The Sports Card And Memorabilia Market Essays - Trading Cards

The sports card and memorabilia market The sports card and memorabilia market is as lucrative as ever in our culture today. The number of sports card and memorabilia stores, however, has never recovered since the backlash of the late 1980's and early 1990's. My business plan is to open ED'S SPORTS CARD The store-front will cost $400 per month. The sports card market has a year-round appeal but also has fluctuations by month. The height of business is found in November and December (holiday time) as well as in March and April (when the baseball season gets underway). An advantage to this business is the extremely low amount of advertising money needed. By accessing the Internet (through a $2500 computer and $20 per month America OnLine service), a card and memorabilia store can have virtually all the advertising they can put on-line at no extra cost. A webpage (through a provider like GeoCities or Angelfire) is free and posting in Usenet groups or on AOL's "Card Collector's Corner" is also free. All you have to pay is the monthly service charge. An advantage of using the Internet for this business is the profit margin. It is not uncommon to find cards on the Internet selling for 10% to 40% of it's actual value (i.e. a $100 card can be found for $10 to $40), or "pre-order" buys on upcoming products to be way below the market price (i.e. a $67 pre-order on a box that will sell for $110 wholesale). This enables the business owner to turn over inventory at a price that the consumer finds reasonable (under it's "value") and the businessman finds profitable. Start-up costs are pretty low for this business also. I figured that I can start a business for under $8,000 and maintain it for about $1,500 a month. This includes showcases, the previously mentioned computer, inventory, rent, advertising, supplies, and utilities. The average daily expense for maintaining the store is under $50 a day. What I have not figured into the amount to start-up this business is a sign outside the store. Many baseball card shop owners have told me that their sign was free! This was done by contacting one of the major card companies (Topps, Fleer, Upper Deck, or Pinnacle) and placing their corporate logo on the sign. I have been ivolved in this industry as a collector since 1985. I have been a part-time dealer since 1995. An average month as a part-time dealer (8 card shows and on-line transactions throughout the month), results in about $2,000 worth of sales and $420 worth of expenses (8 card shows times $50 per show, plus $20 for America OnLine). If my store doubled this pace (which would be still be slow for a full-time card store), it would take a little over four months to break even and it would make over $23,000 in profit in it's first year. The chart attached shows how this was figured. This business may not seem very profitable according to the figures I have provided, but these are low-end estimates. Many companies like L.J. Sands, Co. provide baseball card portfolios (like stock portfolios) for high-dollar investors. This involves finding cards of Hall of Fame caliber players that are undervalued and waiting for them to rise in value. A good example of this today is Ken Griffey Jr of the Seattle Mariners. His rookie card (1989 Upper Deck, card number 1) is valued at $70.00, in the past four years it has never been valued under $65.00, but as of April 25th he has 13 homeruns and is on pace to break Roger Maris' single-season record (61 in 1961). If this happens, the Griffey Jr card will soar to a new value. This will not be unprecedented. When Jose Canseco became the first player to hit 40 homeruns and steal 40 stolen bases in one season, his 1986 Donruss rookie card soared from $7 to $150, currently the card is available at $12. Two years ago, whe! n Cal Ripken Jr broke Lou Gehrig's "Ironman" streak of 2,130 consecutive games his rookie card (1982 Topps Traded) went from $150 to $300.

Vegetation, Weather and Climate, and Political and Economic essays

Vegetation, Weather and Climate, and Political and Economic essays What is Vegetation? Vegetation is the Earths plants, and vegetable structures. If you live on land you see some type of vegetation every single day, even if you are going to work or school, even playing football. What is Weather and Climate? First, Weather is the condition of the atmosphere with regard to temperature, moisture, etc... As most of us know rain is a part of weather as well as snow, hail, and wind. If you feel it outside thats weather. Second, Climate is the prevailing weather conditions of a place or region. Such as, Central Texas climate is hot and dry with not very much rain. There are all sorts of climates, like, tropical climates, cold climates and etc... Most people dont have any clue what Political and Economic Resources are. Well if you dont you are about to find out. P.E.R. is everything that has to do with business, or human interaction with each other. It even can show the population of a town. P.E.R. is how people make a living, and also what their salary is. But what do these have in common? Or how would they be affected by each other? If we have less vegetation in an area there tends to be less people and resources in that area. Also if you are in the lumber business your sales may go down due to supply and demand. Also if there were fewer trees there would be less houses being built and a lot more people that are homeless. If it did not rain enough than people may be out of water eventually and there would also be less vegetation in some parts of the world. Weather can also effect if people get to work on time, or if they make it to work. Weather can even destroy where you work. With our economic system and our automobiles, at the rate we are going we are causing the ozone to get thinner and thinner. This will eventually cause global warming. Making the temperatures drastically higher. If we keep cutting down the rainforests we will have less o...

