Chapter Notes On The Enchanted Amulet - 1360 Words

CHAPTER SIX The Enchanted Amulet Clouds of chocolate-colored dust closed around us the next day like a throttling throw. â€Å"Off on another adventure, eh lad?† Cotton coughed, as he vaulted over a huge, tumbleweed. â€Å"And I don’t see a witch anywhere! This is exciting. Just you and me on a quest to discover the golden key.† â€Å"Yeah, I just hope we can find it. And the sooner the better. Hey this dust is killing me,† I choked. â€Å"I even have grit between my teeth.† â€Å"What’d you say? You’ve a pit beneath your wreath. Why?† I shouted. â€Å"Cotton get the dirt out your ears.† He leaned over and dump what seemed like a bucket full of sand out of each ears. â€Å"I even have grit between my teeth.† I repeated. He smiled and I saw a pebble wedge between†¦show more content†¦Didn’t I?† I racked my brain, then finally said, â€Å"I remember you talking about all kinds of stuff, but you never mentioned them.† He shrugged. â€Å"Ah . . . Maybe not. I’m not as young as I used to be. And I guess I’m a little absent-minded at times.† â€Å"How old—† â€Å"Aiden, look out!† Cotton shouted. From behind me I heard, †caw . . . caw . . . caw,† cries echoing across the sky. I ducked and watched hundreds of huge black birds fly over my head. â€Å"Where did they come from?† â€Å"Those are the witches watch dogs,† he explained. â€Å"They’re all over the place. They search the land and report back what they see.† â€Å"They’re creepy. Hey thanks, I owe you one.† Cotton nodded. â€Å"Let’s get out of here.† â€Å"But won’t they tell the witches where we are?† I asked him. â€Å"And . . . um, what if they send those spooky birds back to swarm around and peck at our heads . . . or something?† â€Å"Come on! We’re not going to let a bunch of dumb birds stop us. Letâ₠¬â„¢s just do what we have to do and we’ll be fine,† he said, picking up his pace. â€Å"Now let me see. You wanted to know how old I am, right? I haven’t thought about that in a while.† He started counting his fingers. Then he whipped off his little clogs and counted his toes. â€Å"I’m around four hundred and fifty-three years old, give or take a hundred years.† â€Å"That’s old!† â€Å"I guess. Anyway, back to my story. The problem is though, I don’t really know where to begin. I suppose it’s best to start at the beginning. Correct?† he

Identity Crisis free essay sample

We were all going into this together, not knowing what the outcome of the situation would be but, knew that things were suddenly going to change whether we were ready for it or not. It was bound to happen. At this time, I was a middle schooler just starting at a school that I knew very little people at the time. We all didn’t know what to expect being the first time that we all were going to a school were there would be older students also in attendance. I myself was never really afraid of anyone older but as a 12 year old, you really were looking at all the negatives of the situation. Luckily for me, I wasn’t able to start school the first 2 weeks because my family was debating on whether we were moving or not so my parents didn’t want me to start at a school and then leave right away. We will write a custom essay sample on Identity Crisis or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page So I missed the hardest part about starting at a new school which is finding new friends to hang out with. By this time, I had old elementary school friends calling me and texting me asking where I was because I was supposed to be going to that school. I told them my situation and they said that they would be waiting for me to start schools so we could all start this adventure together. When I did start, I was welcomed into the â€Å"popular† group because I knew most of the kids that it consisted of and the others welcomed me in like they had already known who I was. It was honestly one of the best feelings that I had ever had as a kid and I was loving every single bit of it. As time came along in the year, I began meeting new people and doing things that I had yet to do before. I even became a part of the school’s flag football, track and basketball teams. The basketball team had the biggest effect on me. I began playing with a group of kids who had seemed to already know each other and had a general interest of playing basketball. I was very happy to be a part of that but I was happy with the position that I had soon realized that I was in. It slowly dawned on me as the season started to begin that the couch and all the player were very familiar with each other. I was basically the â€Å"odd man out† and didn’t know what my place would be on a team that had already gotten to know each other. I wanted to be a starter on that team but I wasn’t. They had found their line-up already and I wasn’t a part of it. I didn’t like this so a slowly started proving myself with those who weren’t aware of what I was capable of doing with the basketball skills that I possessed. So I quickly made my way into the starting line up and from there, we started winning game by game and eventually became the Middle School champions in our county. The first team to do that with an undefeated record. As the school became aware of their boys teams accomplishments, they held a celebration assembly and team luncheon. Kids from the school learned who all of us were and everything was absolutely great from there, Until the next year when we returned as 7th graders and had to prove ourselves once again. When it came time for the basketball team try-outs, every player that was on the previous years team was there willing to fight for another championship. There were more kids there that wanted to be a part of the team that weren’t there last year and they were willing to do anything in their will to make the team and contend. The problem soon arose that the players trying out felt as if last years team was over confident in themselves. I myself had not had a problem with the newer kids trying out because they were all friends of mine but things started to get so heated that I quickly found myself in between my friends that I hung out with and my teammates that were also friends of mine. This made me quickly evaluate myself making me question who I was as a friend, teammate and even a person and I didn’t have the slightest clue of what to do. I felt that I was becoming a traitor with people who I thought that I had the closest bonds with. I was left so confused and questioned who I was and what I was becoming. I felt as if everyone was upset with me and it was my fault that everything was happening this way and I didn’t know what to do. After a while I basically saw these friends only when I felt like I had to began hanging out with people that I had knew and never hung out with but also finding myself getting in more and more trouble. Soon after, all this drama that I was involved in was effecting how I was behaving and my class work so my parents finally had enough and made me quit the team. It all worked its way out because shortly after I quit the team, my family decided to move to the other side of the city. I honestly had never really spoke about the exact reason why I had to quit until now. I suppose it might be for the better because it made me realize how much you really needed to balance things out if you wanted to go through school the way that I wanted to.

