Things They Carried By O`Briens Essays - The Things They Carried

Things They Carried By O`Briens In Timothy O'Brien's novel, The Things They Carried, a number of insightful themes are forwarded by the author. One theme in particular interests me the most; the subject area is how people handle their emotions through the avoidance or distortion of reality. Specifically, throughout the novel a number of characters respond to the emotionally charged realities they are confronted with in one of two major ways, distortion or escapism. This pattern, shown throughout the novel, surveys one manner in which humans approach the rough emotions they carry with them throughout their life. To support this thesis I will analyze a number of character's responses to emotional stressors and compare them against my claims of escape and distortion reactions. I have identified two major ways the characters I analyze respond to their realities in this novel, distortion and escapism. When I identify something as distortion, I intend to imply that the characters take the edge off of the reality of their situations by making the events they encounter seem less real. Examples of such behavior would include finding humor in otherwise horrifying situations or even romanticizing the environment around them to make it seem something different than what it is. The escapist manner of reacting to the intensity of emotions is to distance oneself from the actual events or surrounding. To accomplish this all a character needs to do is to daydream themselves away from the problem or to create alternative realities in their own mind. It is important to establish that O'Brien develops the premise that the emotions and situations these men had to deal with were very intense and traumatic. Beyond the more or less obvious contention that dealing with death and war might be painful, there is textual support that O'Brien is trying to get this message across. On page 20, the narrator says, "They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing-these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight." This analysis sets up textual basis for my theme. If it is true that these soldiers experience (d) tremendous emotions then there is room to analyze how they go about carrying their tangible "emotional baggage." Additionally, it should be noted that the characters I analyze in this paper are only a small representative sample of the larger number of characters who may very well fit my within my thesis statement. It is also noteworthy to mention that how I classify a character in terms of their response to emotional intensity-escape or distortion-is very much a debatable contention. Given that, I do believe, however, that my conclusions will stand on the merit of my analysis. In the first chapter, Timothy O'Brien wastes no time examining one coping mechanism, escapism. Escapism is a rather basic way of handling intense emotions. Timothy O'Brien first introduces a character named Lieutenant Jimmy Cross who exhibits the escapist manner of dealing with his emotions. Jimmy Cross is the Lieutenant of the group of men that this story focuses on. Jimmy Cross is first introduced fantasizing about his love, a girl name Martha. Martha is a student back home in New Jersey and for all intents and purposes does not return Lieutenant Cross's love. On pages 3 and 4, the narrator comments that, "They [the letters] were signed Love, Martha, but Lieutenant Cross understood that Love was only a way of signing and did not mean what he sometimes pretended it meant." Thus, despite the fact that Lieutenant Cross acknowledges that Martha probably does not return his love, he still daydreams about falling in love with Martha and the times they spent together before the war. The somewhat excessive, so it seems to the reader, amount of time Jimmy Cross spends thinking about Martha may indeed be a failure of reading. We ask ourselves why it is that Jimmy Cross spends so much time thinking about Martha? This and other similar questions about the daydreaming provide room for interpretation. This daydreaming of Martha is a way of escaping the intensity of emotion Jimmy Cross has to bear during the war. We find out that in the week before Ted Lavender dies Jimmy Cross daydreams a great deal about Martha. This daydreaming helps to take him away from the intensity of the war. On pages 9 and 10 the narrator describes how Lieutenant Cross would walk along his missions thinking about spending time with Martha. While on tour, Lieutenant Cross once received a pebble in a

Organization Structure, Processes and Design project on Magma Design Automation Essays