A Late Encounter with the Enemy by Flannery OConnor

An analysis of this short story that delves into questions of truth and illusion and how people prefer to live by illusion when the truth is too prosaic. This paper examines this short story and delves into questions of history, the meaning of history, the meaning of time, the way human beings shape their lives from whatever material they can find or assume, the way society at large reacts to certain events and the void that often exists at the center of a family. The story revolves around a grandfather and his granddaughter who both need some glorious past to justify their existence. The paper describes the two characters as well as the other characters that appear in the book. The paper analyzes the themes found in the story. Flannery OConnor develops her story using a comic tone and building on a series of ironies around the distinction between reality and illusion in terms of the glories of the Old South and those in the present who need some glorious past to justify their existence.The story involves two major characters and several peripheral characters, but only the two major characters are developed in any significant degree.

History and Development of W Retreat & Spa Case Study

History and Development of W Retreat & Spa - Case Study Example He was responsible for looking after the music affairs of the resort. In 2011, the resort appointed Marcus Reinders as the Managing Director of the resort, Mauro Gomez as the Chef Executive, Jennà © Lombardo as the Fashion Director of the resort and Joseph Boroski as the Director of Cocktail Culture. The resort was voted as the best by Lonely Planet Magazine in 2012. Nikolaj Retpen replaced Mauro Gomez as the Chef Executive and DJ Truck was appointed as the resident DJ of the resort (Etihad Holidays, 2012).   W Retreat & Spa – the Maldives, cast away in the blue waters of the Indian Ocean, lies dexterously in the immaculate beauty of Fesdu Island. With a perfect weather, as well as a never-ending sunshine, the spa is an ideal water sports playground and retreat (Flyer Talk, 2009). Below the surface of the hotel lie clear waters where residents can observe sea turtles as well as the starfish poses, whereby they can take pictures. From Malà ©, the capital city of the Maldives, people must fly in a seaplane in order to reach the small Fesdu Island. The luxurious resort is a small but jawdroppingly picturesque 25-minute seaplane journey from the town of Malà ©. Unlike many island spas, the travelers are lucky there are no such things as bridges because, apart from the guests and staff of the spa, this part of Indian Ocean is uninhabited. However, people should make no mistake as taking a trip to this tropical heaven is far from roughing it. The hotel’s bi-level beachfront rooms roost on soft sand. The rooms also have a constant supply of warm water taken straight from the Indian Ocean. It also includes smart amenities such as sundecks, private plunge pools along with outdoor rainforest showers. All these were made possible by the fact that the hotel is surrounded by an ocean (Asia Web Direct, 2013).

Managing organisational behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Managing organisational behaviour - Essay Example The concept of distribution of ‘power and pay’ was first introduced by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the early twentieth century. According to him, the total planning and control of an organisation should be in the hands of the owner and the worker should simply perform as per the commands of the owner (Robbins and Coulter, 2006:58). He further added that this concept would lead to maximum productivity and maximum profits and therefore it was widely accepted all over the world. It still continues to be used today in big organizations and banks where senior level executives hold explicit power and enjoy exorbitant income in comparison to their employees (Kular et al, 2008). However, before the analysis, understanding the concept of Organizational Behaviour, Taylor’s ‘Scientific Management’ theory and the ‘Needs Theory’ in brief is deemed necessary. Organizational behaviour is a subject that is concerned with studying the actions of people at work. It focuses on the fact that managers need to understand the elements which influence how employees work. Also, a manager’s success depends upon how well he can manage employees’ behaviour and gets things done through them (Robbins and Coulter, 2006: 372). ... He incorporated his concepts in his book, The Principles of Scientific Management (1911) which became a guide book for every manager in every company across the world especially UK and US. Soon ‘Taylorism’ spread to every corner from the workplaces to larger and bigger organizations and became one of the most acceptable patterns of working in the twentieth century (‘Frederick Winslow Taylor Criticism’, 2011). While working in a factory as an engineer, Taylor realized that workers lacked efficiency and wasted a lot of time. He started a series of time management studies and brought forward a system of work which would accomplish organizational goals efficiently without wastage of time. His theory consisted of four main principles – to determine the most efficient way to perform each task; assign work to every worker according to his capability; closely scrutinize each worker’s performance and empower the management for planning and control of th e organization (Walonick, 1993). In other words, he suggested that it is the sole responsibility of the manager to make a complete plan of every single task that every single worker needs to accomplish and also plan the procedures and means to fulfil the task. According to him this system would lead to maximum profitability. Every single business house organized themselves according to the principles of ‘Taylorism’ and the top executives and managers were handed full control of the employees and the workplace, thereby curbing the independence of the employees (Pizzigati, 2004:159). The main objective of Taylor was to achieve maximum satisfaction and profit for the owners as well as to provide

Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia Essay Example for Free

Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia Essay It is commonly accepted that the research of the great historian of Jewish mysticism, Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia, opened the doors of the academy to Qabbalah. Far from us the intention of dulling the luster of his prodigious contribution in this respect, but it is a fact that at the time the young Berlin student set about writing his first essays, the critical study of the Qabbalah had already made great strides. Moreover, its trail had been partly blazed by Jew scholars who can claim to have played quite a considerable role, particularly in connection with the central problem of the Zohar, in forming the point of departure of the modem study of this discipline. Indeed, so distinguished by characteristic traits and original solutions is their contribution that it would not be an exaggeration to speak of a Jew school of Qabbalistic studies. Is it not highly significant that the central piece of Qabbalistic literaturethe Zoharwas twice translated on Jew soil, first into Latin by G. Postel in the sixteenth century and subsequently into Jewthe first into any modem languageby the mysterious Jean de Pauly at the beginning of this century? Fostered by a congenial intellectual atmosphere peculiar to the Jew, the study of Jewish esotericism got off to a precocious start in France in comparison to other European countries. The attainments of the humanists and evangelists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries paved the way for the mystical philosophers and Martinists of the eighteenth century, who in turn ushered in the occultists of the nineteenth century. (Sassmitz, 1990) The present essay is an attempt to Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia who was a Jewish Sage in the years of his life, his character, and what he believed in and why he believed. Let it be made quite clear at the outset that our concern relates to the historical-critical study of the question and consequently deals all but incidentally with what A. E. Waite calls Kabbalism. Hence the theosophers and mystagogues of all shapes, from Eliphas Levi to A. Grad, not forgetting Papus and C. Suares, will only be of secondary interest to our theme. Though in many respects deserving of attention, their literary activity will be taken into account only insofar as it had real repercussions on the development of the Qabbalah as an academic discipline. That the theosophists and occultists did indeed exert such an influence is undeniable, even if it is solely through the efforts deployed by the scholars to dissipate the veil of confusion with which the former had enshrouded the whole question. In Jews two periods can be distinguished in the development of this field: on the one hand, an historical phase, preoccupied with the question of the antiquity of the Zohar, followed, on the other, by a bibliographical and doctrinal phase. The work of Adolphe Franck (1809-1893) marks the beginning of the first of these two periods, whereas the second was initiated, a century later, by the research of Georges Vajda (1907-1981). The latter, already under the sway of the impulse given to Qabbalistic studies by Abulafia, worked in harmony with both the school of Jerusalem and Alexander Altmann, of Manchester and later of Brandeis University. But these two tendencies also possess their pre-history, and it is first necessary to describe the framework within which each of these two schools evolved. At the outset of its diffusion in Europe, the Qabbalah was submitted to censure. One could almost claim that from the chronological point of view it is on Jew soil that the critical study of the Qabbalah was born. Indeed, it is in thirteenth-century Provence that the first critical appreciation of the Qabbalah was written by R. Meir ben Sim on of Narbonne (active 1250), who, in his Milhemet miswah, vituperates against the polytheistic implications of the sefirotic doctrine. (Sassmitz, 1990) But no real analytic debate got underway until the awakening of Christian interest in the Cabale in Renaissance times. Whereas the Platonists believed the secret doctrine of Israel was meant to conceal the primordial revelation common to all religions, for the Christian esotericists it prefigured the mystery of the Trinitarian doctrine, the very foundation of Christianity. In the Qabbalists they perceived the forerunners of the Christians and in Qabbalah, a secret justification of the evangelization of the Jews. In tenth-century France, the study of the Cabale occupied a place of honor amongst Christian intellectuals. Mention must above all be made of the orientalist and philosopher Guillaume Postel (1510-1581), to whom we owe the first Latin translation both of the Sefer yesirah (Paris, 1552) and of the Zohar (unpublished) prior even to the appearance of their printed texts. (Sassmitz, 1990) However, the evangelizing zeal of his compatriots and their theological prejudices hampered any critical perspectives in relation to the study of the Jewish esoteric tradition. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, opinions became increasingly diversified. The Qabbalah was thought to have in fact taught an elementary form of Spinozism and pantheism, and the Qabbalists were considered atheists unaware of their own irreligion. Of the scholars of this period, the academician Louis Jouard de la Nauze (1696-1773), defender of Newtons chronological system, stands out as an exceptional figure. Whereas his contemporaries ingeniously endeavored to demonstrate the Qabbalahs christological affinities, De la Nauze upheld in his historic article, Remarques sur lantiquite et lorigine de la Cabale, that the foundations of the Cabale [were] layed by the Saracens at the time the Jews lived in the Orient under their domination. The Saracens were Cabalists, and so were the Jews. (Sassmitz, 1990) At the beginning of the nineteenth century with the blossoming of the history of ideas, though the critical study of Qabbalah progressed, it nonetheless remained profoundly tainted by the spirit of the Renaissance. Depending on which scholar one was reading, the Qabbalah could become anything but Judaism. For Ferdinand Bauer it was an offshoot of Christian gnosis, while J. Kleuker assigned it a Persian origin and Augustus Tholuck pinpointed the preponderant influence of Sufism. (Sassmitz, 1990) A new era in the study of the Jewish mystical tradition was ushered in by the critical investigation of Judaism advocated by the Jewish intellectuals of Central Europe, partisans of the Haskalah. Though in addition to a solid rabbinical and general culture, these masters were possessed of scientific methods, they often exhibited an irrepressible repugnance towards Qabbalah. With few exceptions, the great scholars, such as L. Zunz, S. D. Luzzato, A. Geiger, H. Graetz, and M. Steinschneider, considered it an alien thorn in the side of the Synagogue, incompatible with the conceptions of the progressive rationalism they were striving to attribute to the genius of Israel. In the era of Aufklarung and the struggle for Jewish emancipation, it was imperative to represent the Synagogue as the standard-bearer of regeneracy and rationality in order to be accepted into modern society. The parsimony of references to Qabbalah in Julius Gutmanns Philosophie des Judentums, published in 1933, still reflects this contempt. For similar reasons, the contribution of German scholarship to this field, despite its abundance, was relatively thin and narrow in substance and incapable of casting off the tethers of tendentiousness. These scholars were principally concerned with minimalizing the importance of Qabbalistic influence on Jewish culture and with demonstrating the late composition of the Zohar in order to loosen the grip of its authority and domination, upheld in Europe by the hasidic camp, considered retrograde. The scientific paradigms elaborated by the Wissenschaft des Judentums served as an epistemological framework upon which the Jew science dejudaisme was to build. The first major Jew work specifically devoted to a detailed study of the Qabbalah, though not a direct offspring of the Wissenschaft, nonetheless partook of this current of investigation. La Kabbale ou la philosophie religieuse des hebreux, by Adolphe Franck, published in Paris in 1843, is a milestone in the annals of Qabbalistic research. Assuredly, it contributed more to the modern study of Qabbalah than any other single work prior to the labors of Abulafia. In addition to the fact of its having been based on philological, historical, and conceptual criteria, the originality of this book resided in the obvious empathy that the author displayed for his subject. Indeed, in contrast to many maskilim, Franck considered the Qabbalah to be an authentic Jewish phenomenon of major spiritual importance; hence he affirms: It is impossible to consider the Kabbalah as an isolated fact, as an accident in Judaism; on the contrary it is its very life and heart.