Power of Active Directory in Windows Server 2003 free essay sample

In order to understand the concept of active directory first lets take a look at directory service. Directory Service is a service which stores information of using and managing different objects of network at a centralized point. Those objects include printing servers, file servers, printers; fax servers etc . The directory service stores all of the information regarding the resources and at the same time provides mechanism of easy access to the resources’ information for the users. Active directory is also a directory service in windows server 2003 which stores information about the netwrok resources and about the services that make this information available to the users. Now let’s look at the power and key features of active directory in windows server 2003:  ·Multiple selections of directory objects: We can change the common attributes of many users at the one time.  ·Drag-and-drop functionality: You just need to drag and drop the directory objects from one container to another in order to move them  ·Efficient search capabilities: The object oriented searching facility provides efficient search minimizing the traffic on the network. We will write a custom essay sample on Power of Active Directory in Windows Server 2003 or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page  ·Saved queries: The active directory queries can be saved, exported, reopened and refreshed, and the results of the attributed queries can also be exported.  ·Active Directory command-line tools: A number of command line tools are available to manage the active directory. Those tools are Ntdsutil, Dsget, Dsrm, Dsmod, Csvde, Dsadd, Dsquery, Dsmove and Ldifde.  · Domain functional levels :Active directory’s domain wide features in your network can be enable using domain functional levels.  ·Forest functional levels: The Active directory’s forest wide features in your network can also be now enabled using forest functional levels.  ·Secure All Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) traffic:   All Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) traffic is signed and encrypted by Active directory’s administrative tools, by default. It ensures that the data is not corrupted and that it is coming from the known source.  ·Active directory quota: With Active directory quota, the ownership of objects by a user, computer or group can be limited by assigning quotas.  ·New Group Policy settings: more than 200 group policy setting are included in windows server 2003‘s active directory.  ·New Resultant Set Of Policy (RSoP) Wizard is included which enables you to check the policies assigned to a specific user or computer.  ·Folder redirection is also made very easy.  ·Advanced options for software installation are available, which makes installation process easy and administration effective.  ·InetOrgPerson class has been added to enhance the security and it can be used in the same way as the user class is used.  ·Cross forest support is also provided.  ·The Software Restriction Policies that are included can identify unwanted or hostile soft wares and hence will not let them execute on the computer. But this requires that the system is either being run on Microsoft Windows XP Professional or on a family member of Windows Server 2003.  ·Domain controller renaming: The domain controllers, without demoting, can now be renamed with the active directory of windows server 2003.As well as the domain name can now also be renamed with this.  ·In the domain hierarchy, the domains can be moved from one location to another.  ·The two way transitivity can now be extended by creating forest trust.  ·The users’ access of one domain or forest can be allowed, disallowed or given selective access to another domain of forest.  ·Unnecessary objects of the schema can be deactivated  ·In order to link the auxiliary classes to the objects on dynamic bases, extra support is provided.  ·When the partial attribution set is extended , the resulted administrative actions take place; at that time the Tuning global catalog replication is available for preserving global catalog’s state of synchronization All in all the active directory of Windows server 2003 provides a lot of additional features which to facilitate the management, administration and usage of resources in the network. The security additions are also very remarkable and a lot of flexibility is given to the administrator to check and configure different parameters of the network. Other than this some work has also to improve the responsiveness of the network and to cater with the network traffic. Flexibility for moving objects and domains, and for renaming them is also made easy .And with the new policies introduced the access of a user from one domain of forest to another can also be a controlled effectively. Providing these all functionalities and flexibilities to the networks administrators and mangers make their tasks of access controls, security, managing of objects etc very easy. References Spealman, Jill, Hudson, Kurt (2004). Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure. Redmond ,Washington: Microsoft Press. Jones, Don (2003). Windows Server 2003 Weekend Crash course. NewYork: Wiley Publishing Inc..