Organization Structure, Processes and Design project on Magma Design Automation Essays Organization Structure, Processes and Design project on Magma Design Automation Paper Organization Structure, Processes and Design project on Magma Design Automation Paper Magma Design Automation is a fast-growing provider of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software and design services. The company was founded in 1997 on the concept of combining logic design and physical design into a single system to better address emerging deep sub-micron design challenges. MDA is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has a global network of sales support personnel. Magma markets and supports its products through sales and support centers in North America, Europe, Japan, India and Asia-Pacific nations. Magma has grown substantially over the years to achieve sales of over $75 million in 2003. Magmas mission To create and deliver the best EDA software products and solutions, encompassing IC design from concept to completion, enabling our customers commercial success. Magmas Products Magma Design Automation provides electronic design automation (EDA) software that enables chip designers to meet critical time-to-market objectives, improve chip performance and handle multimillion-gate designs. Key products include Blast Create(tm), Blast Plan(tm), Blast Fusion(r) and Blast Noise(r). Magma software products comprise the only truly integrated RTL-to-GDSII design flow. Magmas Customers Magma licenses its design automation software to semiconductor manufacturers and electronic products companies around the world. Among them: Broadcom, Infineon, NEC, Texas Instruments, Toshiba and Vitesse. Need to expand operations ASIC/VLSI development business was rapidly shifting its base from US to India in the later half of 90s. As they form the main customers of Magma, it also needed to follow the change. The main reasons for the start of the Indian operations are: 1. Close proximity to the clients: Magma caters to the multinational companies like Texas Instruments etc, globally. So to support these operations they also have to start their operation in India. 2. High quality manpower and low cost: The availability of the pool of talented engineers in India at low cost was also a reason for the shift. 3. Faster Response Time: Being present locally will also provide the faster response time for the maintenance and support. With these considerations in mind, the company opened its first Indian office at Bangalore in May 2003 with an initial work force of 25 people. The operative goals of the Indian operations are: 1. To upgrade its Indian operations so that it can cater to the Asia-pacific market and Japan, and at a later stage to European market as well. 2. To be amongst the top 3 EDA providers in India. 3. To provide new product development via its RD department for global operations so as to move up in the value hierarchy. Magma India is a part of a Global Matrix structure. The matrix structure helps the company to coordinate between the Indian operation and the parent company in both the product development as well as business development in whole of the globe. The company has three major departments viz. RD, Product Engineering and Field Application Engineering, along with support departments of Finance, Human Resource Development, Information Technology and Marketing. The company has a dual reporting structure with the team in India working alongside the team in the different regions on the same product. Various divisions in different operations Organization structure of Magma design automation Work flows in Magma with the use of cross-functional teams, chosen on geographical and divisional basis as required by the project. The criterion for choosing the group leader is technical expertise. The employees then work on this temporary team till the project is completed. The employees keep moving from one project to another in this fashion in the same division. Each employee thus has a dual reporting structure. He reports to his project lead, in most cases in U.S., as well as the divisional head in India. The organization structure and design of Magma is mainly determined by five factors Organization Strategy and Goals External environment Organization life cycle and size Organizational Culture Technology Magma India follows a differentiation strategy for interacting with its competitive environment and in order to achieve organizational goals. The company attempts to distinguish its products from others in the EDA industry. The products of Magma India are differentiated on the basis of technology, architecture and the features offered by them. The EDA tools offered by Magma are of high quality and they are priced high. Magma is committed to differentiate its products from others in the industry and for this it invests heavily in RD, product research and has got tie ups with other companies to market its products. In order to differentiate its products and to keep a competitive edge, Magma has got a strong RD division. Magma has got a strong customer focus and its FAE department continuously interacts with customers. IT also sends its RD people to customer sites and forms cross-functional teams, if there is such a requirement, at the customer site. Thus, Magma India wants to have the structure and culture of a learning organization and rewards its employees for creativity and innovation. The organizations ability to be flexible is constrained by its divisional architecture. This can be a severe problem as Magma India grows in size. To overcome the disadvantages of the divisional structure in the long term, it should establish strong formal horizontal linkages between divisions. This will increase coordination and add flexibility to the organization. The sector in which Magma India is operating is highly dynamic with lots of activity going on. On one hand small companies are coming fast to fill the niche whereas the old companies are consolidating to retain their matte. Also the environment becomes highly unstable due to the extensive dependence of this sector on the emerging technology. Its main competitors are Cadence, Synopsis, and Mentor Graphics etc. The requirements of the customer are also changing i.e. change of the design due to advent of nanometer technology. There are only a few number of external complexities that means only few external elements are relevant to the company. For Magma, these are changes in technology and clients. Therefore the company is in simple environmental complexity and unstable environmental change. Therefore company shares a moderate to high uncertainty.

