Funny Birthday Quotes to Tickle Your Imagination

Funny Birthday Quotes to Tickle Your Imagination A birthday is a joyous occasion. What could be a better birthday gift than the gift of happiness? This birthday, share happiness by spreading laughter using a funny birthday quote. If you enjoy wisecracks, this page has funny birthday quotes to suit your sense of humor. Robert FrostA diplomat is a man who always remembers a womans birthday but never remembers her age.You know you are getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.Sir Norman WisdomAs you get older three things happen. The first is your memory goes, and I cant remember the other two.AnonymousA well-adjusted woman is one who not only knows what she wants for her birthday, but even knows what shes going to exchange it for.AnonymousI never forget my wifes birthday. Its usually the day after she reminds me about it.AnonymousWhen I have a birthday I take the day off. But when my wife has a birthday, she takes a year or two off.AnonymousAge is a number and mine is unlisted.Larry LorenzoniBirthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.John GlennThere is still no cure for the common birthday.

Story Critique

Story Critique Story Critique Story Critique: How to Conduct Story critique is a very interesting task; butnot for our professional essay writers. however, almost all the students have definite problems with story critiques writing. This fact is simple to be explained. This phenomenon happens because of the wrong treatment of the word critique. The majority of students believe that the word critique means presenting negative information about the story, looking for poor places, giving a negative review, if speaking other words. Succeed in Story Critique Writing To succeed in story critique writing, you have to understand that criticizing the story means analyzing the story and nothing else. If you understand it, you will never have any problems with the task of story critique writing. Thus, you have to make a detailed analysis of the text; however, this task also is not very simple one. There are too many different kinds of analysis; that is why before starting to deal with your story critique assignment, we recommend you to get to know which kind of the analysis you have to conduct in your story critique writing: Speak About Figures and Tropes of Speech If, for example, you have to draft literary story critique analysis, you have to speak about figures and tropes of speech, which are used by the author in the story you have to analyze; you have to explain the usage of these very literary devices presented in the story under consideration. Stating theme and idea of the story is the following elements of literary analysis of the story. General emotional tinge is that one to be mentioned while you are writing story critique as well. Too Many Things To Mention? There are too many things to be mentioned in terms of story critique analysis writing. That is why if you are going to have some difficulties with completing the task of story critiques, you can always account for our help and support. Our custom writing service is working in order to give you a friendly hand of help at that very moment when you need it. Therefore, if some question does not let you pass over to your task, do not hesitate and contact our representatives in order to get a detailed answer. Do not suffer from the task you can not cope with, ask for help and you are certain to succeed in story critique writing. Even if you do not want to conduct your story critique on your own for some private reason, you can order this task to be written for you by 24/7 trustful paper writing company. Read also: Admission Essay Editing Womens Rights Essay Pride and Prejudice Essay Lord of the Flies Essay Life Experience Essay

Visual Rhetoric Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Visual Rhetoric - Case Study Example Visual rhetoric is the use of images in order to further an argument, and encompasses the analysis of the visual images and text as well as their arrangement on a page. (www.owl.english.purdue.edu). Through the nature and form of the visual images as well as the corresponding text that is used, the two images which are the subject of this essay, both convey differing, contradictory messages on the same issue of gun control. The first image is a black and white cartoon image. Editorial cartoons are communicative tools because the cartoonist makes use of visual symbols for the purpose of communicating with his or her audience. In order to be classified as a visual rhetoric, an artifact must possess three elements (a) it must be symbolic (b) it must involve human interaction and (c) it must be presented to an audience for the purpose of communicating. (Foss, 2004: 304). Both the images qualify as visual rhetoric because they are utilized to symbolically convey a message on gun control and both images involve human characters. The first image is entirely in black and white and utilizes black text on a white background which shows high contrast levels. Since this image is purely in black and white, it utilizes shading in order to heighten contrasts. Lines are clean and simple and the drawing creates the effects of light and shadow through strategic shading. The image utilizes approximate symmetry, whereby the figures are organized around the central fulcrum point on the street, with the family arranged on one side and the odd looking man on the other. The element of stunned surprise and shock of the family of four at the sight of the man with the gun is conveyed through the backward slanting lines that are used. The larger size of the odd looking man is counterbalanced by the varying sizes of the family. The picture maintains an overall balance with the houses and playground in the background appearing smaller, thereby conveying the impression of distance. The use of dots and shading on the gun toting individual highlights the impression of general scruffiness, while the clean faces of the family suggest their contrasting nature. The text size is proportionate to the other figures in the image, and has been capitalized in order to make it more distinct and readable in black against a white background. The focal point of the image is the family of six and the odd looking man, however the greater amount of space devoted to the gun toting character suggests the relative importance of this character as the focal point to the whole image. In the second image however, it is color rather than shading that provides elements of contrast. The figure in the image stands out in stark contrast to the pitch black border, which also forms the backdrop for the text. The use of white text on a black background is however, not ideal. This image is focused almost exclusively around the gun, especially by pushing it directly into the foreground and lighting the area around it. The background is notably stripped of any distracting elements and is a plain gray background. The picture has been taken in such a manner that it is designed to draw attention to the gun, which is the subject of the message. The man's hand that is holding the gun is disproportionately large as