Ghost Story of Bloody Mary :: Ghost Stories Urban Legends

Bloody Mary I remember enacting an urban ritual with my friends back in middle school. Giggling and squealing, running in and out of the bathroom, not really believing but still terrified by the possibilities. It was less a story with a moral than it was just a sleepover prank. Needless to say I wasn’t surprised that when I asked a roommate to relate an urban legend to me over lunch one day that she chose that of â€Å"Bloody Mary." The storyteller is a 20 year old woman studying psychology at the University. She transferred to school after one semester at another college. She is of French descent and her parents speak French at home. She has conservative to moderate political beliefs and is Lutheran, although does not regularly attend religious services while she is at school. She is in a long distance relationship with her boyfriend of two years who is in the Navy and stationed at Virginia Beach. When prompted for a story she was initially hesitant but finally responded with, â€Å"‘Bloody Mary’, I guess.† You’re supposed to like, go into the bathroom in front of the mirror and turn around saying â€Å"Bloody Mary† three times. Then she’s supposed to come. I asked what happened after that and she replied with a mouthful of food, â€Å"She kills you.† This story was told; it seemed, with the assumption that I should know the story. As if it was more a matter of public knowledge than a personal story. This was an accurate assumption on her part as not only had I heard the story many times before, but I also found frequent references to it online. The narrative from my storyteller differed slightly from others I read online, be it the number of times â€Å"Bloody Mary† was chanted or supplementary actions that were or were not included, each story had slightly different elements. "Bloody Mary† is often confused with Mary I, the queen of England from 1553-1558 who restored Roman Catholicism to England, which resulted in many Protestants being burnt at the stake as heretics. While she was referred to as â€Å"Bloody Mary†, in very few variations is it the queen who appears in the bathroom mirror (Mikkelson & Mikkelson). Some stories identify Mary as a woman specific to the storyteller’s own community, such as a girl killed in a local car crash or other such tragic accident. In other cases Mary is just a woman of myth; an executed witch, a woman murdered on her wedding night, a mother who killed her children, some tragic or horrific figure that appears in a mirror upon being summoned (â€Å"Bloody Mary [person]†).