War Of 1812 essays

War Of 1812 essays In this essay I will be discussing the major events and battles that took place during the War of 1812. The war was a conflict fought between the United States and Great Britain. It started in 1812 and lasted until the spring of 1815. My thesis statement is: The War of 1812 was a war that neither side won. There were four main causes for the war taking place. These were impressment, boundary problems, the Warhawks, and the British supplying the Ohio Country Indians with weapons and supplies. Henry Clay, who was the leader of the Warhawks, convinced Americans that defeating British North America, is only a matter of marching. He knew that Britain wouldnt have any troops to spare because of their involvement in the Soon after the outbreak of the war, the British forces on St. Josephs Island moved toward the American held Mackinac Island and the next morning were in position on the hill above the fort with cannons and muskets aimed down into it. The American commander, Lieutenant Porter Hanks, immediately surrendered. Lieutenant Hanks wasnt even warned by his own government that they declared war. Americans began to worry about the exposed fort of Detroit. The U.S. quickly dispatched Brigadier General William Hull with reinforcements to the fort. In July, General Hull decided to cross the Detroit River into Upper Canada. His militia was poorly equipped, so when Hull learned of an approaching force made up of British troops, Canadian militia, and native Americans, he quickly retreated back to Detroit. General Isaac Brock led the British units. Brock took his army on the offensive and followed Hull back to Detroit. Brocks intentions were to secure the western frontier for the British. In the battle of Detroit he was able to take control over Detroit without firing a single shot. Now the entire northern ...

Price Competition between online retailers and High St shops Essay

Price Competition between online retailers and High St shops - Essay Example ive stores went up by 18 percent while those that practiced online sales along with convectional shop keeping experienced 2 percent decline in growth (Passingham 2013). In spite of the increase in demand for online transactions, the amounts customers have to pay for the products keep dropping; the mean value at the checkout is estimated to have reduced by over 10% since 2011. This is evidence that the online customers are using the convenience of online stores to shop for deals. Online shops have a competitive edge in that they can afford to sell their goods for considerably less than their high street counterparts do (Kelsey 2013). The latter have to account for the cost of; lease, security, staffing and myriad other costs of doing business and the higher overheads ultimately weigh in on their competitive advantage. For online stores, there is the added convenience of transcending geographical boarders; a clothing shop in London will be mostly out of bounds for customers living far from the city but the online one is open to anyone anywhere. This way, the customer base for online stores is significantly larger than that of high street ones (Kelsey, 2013). Firm’s like ASOS, which deals in both men and women’s clothes, have capitalized on the online marketing sector. Today, it is one of the most profitable clothing stores in the UK because of its online presence, which allows it to cater for the needs of next generations shoppers. Many of these are used to getting everything online and as a result, ASOS provides an opportunity for them to easily and conveniently access fashion accessories. They also provide services, which allow customers to â€Å"try on† the clothes online virtually which makes them even less likely to go for a high-end street shop. High street stores on the other hand have also upped their efforts to remain competitive in the quickly digitalizing market, one of the main methods applied is the opening of websites and online stores so they

Discuss and evaluate the social, physical and psychological needs of Essay

Discuss and evaluate the social, physical and psychological needs of children when particpating in sport and exercise - Essay Example In recent years, experts are trying to investigate the social, physical, and psychological needs of children, so that efficient steps can be taken to ensure their proper development. This paper will specifically discuss some of such needs that are essential for children during their sport activities and exercises. It is very imperative to provide positive environment to children, which can motivate them in enhancing their different skills. It is observed that atmosphere plays an important role during sport activities, and one of the significant physical needs for children is a positive and proper environment that should be safe, healthy, secure, as well as, near to nature, as children develops intellectually more quickly in natural environment, rather than artificial one. (Humphrey, pp. 23-25) In addition, children are very sensitive and studies have indicated that a biased environment often reverses their development process. In this regard, guardians and teachers should consider providing opportunity to every child to show his talent and skills, in order to avoid any kind of inferiority or complex, which can be very complicated for their personality development in future. Furthermore, appropriate training is necessary to avoid any kind of psychological abuse that may affect children during participation in sport activities. In this regard, a number of social, physical, and psychological needs are essential and important to enhance the process of personality development in children around the globe. It is hoped that the paper will be beneficial for students, teachers, and professionals in better understanding of the