Child sexual abuse is a form of harm outlined in Working Together to Essay

Child sexual abuse is a form of harm outlined in Working Together to Safeguard Children (2006). Having considered the literature related to this form of harm, a - Essay Example In the past there was a sense of shame and guilt on the child, where they were made to feel that the abuse was their own fault and that talking to anyone about the abuse they were suffering would bring shame on their families. Despite this new openness towards discussing abuse in the family the social workers are constantly facing difficulties in being able to assist those in need. Firstly the powers they are given to intervene are very limited and orders to have the child removed from the family home are only issued under the most extreme of circumstances. A further area that causes difficulties comes with having to deal with ethnic minority families. Within these families the children are often encouraged to not discuss the things that are happening in their homes. There are also cultural issues that can affect the way the child deals with the abuse they are suffering. Within some ethnic families sexual abuse of the child is in some ways regarding as normal. Some ethnic communities might regard the father of the child involving in sexual activity with the child as normal within their community. In order to protect children from abuse several pieces of legislation have been implemented. Child abuse first came under the spotlight in 1889 when the children’s charter was passed1. The aim of this was to prevent the cruelty of children by allowing the state to intervene in relationships between parents and children. Under the charter the police had the power to arrest anyone believed to be ill treating a child or to enter the home of a child they believed to be in danger. The Children’s Act 1908 introduced in Ireland made further changes towards protecting children and created juvenile courts and the registration of foster parents. Irish law went one stage further at this point in time by introducing the Punishment of Incest Act2. Prior to the inclusion of this Act the church were responsible for punishing those who committed incest. Despite legislation

Professional development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Professional development - Essay Example Unfortunately, there are some factors that disturb necessary reflective practice. At first, time restrictions do not give much air to reflective practice, as I have to solve numerous technical problems that should be settled immediately. Generally, my activity is not supposed to include much time for reflections, and custom practice also demands settling down definite concrete problems, rather than reflection in order to find alternative approaches or theoretical basis for professional strategies. Professional attitudes also comprise various kinds of activity, including technical support and resolving technical questions. Unfortunately, there are very few possibilities to implement mental activity for special theoretical reflections. But I need the time for mental activity, because it pushes me to self-development and this could help me in my professional sphere. In my experience over and over again I face the situations when technology outdoes the practice of tutor. These situations should be regarded from the point of view of the theory that comprises the notions of single-loop learning and double-loop learning. These schemes may be illustrated by examples from my professional experience. An example of single-loop may be a case when I have to print out a poster for a customer. At first, I need to choose a computer which is attached to the device. Then the poster is printed, I roll it up. The next step is to inform the user that the poster is ready and then I bring it to the reception and the customer collection for the user. As for double-loop learning, it is implemented in the case when after a virus that could damage the University system is reported; a team meeting is held out to find the most effective strategy to stop the virus. In this case the decision will depend upon the situation and possible effects. Often I implement reflection-in-action that is often described as thinking and making decisions while the situation unfolds. It involves changing the plans according to the circumstances of the situation. "The practitioner allows himself to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation, which he finds uncertain or unique. He reflects on the phenomenon before him, and on the prior understandings, which have been implicit in his behavior. He carries out an experiment which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomenon and a change in the situation." (Schn 1983: 68) Reflection-in-action may be characterized with the help of examples of single and double-loop learning. The former is implemented in the situation when I make copies of Microsoft CDs in QUB without changing the motives and governing variables. Double-loop learning is implemented in situation, when, for instance. A customer requires to provide him with a special equipment to be moved off, because it is old. In such cases I need to use a special program that is called autoclave to format a hard disk to delete the information. After that I contact Belfast City Council to learn about the costs, set a collection time and organize a session, where I will help a customer to get the equipment off. The practice described led me to use and explore the theories of Kolb. In order to make learning more helpful, Kolb (1976) came over with the idea that learners should go through four different stages. These stages are the following: the stage of experience, reflection, the development of new ideas and testing of the new ideas in practice (active

Overview of experience to gain professional membership Case Study

Overview of experience to gain professional membership - Case Study Example This will be very necessary for me in the execution of my duties by arranging meetings and discussing issues brought up my other colleagues. I have also attended several internal training such as training, reporting, and all aspects of project cost control during my working period; therefore gathering a lot of experiences. I have, therefore, been trained into completing my orders and workload at the best and satisfactory standards. That has also made me understand the different forms of contract and supporting documentation. I also have learned to behave professionally, learned to take criticism professionally, learned to do my job and do it perfectly, learned to make good and professional relationships with colleagues, be on time, maintain good performance records and participate on solutions. Within my role, I plan not only my workload and tasks, but also the workloads and tasks of other team associates who work with me. In my projects, I will have to set up and regularly run commercial site team meeting. Being the Senior Quantity Surveyor, I set team objectives and discuss issues that may be current and potential issues and also worries that the team may have. As a Senior Quantity Surveyor, I collect information from one or more sources, and then distribute the information to one or more audiences. I ensure that information management activities are effective and successful. These actions help me in discovering extra principles and strategies, as well as providing a substantial tactics to evolving a supreme information management strategy.1 Being a leader, my main objective is to ensure incessant progress to the strategic and response to the organization. Being a leader in my previous workstations, which include royal construction Ltd, Wates construction Ltd. among others, have made me have good and professional leadership skills. I ensure by managing the infrastructural assets. Moreover, I aim to provide the knowledge of cost effectiveness