What are some guidelines that would help one achieve individuality Essay

What are some guidelines that would help one achieve individuality - Essay Example Different people require different environment to develop and there is no single life pattern suitable for everyone (Ten, 1980). On individuality, John Stuart Mill recommends that people should not follow the custom just because it is the norm. Conforming would only compare human beings to apes and sheep, which rely on faculty of imitation (Mill, Anderson & Anderson, 2003). Instead, Mill wants people to choose their course of life more reflectively basing their decisions on their own experiences. Attaining individuality is dependent of reflection and deliberation. This involves use of distinctive human faculties including judgment, perception, mental activity, discriminative feeling and moral preference (Mill, Anderson & Anderson, 2003). Since individual natures are not transparent, people experience living, deliberate and reflect on these experiences and derive lessons from them. Following the lessons, an individual should then make right inferences regarding what is more suitable for them (Mill, Anderson & Anderson, 2003). In light of Mills’ advocacy for developing individuality, Vincent Ruggiero (2008) gives four steps that act as guidelines to assist in achieving individuality. The first step according to Ruggiero (2008) is treating an individual’s first reaction to another person, situation or issue with suspicion (Ruggiero, 2008). A person should not at first embrace that feeling or reaction without examining the reason as to why they reacted in such a manner. People, issue or situations bring out feeling of joy, shock, disappointment or hurt. It is important that a person, before internalizing these feeling, understands why they occurred in the first place. The second step involves deciding why they reacted as they did during the encounter. At this stage, if possible an individual should determine what specific

Conversation Starter Essay Example for Free

Conversation Starter Essay Keeping pace with the rapidly growing health care industry has been a challenge for human resource (HR) professionals. Increasing health care costs, aging workforce primed for retirement over the next decade, and regulatory complexity will be prevalent challenges for human resources. (Minton-Eversole, 2011). Responding to the effects of health care reform, and counseling organizations on which actions to take are an unrelenting concern for management in human resources (Minton-Eversole, 2011). Health care providers are feeling the pressure as the industry moves to an accountable care model. With reimbursement contingent on patient satisfaction and safety, cost containment is more important than ever (Aberdeen Group, 2012). Providers are leaning on HR management to ensure their workforce is prepared to meet the challenges. Identifying and promoting talent within the organization, formal succession planning, and leadership programs can give organizations the advantage in an ever-changing industry (Aberdeen Group, 2012). Recruitment and retention of competent, skilled candidates that meet mandatory staffing ratios adds to the list of challenges HR professional will face (Aberdeen Group, 2012). Lacking qualified applicants to fill positions within the organization, human resources have turned to training and development to heighten the skills of current qualified workforce, while offering desirable salary and benefits packages to retain young workers (Minton-Eversole, 2011). Anticipated changes in demographics and social conditions will greatly influence the approach taken by HR professionals with the millions of individuals reaching retirement age. (Minton-Eversole, 2011). Many of these individuals in the workforce are not prepared financially for retirement; eliminating the chances for younger recruits to enter the profession (Minton-Eversole, 2011). Forecasted replacement needs will more than double the job openings  created by economic growth between 2008-2018 (Minton-Eversole, 2011). Knowing where the retirements will occur, and if there will be sufficient resources to replace them, will be the imposing challenge (Minton-Eversole, 2011). Human resource departments are engaged actively in employing and development of the strategies that will influence the health care industry. Reducing costs, improving patient care as well as safety, recruitment and retention of qualified applicants will be unfeasible for health care providers without active HR management in the organization. References Aberdeen Group. (2012). Aberdeen Group. Retrieved from http://htpp://blogs.aberdeengroup.com Minton-Eversole, T. (2011). Society For Human Resources Management. Retrieved from http://www.shrm.org