Mini Assignment

If I were in charge of the Asian operations for McCain I would recommend starting a joint venture with an existing, established, well known Chinese potato company, for a year or so, or until McCain has the recognition and ability to stand on its own. Creating a Joint venture with an established Chinese company would give McCain the entry It needs into the Asian potato market. McCain would be able to learn the ways that companies handle business deals In China, as they most likely defer from business deals in other parts of the world, and will also Introduce McCain to future customers.Another recommendation would be to purchase a small, well known, Chinese potato company. This would give McCain access to the Chinese market through a company that Is already know, and has already created a name for Itself. I would make sure that McCain abides by all Chinese laws, and all customs, to the best of my ability. 2. When interacting with Chinese business colleagues, McCain might face challenge s with most, if not all, of Hypotheses culture dimensions.For example, when looking at power distance, Canadian managers at McCain could face challenges cause Canada has a much lower power distance than China, and workers may not feel comfortable with this power dynamic. A Canadian manager may try to get workers to work harder so they can achieve greater success, but Chinese power distance doesn't allow this; in China, one works and does not have aspirations that exceed one's position within the company.When it comes to individualism and collectivism, China has a much lower score than Canada (http://greet-hefted. Com/china. HTML). This might create challenges for Canadian managers because Chinese workers generally â€Å"stick together†. If a Canadian manager promotes one person from a collective group, that could create problems, so the manager must take that into consideration before making any decisions.Canadian managers may also face challenges with time orientation. China has very long term orientation (http://www. Acculturated. Com/greet-hefted-cultural- dimensions/long-term-orientation/), while North America has very short term orientation. This could created challenges for Canadian managers because they are used to workers wanting quick results, but In China It Is the opposite, and managers may not know how to handle that.

Psychology and common sense Essay

Psychology is a scientific and research based study of human mind-set and behaviours. The field of study focuses on emotions, characteristics and behaviours of individuals in their daily lives and their behaviours when interacting with other people. Wilhelm Wundt is the father of psychology, whom set up his first laboratory in Leipzig, Germany in 1879. His main contribution to the field of psychology was his idea of structuralism; the use of introspection to study individual’s experiences comprising of sensations, images and feelings. Throughout his course of research, he insisted on using systematic observation and measurement, which serve as a strong foundation for psychology studies in the future. Whereas, common sense basically refers to the common knowledge shared by the majority human population. Such knowledge usually arise from daily observation and interaction one another, past experiences, beliefs that are being passed down for generations and scenarios commonly port rayed in television shows. Much of psychology is not based on common sense, but on research, testing, and applications of theory. As such, psychologists are heavily trained in research methods and statistics. Psychology is a real science as It uses scientific methods such as the experimental research and analysis to support a hypothesis and that psychology is not just things we see everyday. Psychology has a wide variety of aspects; from the social side of understanding why people behave in a specific way, to the neuroscience side of understanding what goes wrong in the brain of people with mental health disorders. As psychologists attempt to explain the mind and brain in the context of real life, it is definitely not common sense. One common sense belief states that if someone recalls something vividly and confidently, that memory is true and accurate. In another words, an individual will not false memories. Even if there is, the individual will have the ability to differentiate real from false memories. However, psychological research have proven this common sense belief to be wrong. False memories, also known as pseudomemories, can usually be formed when individual try to fill up the gaps in their memory by logic guesses combining with their actual memory (Koutstaal, Norman & Schacter, 1998, p. 289-318). This action is otherwise called constructive processing. A study by Braun, Ellis and Loftus (2002) shows that sixteen percent of the people who were shown with a fake advertisement of Bugs Bunny in Disney resort actually insisted that they met  Bugs in Disney. However, it was not possible since Bugs is a character from Warner Brothers and not Disney (p. 1-23). This study reflected that some subjects experience constructive processing after seeing the fake advertisement. Hence, the false memory formed seems rather logical to them. In another research carried out by Loftus (1997), together with her research associate, Jacqueline Pickrell, they told a group of subjects, ranging from 18 to 53 years old, a series of their childhood incidents recounted by their fami ly members or close relatives. Out of all the incidents told, they included one whereby the subjects had been lost in a shopping mall when they were still children. In the next two interview sessions, the subjects were asked to recall the incident of being lost in the mall. Surprising, about a quarter of them said they could remember it and even supplied extra details about what happened even though the incident was actually made up. This shows a way of inducing a completely false memory into someone simply by providing external evidence that prompt the happening of such incident (p.71). Similar situation of implanting false memories into someone would be under therapy or hypnosis. The ‘misinformation effect’ is also theory accounted for the formation of pseudomemories. This refers to the distortion of memory as a result of the presence of misleading and suggestive information as well as source confusion (Porter et. Al., 2010, p. 55-61). The above mentioned studies and psychological theories such as constructive processing, hypnosis, misinformation effect, memory construction and schemas, have proven the common sense belief to be wrong. It is possible for an individual to take pseudomemories as their true and accurate memories. In conclusion, common sense beliefs are knowledge that everybody are exposed to whereas psychology comprises of careful and scientific researches and analysis. Though common sense beliefs may be widely used and agreed to, that do not necessary mean that they are correct. In fact, they are generally false explanations of thought process and behaviour. Psychologists are hence able to come up with psychological explanation to prove the direct opposite of the common sense. Nonetheless, psychological explanation can also be used to prove certain common sense beliefs which are true. As such, people can view psychology as a tool employed to prove the credibility of common sense. Therefore, psychology is not just common sense.

