had various sectors being acted upon ensuring full running of the state including sectors such as defense, intelligence, trade, international relations, political arena and economic policy. This was equally applicable to Eisenhower who had advisors on

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY TEMPLATE - Article Example The results of the research identified that combined sentimental dedication autonomously arbitrates the negative associations between empowerment-promoting and inspiration practices and the overall intentional return. In addition, this article determines the different philosophy of four rivulets of study concerning collective commitment, HR activities and performances and the overall yield. According to the results of the study, it is evident that human resource practices that promote employees’ skills, knowledge and aptitude are positively related to voluntary yield but are not interceded by joint sentimental dedication. Needless to say, this paper offers insights to principals and managers whose objective is to manage overall employee yield. It also offers principals and mangers the confrontations of structuring a group of endowed workers through the employment of creative employment and cultivating of workers’ readiness and aptitude to move across organizational limits. This research offers support for the notion that investments in talents are portable. Considerably, the findings of the research offer a template for decreasing the heightened yield related to enhanced hiring and training ventures. Debatably, techniques that heighten the sentimental dedication of the crucial personnel may counteract the increased turnover from the employment of skill-promoting practices. In organizations, the principals and managers should supplement the skill-promoting activities with motivation-promoting activities to diminish turnover and confine the performance advantages of a better labor force. This article examines the responsibility of principals and managers in implementing a strategic role and decentralization of human resources tasks to the line among the workforce in organizations. This study involves 46 line managers drawn from three organizations in United Kingdom within a period of 2 years. In reference to the results

Supervision requires the active communication of leadership skills Essay

Supervision requires the active communication of leadership skills that results in a climate where self-motivation takes place - Essay Example Supervision requires the active communication of leadership skills that results in a climate where self-motivation takes place. It is rather important to encourage self-motivation in a workplace since this is the surest way of ensuring that employees perform their task as recommended. Different persons are motivated by different factors and as such achieving self-motivation towards work in a given work environment is in most cases not easy. For instance, a larger proportion of workers in various workplaces are usually motivated by money. Such people will, therefore, in most cases are likely to perform tasks so long as they are assured of payment. Another category of people may be motivated by money but do not like doing work. They will, therefore, try to avoid work by all means. Strict supervision is, therefore, necessary in order for this group to perform tasks properly. The last category involves people who have the passion for work and would thus not only be motivated by money, but rather through doing what they enjoy. Minimum or even no supervision at all is all it takes for work to be done efficiently by this category.

The Structure of the United Nations Essay Example for Free

The Structure of the United Nations Essay The structure of the United Nations is based around its charter. The charter of the UN defines six main organs of the new world body, each with specific tasks and functions. The six main organs are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Trusteeship Council, the Economic and Social Council, International Court of Justice and the Secretariat. The General Assembly has the right to discuss, debate, and make recommendations on a range of subjects pertaining to international peace and security, including human rights, international law, and peaceful arbitration between disputing nations. General Assembly is the only part of the United Nations that represents all 193 member states, each of which has one vote. Votes taken on important issues require a two-thirds majority of Member States. The General Assembly may elect the nonpermanent members of the Security Council and other bodies such as the Human Rights Council. Also it considers reports from the other four organs of the United Nations, assesses the financial situations of member states, and approves the UN budget. The Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. It can recommend the use of a blockade or other financial impositions for any nation that is deemed as breaking international law. If these do not work, then the Security Council can call on the United Nations to use military force to enforce its will. The Security Council is made up of 15 member states, consisting of five permanent members and ten non-permanent members. The permanent five are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The remaining Security Council members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms. Each member of the Security Council is given one vote and the votes of nine members are needed for action to be taken. All five permanent members have to agree with the course of action, which is called the veto power. The main task of the Economic and Social Council is to promote and improve the economic and social well-being of those living in the member states. This council deals with human rights and seeks to develop a greater understanding of cultures throughout the world. It basically covers the health, education, economic, social and cultural issues and the promotion of the position of women in the world. Economic and Social Council also consults with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), thereby maintaining a vital link between the United Nations and civil society. Economic and Social Council consists of 54 members elected by the General Assembly, one-third retiring after every three years. Retiring members are eligible for immediate re-election. All decisions of the Council are taken by a majority of those present and voting. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the main judicial organ of the United Nations. The Court’s role is to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted by States and give advisory opinions on legal questions referred by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies. The International Court of Justice is composed of 15 judges, who are elected for terms of office of nine years by the General Assembly and the Security Council. It may not include more than one judge of any nationality. The Members of the Court do not represent their governments but are independent magistrates. All members of the United Nations have to agree to abide by the decisions of the ICJ.

Aldi Inc Strategic Swot Analysis Review Essay Example for Free

Aldi Inc Strategic Swot Analysis Review Essay Summary Aldi, Inc. (Aldi) is a grocery retailing company. The company’s stores supply various food and general merchandise such as fresh meat and produce; refrigerated and frozen foods; snacks and sweets; bakery, dairy, pantry items and beverages. In addition, it also offers skincare and beauty products, house hold must have products, and beer and wines. Aldi operates over 1,200 stores in the US and sells over 1,400 of the most frequently purchased grocery and household items in manageable, non-bulk packaging. It operates as a subsidiary of ALDI Einkauf GmbH Co. oHG. The company is headquartered in Batavia, Illinois, the US Our Aldi, Inc. provides a comprehensive insight into the company’s history, corporate strategy, business structure and operations. The report contains a detailed SWOT analysis, information on the company’s key employees, key competitors and major products and services. This up-to-the-minute company report will help you to formulate strategies to drive your business by enabling you to understand your partners, customers and competitors better. Scope Business description – A detailed description of the company’s operations and business divisions. Corporate strategy – Our summarization of the company’s business strategy. SWOT analysis – A detailed analysis of the company’s strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. Company history – Progression of key events associated with the company. Major products and services – A list of major products, services and brands of the company. Key competitors – A list of key competitors to the company. Key employees – A list of the key executives of the company. Executive biographies – A brief summary of the executives’ employment history. Key operational heads – A list of personnel heading key departments/functions. Important locations and subsidiaries – A list of key locations and subsidiaries of the company, including contact details. Note: Some sections may be missing if data is unavailable for the company. Reasons to Buy Gain key insights into the company for academic or business research purposes. Key elements such as SWOT analysis and corporate strategy are incorporated in the profile to assist your academic or business research needs. Identify potential customers and suppliers with this report’s analysis of the company’s business structure, operations, major products and services and business strategy. Understand and respond to your competitors’ business structure and strategies with Our detailed SWOT analysis. In this, the company’s core strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are analyzed, providing you with an up to date objective view of the company. Examine potential investment and acquisition targets with this report’s detailed insight into the company’s strategic, business and operational performance.