Improve The Quality Of Basic Education Education Essay

Improve The Quality Of Basic Education Education Essay On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me Christmas is the season of sharing. In this event, we often give gifts to our family, relatives, friends and other people close to our hearts. We also receive gifts from them. But what is the best gift our true love would give to us? Most of the time, our parents would say that we should study hard because education is the only thing they could give to us. That is the reason why our parents are working hard, to give us education, because it is the most important gift we could have. It is a powerful tool that would help us a lot in dealing with everyday situations. A gift one cannot steal away from us and a tool money cannot afford to buy. We could not easily get it anywhere, it is something we should earn and achieve. The attainment of education is like setting up a Christmas tree, it takes time and we should exert extra effort and determination to achieve it. We deserve to have the best gift. We are worthy to have a quality tool. Our country needs to strengthen the very foundation of education- basic education. But how could we have the best gift? How could we improve the quality of basic education? Basic education, as Ive said earlier, is the very foundation of education. It is where one will spend his developing years and it is important to spend it in a quality system. It is the preparatory stage for higher education. That is why I am happy to promote adding two years in basic education (primary and secondary level of education). In this proposal, we would have additional one year for elementary (Grade 7) and another for secondary (5th Year) in public schools. Let me discuss some issues about this system. First, we would have a better quality of basic education. Because of two additional years, there is more time for learning. In this new and better system, we are not speeding up and cramming the span of time we could learn, but we are widening it to give space for new subjects and improved curriculum. In this system, the quality would be improved by rationalizing the contents of present subjects and by adding new subjects timely needed by the students. We cannot deny the fact that there is a necessity for us to improve basic education. We would have more time in learning and we are not going too fast unprepared. We would have improved curriculum and subject contents. Second, this proposal aims to promote the welfare of our struggling brothers and sisters. If this proposal is not for them then why the recommendation is adding two more years in basic education? According to The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines, Article XIV, Section 2, Number 2, The State shall establish and maintain a system of free public education in the elementary and high school levels. So, why not establish two more years in pre-university education? The state would not have any responsibility to pre-university education, by the way. It is because the government is really trying its best to serve the people. Yes, this proposal may have an effect to our countrymen, but it is worth the perseverance and hard work. It is not intended to give them another burden, but it aims to improve their lives. Only incidental costs like transportation and food allowance are the concerns of the families, because basic education is free. And to address these concerns, the government is reall y willing to help them through conditional cash transfers wherein underprivileged families would get a subsidy from the government with due respect to latters conditions. Third, this proposal would lift the burden given to universities and colleges. According to Edilberto C. de Jesus of Philippine Daily Inquirer, Our own Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Philippine Task Force on Education conceded that the 10-year basic education cycle poses problems for our tertiary institutions and their graduates. In college, there are minor subjects and this is the result of problems in basic education. Instead of having the more important subjects in college, the college students still need to comply with minor subjects. Let us put De La Salle University -Dasmarià ±as (DLSU-D) as an example. In DLSU-D, we need to take basic English, Filipino, Math, Science, and Physical Education subjects. Well in fact, we could have these subjects in the additional years of proposed basic education system. Now, there is more time for them to focus on the subjects of their chosen fields. The problem caused by the present system would be addressed properly and not sho uldered by tertiary institutions and the students. Fourth, after graduation, the students would be in working age. Let us do the math. Sixteen years old, which is the typical age of students after high school graduation, plus 2 years from the proposal is equal to 18 years of age, the working age! This good intended effect would greatly influence the job requirement set by the majority of companies to job applicants. Usually, the job requirement is at least in second year college. But with this proposal, the scenario would change. Since the students would graduate at 18, the minimum employment requirement would be at least a high school graduate. Thus, this proposal is really beneficial to the graduates of new basic education system and those who plan or need to work right after high school due to certain circumstances. Fifth, this proposal is really practical. The proposal is a step by step process. It would take some time to have its full effect. The implementation of this new system would be every year. The Grade 1 students would have the new system and improved curriculum. After the succeeding year both Grades 1 and 2, would have the system. After another year Grades 1, 2 and 3 would have it, so on and so forth, until it would have its full effect up to 5th Year high school students. Why I do say this proposal is practical? This proposal is practical because there is no immediate need for the funds, Grade 7 and 5th year students are non-existent during the first six years and eleven years of implementation. Since, the proposal would take some time; the government still has the capacity to address different problems we have in our present system. The government would have the time in preparing for implementation years of improved basic education system. There is enough measure to solve the proble ms like lack of classroom, books, teachers, public schools and also the issue of dropout rate. There is enough time for us! We could build the classrooms and additional schools needed, train the teachers efficiently and process enough learning materials. It is worth the patience for the betterment of basic education system. Last, this proposal would let the system comply with international standards of education. According again to Edilberto C. de Jesus of Philippine Daily Inquirer, In 2009, Education Committee of Unescos Philippine National Commission noted that among 155 Unesco member countries, only Djibouti, Angola and the Philippines still fall below what has become the international norm. This is an issue we need to address because there is an arising concern for our Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Our Filipino graduates are deterred by our present system with 10 year basic education system. Their global competence is at risk because other countries do not acknowledge the degrees that our graduates attained. If other countries would stop or doubt employing our OFWs, it would have a huge negative impact in our present economic condition. So, this proposal would help our countrys economy to grow continually and/or to be stable. By complying with global standards, the employment chances would incr ease for our OFWs and other Filipino professionals which would mutually benefit our economy and countrymen. Having two additional years in basic education is idealistic but it is really workable. Education is the most important gift could have. But we deserve to have best gift. We are worthy to have a quality tool. We need to strengthen the very foundation of our country through this plan which aimed to solve the arising problems from our present basic education system. The implementation of this plan would take some time like setting up a Christmas tree, we would have a hard time arranging and decorating it but after we are done, we would see its real beauty, we would feast our eyes with its glittering lights and we could say that it is worth it. We could always start doing something for the betterment of our education sector. Waiting for the progress to come by addressing the problems of present system is good. But it is better to take some practical actions to solve these problems while waiting. We could, we would and we should have the best and quality education. At the end of the day, this blessing would be achieved. That is why I am happy to propose adding two years in basic education.