Finish Strong, Not Crippled Professor Ramos Blog

Finish Strong, Not Crippled The back of an ambulance is the very last place I would have imagined I would be in. Who would have thought, the fast shining Athlete of the Year would meet such a tragic ending. The more I think about the horrific event or should I say, events, the more one realizes to enjoy each and every last moment. The former student athlete known for breaking records and dominating the competition was just across the hall with one minor difference. This track and field stud just happened to be in a wheelchair. From the unseen Athlete of the Year to the guy everyone now calls â€Å"hot wheels.† My close friends decided to bestow upon me the nickname, â€Å"hot wheels† as I will be remembered as the person who ran from the start line to the finish line, but in my own terms. Those terms being in a wheelchair. There would be several moments where my friends occasionally came up to me and asked, â€Å"You think you can shoot me a ride?† Without a doubt the most joyful part of be ing in a wheelchair due to the fact that I actually gave them a ride. Being able to open my mind to even the most unthinkable of events has literally both saved and endangered my life. I have always heard the saying All good things come to an end. I just never imagined it would happen to me. With the help of several companions I had the honor of meeting have helped me along the way. Before I get to how I became Hot Wheels, let me start where it all happened. My San Gorgonio High School experience would have been nothing without extra curricular activities. Sports as well as clubs made high school bearable. The sport which I love the most, soccer, did not go very well for me. Lets just say the varsity soccer coach and I had our differences in ideas. This all led to him booting me from playing during my last two years of high school. Although soccer was a bust, the one year I had the honor of participating in, I was able to meet some really great people. My best friend, Luis,who happened to be one of those individuals, who has also been doing Track as well as Cross Country attempted to persuade me to join Track and Cross Country with him. Month after month, all I would hear is â€Å"Ellis, stop being a little bitch and join track [and cross country]!† Believe it or not, Luis attempted to persuade me from the beginning of my sophomore year to the middle of m y junior year. As time flew by I realized, I would rather spend my time doing sports than doing nothing at home. So the day finally arrived, I listened to Luis’ advice. Luis never failed to remind me that it was never too late to join. The end of my junior year was the time where I finally came to my senses. After what some may call peer pressure, I attended my first ever informational track meeting. While meeting my future coaches as well as teammates, I was all in for what I was getting myself into. Track is split up into several events, many of which include: sprints, long distance, hurdles, jumps and throws. Due to my experience with resistance running in soccer, I joined distance. After several hours and hours of practice have been put in, the closer I have been able to get to my teammates as well as to Pablo Torres, my distance coach. I have never in my life met a group of more welcoming and cheerful faces.   The more practice I put in, the more I realized track is nothing like I imagined it. I imagined just running until you finish the race. I did not know that there is a special way to run, there is strategy involved, and that the willingn ess to fight against the pain are all included. Due to my history of medical problems, I was used to fighting through the pain that comes with hustling. I began to learn that you are not supposed to strike your heel first when you run. That is exactly what I did. As a runner, I am supposed to make my toes touch the track first in order to launch me forward. Swinging my arms is something I did not think much of until I got to track. Swinging your arms at the same pace of your running pace can actually make a big difference. After hours of individual training one on one with Coach Torres, I was able to make some improvement, but I just could not fix my habits of my way of running. As track season progressed, our first race was among us. As expected, I was the most nervous person ever, considering it was my first ever track race. The time came to adjust to this new sport.   My race which was yet to be called next, the 400meter race which was 1 lap, ended in a reasonable fashion as I came in 3rd. It was not bad for my 1st ever race. However, there was one problem, the head coach that was not aware I had a talent for long distance races, threw me into a sprinter’s race. Since there was way too many participants in track, the head coach did not know who is running what race. As the second track meet started, Coach Sanchez and Torres both decided to make it their responsibility to put me int the correct race and put me in the mile race. While the season progressed, so did my work ethic, therefor my race day performance was both shocking and outstanding. Starting from the very back, I worked my way to the top. As the race came down to the last lap, it was t ime to show what I was made of. My strategy has since been born along with my coach’s famous saying, â€Å"Finish Strong!† My motivation race after race was to be the best I can be. With the cheers and support from my team, nothing was impossible. Coming in at a close second, just behind the fastest runner in the history of my school in my event, I could not have been more proud of myself. Along with the self motivation I was giving myself, my teammates as well as my coaches all demonstrated how proud they were. As races kept passing, I kept performing. With the help of my teammates as well as Coach Torres, whom I was building more of friend type relationship with, pushed me to be the best I can be. Surprising enough, I was able to reach the top ten list of all time in my school in my event, which was the 1 mile and 2 mile race. I even qualified to one of the hardest events to reach: the Inland Empire Championships was the highlight of my running career. Although I did not perform as I expected, I could not have been more proud of where I was standing.   The more I continued to progress, the more and more I kept surprising everyone including myself and family. As you may know, all good things come to an end. At the very peak of my running career while I was breaking school records and qualifying for prestiges events, injuries did not go without taking its toll. Before track season even started, I suffered a concussion which took me out early on in my soccer season. While at a tournament with the team, I clashed in the air with one of my opponents which knocked me out of balance and causing me to land on my head. After I was medically cleaned and made my mark on the track, injuries made its appearance once more. While peaking, my childhood allergies got to me in a way that I could not explain. My allergies led me into the path of asthma. The part that most trifled me is that, I have always been playing sports while having bad allergies. To take care of those allergies I take daily pills to weaken the symptoms. With the asthma, the inh alers in which I was given did not help one bit. The asthma got as bad as to not even letting me run a lap without running out of breathe to the point of nearly collapsing. I visited the doctors several times, in one instant they informed me I have extreme lung deficiency. My dad went as far as to taking me to his home country of Mexico in order to get a treatment for my asthma. This doctor I visited in Mexico treated my whole family which also suffer from severe allergies and or asthma. All of which have left his office as healthy as an ox. Of course this sickness will not just vanish, but it seemed like we, my family, never had it. Being treated by this doctor really changed my life. I have had numerous occasions where I was on the floor gasping for air while praying and begging for God to not take me just yet. I could not be happier at my health progress as of now. As my injuries and health issues were once again to make its appearance, it seemed as if they were never going to go away. My senior year all went downhill. As the start of track season was looming, I was excited yet scared as what was to be expected. While the season was progressing, what I was expecting, happened. Considering the health issues I experienced the previous year, I lost a lot of the progress and experience I had gained. I went from being one of the fastest around the area to one of the slowest in my team. Sadly, it was just the start. When I was born, I had short tendons that were attached to my toes. As I got older, instead of my feet growing and my toes going down, they curled up on both feet. When reaching my 17th birthday, it seemed as if my toes were getting worse by the minute. It got so bad to the point that I could not even put on my shoes. Surgery was the drastic measures that were needed. As the end of my senior year came I had to push everything including my track season and senior activities aside. After my surgery, I was forced to spend a month and a half in a wheelchair. Thus, â€Å"hot wheels† was born. The roller coaster that is high school has taught me a variety of things. Track was without a doubt the most valuable and troublesome point in my life. Track has not only taught me to open my eyes to new experiences, but more importantly, to never stop fighting. All the blood, sweat and tears were nothing compared to the lifelong lessons I had the honor of experiencing. Attempting to adjust into a runner’s shoes was without a doubt one of the hardest things I had to ever do. I could not have done it if it were not for Luis, Coach Torres and Sanchez and my teammates that pushed and encouraged me everyday to both better myself and never stop fighting.