Character Study of Jem in To Kill a Mockingbird :: To Kill a Mockingbird Essays

In To Kill a Mockingbird Jem is Scout's older brother who acts as a protector and mentor when their father, Atticus, is not present. (Scout is the main character) Both of the children are moulded and shaped by their father Atticus, Jem more so than Scout, but this is probably down to his age, Atticus brings the children up to stand by their beliefs but to accept the beliefs and views of others, and to take a look at the way another person would see the situation. The teachings of Atticus have a profound impact on Jem. Jem is a role model for Scout, when Atticus is not around he acts in his stead. Here are a few qualities we see Jem develop through the course of the story. Jem has a respect for all living creatures, a belief Atticus has instilled in him, Atticus is a firm believer in not killing animals unless absolutely necessary and we can see how Jem develops this quality in himself. When Jem and Scout receive air rifles Atticus tells Jem ?Shoot all the Bluejays you want, if you can hit ?em, but remember it?s a sin to kill a Mockingbird.? Atticus, in a roundabout sort of way, told Jem he could kill Bluejays because, they are pests and even though he doesn?t like killing animals he allows Jem to shoot at the Bluejays, but to kill a Mockingbird, who does nothing but help and please people, is not acceptable. We later see Jem shooting tin cans in the back yard despite the large numbers of Bluejays flying around him, which Scout thinks is stupid because you are allowed to shoot Bluejays so why shoot at the tin cans? He has the option to but decides he doesn?t have to kill the birds. ? When he gave us our air rifles Atticus wouldn?t teach us to shoot. Uncle Jack instructed us in rudiments thereof, he said Atticus wasn?t interested in guns*. Atticus said to Jem one day, ?I?d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you?ll go after birds. Shoot all the Bluejays you want, if you can hit ?em, but remember it?s a sin to kill a mocking-bird. *This is rather ironic seeing as Atticus turns out to be the best shot in Maycomb, he just doesn?t like using guns because he sees his gift for shooting as an unfair advantage over animals.

Gang Leader for a Day

Innovate Your Life In the book, Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociology student from the University of Chicago starts out simply trying to understand â€Å"how it feels to be poor and black,† and ends up spending years and years figuring out the ins and outs of a gang society (Venkatesh 14). Sudhir receives the chance of a sociologist’s lifetime to see first-hand what life is like in the projects. He follows gang leader, J. T. around and studies his life at the Robert Taylor homes for years. Throughout Venkatesh’s experience he witnesses many things some people go a lifetime without seeing.For example, he was no stranger to seeing people use drugs or get beat up by gang members. One interesting aspect of Venkatesh’s experiment is the community aspect of the gang life. Although it was hard for Venkatesh to understand during his adventure, even the gang had a sense of what it was like to help out their community and how important it was. There were a lot of aspects of the book that showed the sociological perspective of the Robert Taylor community. The book Gang Leader for a Day shows the sociological perspective by bringing Robert Merton’s structural strain theory to life.Robert Merton created the structural strain theory in 1938. This theory states that deviance occurs when a society does not give all of its member’s equal ability to achieve socially acceptable goals (Conley 192). The goals Merton is referring to is the ‘American dream’; everyone wants to have a good job, a nice home, and a nice family. In the strain theory Merton talks about 5 different types of people that make up society. There are conformists, innovators, ritualists, retreatists, and rebels. Conformists are the people who accept the goals of society and the means of achieving those goals.Innovators accept the goals of society but find new means of achieving these goals. That’s where J. T. falls. Ritualists don†™t really accept the goals of society but they accept the means of achieving those goals, they often do the bare minimum to get by. Retreatists don’t accept the goals or the means of society and lastly, rebels are the people who don’t accept the goals of society or the means of achieving those goals but they create their own goals while using new means to get there. J. T. is the leader of a gang called the Black Kings.This gang lives in the Robert Taylor homes in Chicago and runs their â€Å"businesses† there. Venkatesh finds out that this group sells drugs for money but the more he learns about this group he finds more and more interesting ways they earn their money. When Sudhir first met J. T. he admitted that â€Å"the last word I expected to exit this man’s mouth was ‘college’† (Venkatesh 19). J. T. surprised him when he told him that he had â€Å"gone to college on and athletic scholarship and found that he loved reading about history and politics† (Venkatesh 27). Venkatesh came to find out that J. T. ad a corporate job after college and within two years he quit that job and returned to the gang life due to feeling that his â€Å"chances of success were limited because he was black† (Venkatesh 27). It is always said (especially now a days) how important it is for people to attend college now. You always hear left and right that you’ll need a degree to be successful and people often look down on you if you decide to take another route instead of college. People accept college as one of the means to reach the American dream. That’s what makes J. T. the perfect example of an innovator.Although he belongs to a gang which is often frowned upon in society, he accepted the means of achieving the American dream by attending college and getting a degree. Another aspect of the American dream that people accept is having a successful job. Most people would say that an acceptable successful job would mean a 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, job. But that depends on how you measure your success. J. T. may not be considered successful in the eyes of the business world but he considers himself more successful in the gang world than he was in the business world.J. T. has more money than he knows what to do with. He makes his money in various ways. Besides selling drugs through his gang, he also runs three buildings. He would allow people who were known as squatters to stay in the building when it was cold out. They were allowed to hang out in the stairwells and the gang provided them protection for a little bit of money. The gang was always finding ways like this to collect money. They would allow prostitutes to come and live there and some of them would do business there but they also had a fee to pay. Anyone who J.T. allowed to stay in his buildings without a lease would get taxed on their earnings for whatever type of business they were doing. But in return the Black King s would provide them with protection. Venkatesh learned a lot about the gang’s hierarchy and J. T. ’s â€Å"business plans. † Early in their relationship, J. T. explained the structure to making money in the drug game to Sudhir while he planned his move to running the Robert Taylor homes. He calls the Robert Taylor homes â€Å"easy money† because of how convenient the location was for white people to drive over.He also says he would go from making thirty thousand dollars a year to seventy-five thousand dollars or maybe even a hundred thousand a year (towards the end of the book J. T. is making somewhere around two hundred thousand dollars a year). This is where J. T. begins to explain the ladder of moving up in the gang and how he wants to move up. Throughout the book Venkatesh watches J. T. move up this ladder after his transition into more buildings becomes successful. J. T. finds himself going to meetings with the big wigs of the Black Kings and gainin g more and more respect from them.Gang Leader for a day shows a fascinating connection of the gang world and what people would consider ‘normal society’. J. T. ’s a successful gang leader which besides all the drugs and illegal doings of that gang, he seems more like a successful CEO of a business. He moves up a ladder of the drug business just like a regular business man has the opportunity to do. He makes most of his money through sales just like a regular company would. He provides protection to the tenants of his building as a service which for the most part they pay him for, much like how regular services are ran.So maybe J. T. doesn’t have the regular 9 to 5 job or the nice comfortable home but in his business world he is considered successful. That sounds like an innovator to me. When Venkatesh begins his study on the Chicago projects, he plans to use surveys. He starts off going into the poor community and tries to ask people questions. As Sudhir f inds out later on, the people of these communities weren’t so welcoming to new faces. On his first attempt to ask his survey questions, he was stopped and questioned by people in the building.These people did not want to allow him in and assumed he was from a rival gang. His first shot at actually asking the question â€Å"how does it feel to be young and black? † he gets laughed at. Then he asks J. T. the questions and J. T. tells him that he won’t learn anything about the life there with questionnaires and says â€Å"with people like us, you should hang out, get to know what they do, and how they do it. No one is going to answer questions like that. You need to understand how young people live on the streets† (Venkatesh 21). With that, Venkatesh changed his study technique from surveys to a field study.I believe that without a first-hand account of what living in the projects was like he couldn’t fully understand what it was like to be black and poor. I think that there are so many hardships of living the type of life that people lived in the Robert Taylor homes. People could go without eating, or couldn’t walk outside of their homes because they were afraid of getting shot. But oddly enough, I don’t think it was all bad. Throughout the book there is a strong theme of helping the community. For example, when the Pride group comes in and tries to register everyone to vote.Even though the Black Kings tried to dictate who people would vote for in order to help themselves continue to grow, they were educating people on their rights. There were people like Ms. Bailey who wouldn’t let anyone go without eating and found places to donate warm winter jackets for the people in the community. Without witnessing these acts of kindness in the community I don’t think Venkatesh’s results would have been as accurate. Most books you read or movies you watch about gangs portray them so negatively and make i t seem like everything they do is horrible for the community around them.Needless to say selling drugs openly on the streets is no way to live a life, but Venkatesh’s field study brought to light all the good things that go on in communities like these that a survey couldn’t have. I’m sure the people living in the Robert Taylor homes would ask for a nicer place to live or more food to eat and they more than likely didn’t enjoy being poor but Venkatesh proved through his study that just because someone is poor and lives in gang territory doesn’t mean that they can’t be as nice or as crazy as someone who lived in the suburbs.I strongly believe that if he had used the survey method he would not have found these types of things out about this community. Through his field study, the question arises, was this study ethical? There are definitely some gray lines in answering this question. Sociologists are supposed to make sure their participants ar e aware of what the study consists of. Throughout the book Venkatesh constantly asks himself what his intentions were of his study. If the researcher barely knows what his intentions are how are the participants supposed to understand?They are also supposed to make sure none of the participants can be harmed in their study. He also questions the ethics of his study when he watches J. T. beat up C-note for working on cars where he wanted to play basketball. He asks himself how he is supposed to stand by and watch violent acts like these take place without putting his morals at stake. I absolutely believe that in a field study like this Venkatesh’s ethics were on the line, but I don’t believe he would have gotten the same results if he didn’t cross that line.In Gang Leader for a Day I think that Venkatesh proved that poor people aren’t completely poor. They may not have money and might not always be able to afford food but I believe that he proved they stil l enjoy their lives to the most they can. I also think that it’s an assumption that someone can’t be successful if they’re from the projects because your poor and don’t always have the means to get there. Venkatesh’s study showed through J. T. that’s not true. Even though J. T. isn’t successful in society’s eyes he is in his mind because he has the money, the cars, and the clothes.He doesn’t view himself as a criminal he believes that since he’s doing good things for his community he isn’t a criminal. He just has a different way of doing things. People look up to J. T. in the Robert Taylor homes and support him. For example, during Ms. Bailey’s monthly meeting with her tenants, people question how she can support J. T. knowing all the illegal activities he conducts. She points out to these people that the community has become much safer and that there had been less shootings in their area due to the help from J. T. and his gang. J. T. eld so much power in the community and he tried to use that power to make positive changes. He had his younger officers clean up after community parties and did other community service like projects to prove to others that they weren’t always bad people. All in all, Gang Leader for a Day taught me that people in the projects aren’t all miserable, bad people. Sure, they lead a hard life but there are people there that have their hearts in the right place and do what they can to help even if they engage in activities that might be frowned upon like dealing drugs.You see all different types of people in these types of communities. That’s why this book was such a good example of the structural strain theory. There are people like J. T. that use new ways of finding their own success and there’s people like Sudhir who follow the means to achieve the goals of society by going to school and getting a job. I genuinely enjoyed th is book and would definitely recommend it for someone who is interested in getting a wider perspective on what the project life is like. Read and Reviewed by Logan Beck I used academic integrity in completing this assignment.