Workplace bullying Essay Example for Free

Workplace bullying Essay Background of the study: Workplace bullying is a problem and is an important organizational and social concern. This study examined workplace bullying and its effect on job performance and productivity. The research showed how bullying behavior affects a target’s ability to perform their jobs, which can impact the morale of employees and the financial performances of an organization. Workplace bullying is difficult to identify and contain because the harassment usually takes place covertly, many times out of sight of supervisors and coworkers. The central findings of this study (a) showed the frequency of workplace bullying, (b) factors contribute to workplace bullying, (c) respondents perceive level of job perfromance, and (d) revealed a relationship between workplace bullying and its effect on job performance and productivity, (e) discover coping strategies of bully victims. A 2002 survey of 9,000 Canadian federal employees indicated that 42% of female and 15% of male employees reported being bullied in a 2-year period, resulting in more than $180 million in lost time and productivity (Canada Safety Council, 2002). According to Namie and Namie (2003), 82% of employees who had been bullied left their workplace: 38% for health reasons and 44% because they were victims of a low performance appraisal manipulated by a bullying supervisor to show them as incompetent. High turnover of employees can be costly for organizations. Human resource experts calculate the cost of losing and replacing a worker from 25% to 200% of annual compensation, depending on the level of the employee (Melone, 2006). The workplace presents opportunities for a wide range of insidious and intimidating bully tactics. Research indicates a relationship between employee perceptions of bullying and his or her need to spend time at work defending themselves, networking for support, contemplating the circumstances, becoming demotivated and stressed, and taking sick leave (Namie Namie; Needham, 2003; Rigby, 2002). Theoretical/Conceptual Framework: This paper applies Novak’s (1998) theory of learning to the problem of workplace bullying. Novak’s theory offers an understanding of how actions of bullying and responses to bullying can be seen as deriving from individualized conceptualizations of workplace bullying by those involved.  Further, Novak’s theory suggests that training involving Ausubel’s concept of meaningful learning (Ausubel Educational Theory 11(1): 15–25, 1961; Ausubel et al. 1978) which attends to learners’ pre-existing knowledge and allows for new meaning to be constructed regarding workplace bullying can lead to new actions related to workplace bullying. Ideally, these new actions can involve both a reduction in workplace bullying prevalence, and responses to workplace bullying which recognize and are informed by the negative consequences of this workplace dynamic. Second approach that we used is In â€Å"Harassment and Bullying at Work: a Review of the Scandinavian Approach† Einarsen (2000) presents three different causal models that have been used in Scandinavia, namely emphasizing personality traits of the exposed, general characteristics of human interaction in organizations and organizational climate. The first model explores characteristics of the victim and/or offender, and claims that some people are more in the risk zone of being bullied because of their personality. Certain personality traits, such as lower self-esteem, anxiety in social settings and suspiciousness, are claimed to be more common among victims of bullying. As for the offender authoritarian personalities that often react impulsively with aggressiveness, are examples of personality traits that have been discovered in this field of study. Different studies have brought out different traits so there is no confirmation of some traits being more valid than others. Furthermore â€Å"the issue of personality traits in relation to harassment at work is a controversial one, especially as far as the victim is concerned and the position on personality traits as precursors of harassment has been seriously questioned† (Einarsen, 2000:389). The second model is built on the observation that although conflict is a phenomenon found in all organizations, only in some cases interpersonal conflicts lead to battles where the goal is to demolish the other (Einarsen, 2000). Since conflicts are seen as a natural component of organizations this model claims that there are certain human characteristics that are inherent and affects organizations. Some researcher even go as far as saying that harassment is an inherent human characteristic, and therefore believes that attempts to eliminate workplace bullying is useless. Another argument is that scapegoats play an important social role for the organizational climate and it brings other organizational members t ogether (Einarsen, 2000). It  should be noted that the scapegoats does not necessarily have to be an organizational member; it can be an external person or organization, or even an object. Both Leymann (1992) and Einarsen et al. (1994) argue that unresolved interpersonal conflicts threaten to end up in harassments. Whether harassment might be an inherent human characteristic is yet to be explored. A third possibility is that harassment is triggered aftermath from other organizational conflicts (Einarsen, 2000). The third model has received the most attention in Scandinavia, and it stresses the role that organizational factors and work conditions play, such as social environment, workload, or division of tasks. Workplace bullying in this model – is looked upon as caused by the organization itself, that is, by structural and other problems within the organization (Einarsen, 2000). Studies have shown that some factors may be more significant than others for the presence of bullying at work (2000). Leadership, role conflicts, and work control were brought out by Einarsen et al. (1994) to be contributing factors to workplace bullying. Other factors may still be important though, bullying might for example be more likely to occur if the jargon in the workplace in general is more aggressive. The approach of organizational work environment says that organizations with ill conditions might increase workplace bullying. It also suggests that workplace bullying is more likely to occur in particular 15 organizational settings (Einarsen, 2000). These three different models can alone be seen as narrow and one-sided, but Einarsen (2000) stresses the importance for future research to focus on sever al factors, both organizational and personal. Another way of understanding work place bullying is by using Gidden’s Structuration Theory to provide a basis for examining the social processes involved in the approaches adopted by organizations to manage workplace bullying. Giddens’ framework involves a series of stages, with the possibility of barriers between each of the stages. Within this theory strategies between the stages and tactics within the stages could be developed to address the problem of workplace bullying. In 1984, sociologist Giddens presented his theory of Structuration (Giddens, 1984). In simple terms his theory outlines the social processes involved in the evolution of aspects of society. A key component of his theory is the double hermeneutic  process, where people, upon reflection of day to day activities, are able to influence the structure of society by either reproducing current practices or by changing them. School and workplace bullying have a long history within our society and recent ideas have been advanced that challenge the appropriateness of such traditional behavior. Turner (1991) analyzed Giddens’ work and produced a diagrammatic model of his Theory of Structuration. The model with its 11 sensitizing concepts is illustrated in Figure 1. It is proposed in this study to use Turner’s model, which consists of inter-linked but discrete concepts, to provide a framework for illuminating how a social issue, such as workplace bullying, can be managed within an organization. To elucidate the study, below is a schematic diagram that shows how the information gathered is utilized: Figure 2 Conceptual Framework Figure 2 presents the conceptual framework for this study. The researchers believe that the factors contributing to work place bullying can affect the level of performance of such employee. Factors such as abuse of power, self-esteem, perceived threats and organizational culture may affect ones quality of work, productivity, and quality of family-work life. But the diagram also shows degree of coping strategies such as depression, physical injury, and self-expression. Statement of the Problem: This study aimed to investigate the effect of workplace bullying on employees job performance and their coping strategies in the random call center agents in Davao City. It specifically sought to answer the following questions. 1. What are the factors that contribute to workplace bullying in terms of: a. Power; b. Self-esteem; and c. Perceived Threats 2. What are the respondents perceive level of job performance as to: a. Quality of work; b. Productivity; and c. Quality of family work life 3. What is the respondent perceive degree of coping strategies employed regards to: a. Depression; b. Physical injury; and c. Self-Expression Proposed Hypothesis: H1; the factors that contributed to workplace bullying do significantly affect the respondents’ perceived degree of coping strategies employed as to: A.) Depression B.) Productivity C.) Quality of family-work life. Objectives: To know the factors that contributes to workplace bullying in terms of power, self-esteem and perceived threats. To know the respondent’s perceived level of job performance as to quality of work, productivity and quality of family-work life? To know the degree of respondent’s perceived degree of coping strategies employed with regards to depression, physical injury and self-expression. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY VICTIMS OF WORKPLACE BULLYING. This study will be useful to the people who are victims of bullying so that they will be able to develop or imitate the coping strategies of the victims with regard to depression, physical injury and self-expression. The reasons also being revealed why workplace bullying is existing in a particular company will help us to analyze in gathering data that can eradicate or lessen such issue. This study defines the impact of workplace bullying behavior on work productivity, quality of work within  a company THE COMPANY. The company will benefit to this study because this will identify reasons or factors of workplace bullying that need to be considered or to act upon. They can improve in identifying the effects of workplace bullying in employees’ peceived level of job performance as to quality of work, productivity and quality-work life. In this study the management can make decisions and strategy to eradicate bullying in the workplace in order to provide healthy relationships within the company. It also helps the organization to be aware on how to give insightful ways to eliminate this harmful behavior. It helps the company to be challenged to create policies regarding workplace bullying. THE FUTURE RESEACHERS OF THIS SUBJECT MATTER. This will help future researchers to gather secondary data and gain ideas. Scope and Limitations of the Study The proposed study will be limited only on the random people who worked in call center industry. This study will be limited only to the selected call center company within Davao City area. This study adds to the body of knowledge regarding adult bullying behavior in the workplace. Data from this research provide leaders and managers’ insight into the prevalence of the mistreatment of employees and how it affects the productivity of their workers.