If accounting policies only determine how past transactions are Essay - 1

If accounting policies only determine how past transactions are recorded and reflected in financial reports, how can the choice - Essay Example Discussion In 1977, the Financial Accounting Standards Board proposed to change the accounting methods used in the oil industry from full costing (FC) to successful efforts (SE). The FSAB through the Exposure Draft received great opposition from oil companies because the change in accounting method could adversely reduce the market share price and earnings at the same time. From an analysis carried out, 64% of the oil companies will have their earnings decreasing by 5% or more and 74% of the companies surveyed could have a 5% or more decrease in the market share price if they changed the accounting method from full costing to successful efforts (Zeff, 1979). On average, it was established that the industry’s market share price and earnings decreased by 4.5% in three days after the release of the Exposure Draft (Lev, 1979). The financial accounting standards board put forward two method used to account for oil and gas exploration cost. These include the full costing method and the successful efforts method. The two methods differ in the way they treat exploration costs (Myers, 1979). Successful Efforts method Under this method, the costs are incurred in unsuccessful exploration are charged as current expenses and therefore not carried forward as assets. Under the SE method, costs are capitalized by collection if the costs directly end up in the development of proved reserves. Costs not resulting in proved reserves are expensed as are incurred or as a determination of verified reserves is made. Simply, within a cost group, wells that are explored and found dry are expensed and wells that are successfully explored and developed are capitalized (Lev, 1979). Full Costing Method The FC method, on the other hand, treats all costs that oil companies incurred in exploration oil and gas reserves as assets subject to a limitation that the total amount carried forward does not exceed the approximated value of the reserves, anywhere the well is located either within the country or across any continent (Lev, 1979). Under the full cost method, all charges of discovering and evolving wells are capitalized regardless of the fact that they are proven or not. After which, depletion is done using the units of production technique where the all the proven oil and gas reserves are taken into consideration (Myers, 1979). Fundamentally, all of the costs of developing gas and oil reserves, both successful and unsuccessful are depleted as output units which are recovered from the successful wells (Myers, 1979). This method is permitted by the Securities Exchange Commission but not favored by the FASB and is proposed as an inducement for the investigation of further oil and gas assets since charges related to failed exploration can be expensed over time rather than as incurred (Myers, 1979). The Securities Exchange Commission was in charge of regulating the oil industry as per the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975. Shortly before this act, FASB had expressed interest of setting accounting standard to be used in the oil industry. For this reason, SEC relied on FASB for setting accounting standard for the oil industry. FASB then came up with the Exposure Draft the proposed to change the accounting method used in the industry (Lev, 1979). According to FASB, the full costing method was inappropriate as it did not reflect uniformity in the oil indust

Marketing Financial Services Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Marketing Financial Services - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that Morgan Stanley is one of the most well-known financial services firm in the world. Its head quarter is based in New York. The firm operates all over the world and deals mainly in institutional securities and investment management. Morgan Stanley advises large institutional clients how to raise funds from the market and how to manage its investment portfolio. The recent financial crisis has hit the company badly but it has recovered well from that. The company’s reputation is also good in the financial market. The brand name of Morgan Stanley is well established since it is been operating in the financial industry for a long time. It was founded way back in 1935 so it is a well-known brand in the financial markets. Morgan Stanley operates in a financial industry so its marketing strategies are entirely different from firms that sell consumer products. This section will elaborate upon its strengths, weakness, opportunities, and th reats and in turn will suggest about how the company should be shaping its marketing strategies. With increasing competition in the financial sector and a very recent recession, this might not be easy for the company so it is important to do SWOT analysis keeping the overall situation of the financial industry in mind today. The main strength of the company is its global presence and well-established brand name. Morgan Stanley is a well-known name on Wall Street so investors are pretty much aware of the company and the services which it offers. Â  Also news about the market given by Morgan Stanley analysts is given attention by the traders in financial markets. This shows the reliability of the name of the company in the financial sector. This reliability and brand image is very good especially in the financial sector because customers in this industry take into consideration these two elements (O'Loughlin, Szmigin & Turnbull, 2004). Global presence of the company is a strong point of Morgan Stanley. The worldwide services of the company allow it to operate in different markets. It can connect customers of financial services from different markets. For example it can hedge funds by buying securities in different regions and can reduce risk. This is a great benefit of operating in a worldwide market. Also the global financial markets are getting complicated with newer products coming every day. In such an environment more than 50,000 employees of Morgan Stanley help customers in finding the right product for them. With the derivative market and Islamic finance newer avenues are available for investors and the company is well prepared to treat all kinds of demands of its customers. Currently the company is making full use of its brand image and it is reflected in its advertisements. The company uses internet marketing or e-marketing as a marketing tool. This is because of the fact that internet plays a major role in financial industry. Many traders work from their homes through internet so it is very important to use internet as a marketing tool. The company also uses television advertisement but they are aired on specific news channels. The reason for this is that the main clients of the company are large institutional investors and buyers. Large companies and very rich individuals and groups use the services of the company so it is important that marketing caters to the need of these high standard clients. If one observes the