Computer Crime :: essays research papers

Computer Crime Advances in telecommunications and in computer technology have brought us to the information revolution. The rapid advancement of the telephone, cable, satellite and computer networks, combined with the help of technological breakthroughs in computer processing speed, and information storage, has lead us to the latest revolution, and also the newest style of crime, "computer crime". The following information will provide you with evidence that without reasonable doubt, computer crime is on the increase in the following areas: hackers, hardware theft, software piracy and the information highway. This information is gathered from expert sources such as researchers, journalists, and others involved in the field. Computer crimes are often heard a lot about in the news. When you ask someone why he/she robbed banks, they world replied, "Because that's where the money is." Today's criminals have learned where the money is. Instead of settling for a few thousand dollars in a bank robbery, those with enough computer knowledge can walk away from a computer crime with many millions. The National Computer Crimes Squad estimates that between 85 and 97 percent of computer crimes are not even detected. Fewer than 10 percent of all computer crimes are reported this is mainly because organizations fear that their employees, clients, and stockholders will lose faith in them if they admit that their computers have been attacked. And few of the crimes that are reported are ever solved. Hacking was once a term that was used to describe someone with a great deal of knowledge with computers. Since then the definition has seriously changed. In every neighborhood there are criminals, so you could say that hackers are the criminals of the computers around us. There has been a great increase in the number of computer break-ins since the Internet became popular. How serious is hacking? In 1989, the Computer Emergency Response Team, a organization that monitors computer security issues in North America said that they had 132 cases involving computer break-ins. In 1994 alone they had some 2,341 cases, that's almost an 1800% increase in just 5 years. An example is 31 year old computer expert Kevin Mitnick that was arrested by the FBI for stealing more then $1 million worth in data and about 20,000 credit card numbers through the Internet. In Vancouver, the RCMP have arrested a teenager with breaking into a university computer network. There have been many cases of computer hacking, another one took place here in Toronto, when Adam Shiffman was charged with nine counts of fraudulent use of computers and eleven counts of mischief to data, this all carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail.