Greek Mythology Essay Example for Free

Greek Mythology Essay Odysseus was considered to be the epitome of what a Greek man should strive to be. He was a courageous and clever warrior who earned arete through his feats during the Trojan War. The ancient Achaean male modeled themselves after great men like Odysseus, but the real question is who do Greek woman model themselves after. Clytemnestra’s plight and eventual death is a perfect example of how married women were expected act compared to married men. Also, women like Penelope in The Odyssey were criticized for being untruthful, but men like Odysseus were praised for exceptional cunning in the same epic poem. Calypso is a goddess who is aware of these double standards and makes an eloquent plea to the gods of Olympus, but her speech falls on deaf ears. Essentially Ancient Greek culture had staggering gender inequalities that led to females being confined to the whims of males. Many tales demonstrate how differently married women were expected to act compared to men. When King Agamemnon departed from Mycenae to siege Troy he tricked his wife, Clytemnestra, into sacrificing their daughter to the gods. During the ten years Agamemnon was gone Clytemnestra plotted with her lover, Aegisthus, revenge. Once King Agamemnon returned, he was murdered by the duo, but the gods deemed this act unacceptable. If Clytemnestra were a man the tale would have most likely ended here. But Apollo and Athena hid Orestes until he was of age and convinced that he should follow with the worst crime any Greek could ever commit, matricide. After the murdering his mother, Orestes was haunted by the Furies (who were known for pursuing particularly heinous criminals and exacting revenge, Chiekova, 10/23) until nearly succumbing to madness. Eventually Orestes was given trial, and Athena’s deciding vote expunged his horrible deed. A woman taking a lover was disgraceful in Achaean culture, and a women killing her husband simply unheard of. Women were viewed as objects than could be possessed or traded like Helen of Troy was, and so Clytemnestra needed to be punished. On the other hand married men like Zeus had dozens of affairs (including deceiving Clytemnestra’s mother Leda by appearing as a swan Chiekova, 10/23) while Hera remained faithful to him. The tale of Aphrodite and Hephaestus is another prime example, in which Aphrodite was shamed before all the gods for laying with Ares. The examples of similar myths can be listed ad nauseam, but essentially Greek women were forced to be loyal and obedient while the men took whatever lovers they so desired. Another example of gender inequalities in ancient Greek Culture can be seen in Penelope’s tribulations with the suitors. As Odysseus left for the Trojan War and did not return with Nestor and Menelaus, some assumed he was dead. Under the pretext of courting Penelope, the suitors proceed to spend their days at Odysseus house and feasting on the livestock. They disrespected and abused the traditional host-traveler relationship and yet still Penelope was left to be the antagonist (Chiekova, 10/26). If she agreed to marry a suitor, she would be dishonoring Odysseus but the longer she did not pick a suitor the more damage they caused. In Richmond Lattimore’s translation of The Odyssey the suitors verbally attack Penelope, â€Å"For she holds out great hope to all, and makes promises to each man, sending us messages but her mind has other intentions. And here is here is another stratagem of her heart’s devising (The Odyssey, Book 2, page 41, lines 90-93). † The suitor goes on to describe her cleverness; Penelope declares she will marry a suitor once she finished knitting a funeral shall, but every night she would secretly un-wind the threads, effectively stalling the suitors. These suitors claim that Penelope is being disrespectful for not choosing one of them to marry and call her a liar for supposedly leading them on but never choosing a man. In the same epic poem commended Odysseus for outsmarting and escaping the Cyclops, evading the sirens, and eventually killing the suitors. Both Odysseus and Penelope were incredibly intelligent but because of Achaean double standards, Penelope was portrayed as a liar (at least to the suitors) and Odysseus a hero. Calypso seems to be the only individual aware of, or at least concerned with the mistreatment of Greek women. When Odysseus retells his time spent with Calypso, he adjusts the story to give the perception that he was held prisoner and bemoaned every moment on the island. However, Homer gives insight of how Odysseus actually felt and writes, the nymph was no longer  pleasing to him, (The Odyssey, Book 9, page 92, line 150). † This statement implies that at some point Odysseus did enjoy himself with the goddess on the island, but has become bored with her. After seven years Odysseus finally decides that he should return home, but Calypso insists that he should stay and enjoy the extravagance of immortality with her. This is against the ideals of Homeric Greek women as she displays a dominant and manipulative side, which threatens male supremacy. Eventually Zeus sends Hermes as a messenger to command Calypso to allow Odysseus to return home. Calypso retaliates by making a passionate plea, â€Å" You are hard-hearted, you gods, and jealous beyond all creatures beside, when you are resentful toward the goddesses for sleeping openly with such men as each has made her true husband, (The Odyssey, Book 9, page 91, lines 118-120). † Calypso continues to give three examples of past goddesses being chastised for taking a lover, but ultimately her speech does nothing. She is forced to yield Odysseus or risk angering the all mighty Zeus. Calypso embodied the struggle of Homeric women and pleas with the gods to see the double standard Greek culture imposed. Ultimately she is viewed as an object of physical pleasure and must yield to Zeus and Odysseus’s wishes, further stigmatizing women as being inferior. Analyzing Homeric culture through the lens of a woman provides a stark contrast to the life of a man. Women were subjugated to the commands of men, with little or no personal freedom. The females who broke the culture mold, paid the price. Clytemnestra eventually was murdered by her own son for exacting revenge on her deceitful husband, Penelope was ridiculed for using intelligence to navigate her way through a difficult situation, and Calypso was bullied into giving up the man she loved. Ultimately Achaean women were meant to be objects of desire that exist to satisfy men and the Homeric myths only propagated this idea. Works Cited Chiekova, Professor â€Å"Introduction to Greek Mythology† Lecture. Bliss Hall. Ewing. 10/23, 10/26, . Oral. Lattimore, Richmond, trans. The Odyssey. New York: Harper and Row Books, 1967.

Spanish Cinema During Dictatorship Film Studies Essay

Spanish Cinema During Dictatorship Film Studies Essay Filmmakers living under whatever military dictatorship are basically deprived of any open criticism of the regime as all cultural activities, including cinema, are rigorously controlled by censors. In order to share their ideas and produce films they want, they have to resort to the indirect methods of expression such as parables, metaphors, allegories, symbols and allusions and apply them in cinema language. The elements metaphorised during Francos years in Spain formed the basic criteria of the censorship Faith, Fatherland and Family. Hence, family as a microcosm became a condensed and concealed reference to the state for such directors as Carlos Saura Fernando Palacios, Luis Garcà ­a Berlanga to cite only a few. The questions that this essay raises concern the family category and family relationship in Crà ­a Cuervosà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦/Raise Ravens [Carlos Saura, 1975]; code of the figurative language in Spanish national cinema of the Francos years, along with the script, filming an d editing styles that convey internal impulses and foreign influences of that epoch in terms of single family. RR was shot and released during the period marked by the collapsing of Francisco Francos dictatorship that lasted for thirty-five years. It is necessary to bear in mind that the last decade of his governing was characterised by economic growth, social modernisation, population mobility, tourist development caused by domestic and external conditions. But the legacy of his flowering regime that is particularly identified with hispanidad and National Catholicism, gender, political and trade oppression, military regime, strict censorship and dominance of patriarchal family values was still in the air (Ibid., 173-183). In order to raise an issue of the burden of such politics Carlos Saura exploits the tragic story of the family where three sisters have lost both parents and become in charge of a strict aunt. The plot of child-centred RR might be considered as a long flashback of adult Ana recalling her infancy twenty years later in 1995 (DLugo 1991, 132). Thereby, reading this film as retrospective suggests mediation on Anas morbid childhood, on complex issues of family relations and grieves, their interplay and impact on her personality. But on the metaphorical level, audience is invited to meditate on the state of affairs of actual Spain caused by the loss of Empire (1898), unfruitful Second Spanish Republic (1931-39) resulted with the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) that paved the way for the military regime of Franco (1939-75). The opening credits sequence of RR proves Sauras ingenious realistic editing style that results in a non-linear structure and peculiar editing. Indeed it starts with the camera slowly moving across the photographs of child Ana [Ana Torrent] in order to compress the narrative time illustrating moments of her childhood and identifying her as the potential first-person narrative of the film. Further the viewer discovers that the visible limit between fantasy and reality is absent and transition takes place only through camera movement while characters enter the shot directly (07 min 02). From the technical point of view, the flying sequence of child Ana (15 min 35) is remarkable because the transition is realised by means of zooming, changing angle from low to high and subjective camera: in this sequence Ana escapes from her prison-house and it can be interpreted as the rejection of the authority. The passage from present to future is ensured in particular through the dolly shot and the off-screen voice of adult Ana [Geraldine Chaplin] (17 min 55) or solely by means of her voice-over (66 min 35). However the memories from the past are reconstructed from the photographs that are frequently fixed in tight shots (19 min 55, 35 min 06). As a result, the panoply of techniques contributes to the alternative editing and narrative in RR. The use of natural lightning and contemporary realistic settings enhance the authenticity, though complex, of the Spanish society. The establishing shot introduces the location of the gloomy family house and the further mise-en-scà ¨ne articulates the films space concentrated in this roomy isolated house situated in the centre of Madrid that symbolises the impoverished bourgeoisie by the end of the Spanish Civil War. The mansion is surrounded by overgrown garden and boasts an empty and ruined swimming pool connoting the decay, emptiness and death with an allusion to the dead-end political situation of the regime. The entering of the outside world into the closed space via consumerism is expressed by comics (09 min 36), glossy magazines (29 min 23) and billboards. Even the international influence on economic and cultural transformation of Spanish society is visualised in the national flags of the USA (14 min 46, 28 min 20). The only sequence set outside the city takes place in the ho use of servicemen Nicolà ¡s Garate [Germà ¡n Cobos] where children play outdoors and the diegetic birds singing (72 min 27) contrasts to the diegetic sound of heavy traffic heard in their garden (14 min 48, 16 min 28, 101 min 58). The ambiguity of adult Ana and Anas mother Maria [both by Geraldine Chaplin] contributes to the time, space and identities shift in the film. While mixing up memories and fantasies of child Ana with the reality of adult Ana and joining time layers of past, present, future and unreal together, Saura creates a concentrated reality where all characters and epochs interact and enter the field. Child Ana, the ambiguous protagonist, becomes a main link between Maria and adult Ana. As means to emphasise the importance of Anas viewpoint in the film, Saura applies the close-up on her face (03 min 35, 25 min 21, 46 min 37, 62 min 47, 67 min 17 etc.), and camera is also often placed at the level of her eyes despite the sequences with adults participation (07 min 11, 21 min 43, 30 min 35, 57 min 26, 58 min 22 etc.). This can be interpreted as the innocence of childs viewpoint and an appeal to viewers to adopt it. The films title RR as a part of popular Spanish saying states for Raise ravens and they will peck out your eyes could become a allegorical moral that not only the children could return evil for evil to their parents, but the unsatisfied country is able to take revenge on its former ideological leaders. Child Ana remains a powerful metaphor for Spains future that is still indefinite and unsure to defeat the regime, but potentially strong as her viewpoint is distinctly lucid, penetrating and analysing (DLugo 1991, 134-135). Thus, through the silent shots, she unveils what adults as censors try to conceal: adulteries of her father [Hà ©ctor Alterio] as an antithesis of canonised marriage (05 min 28, 74 min 20); grieves and pains of her mother standing for agony and frustration with the Francos regime (46 min 10, 55 min 22); quarrel of her parents proving the dominating role of husband in the family (58 min 02); affair of her aunt [Mà ³nica Randall] (88 min 19) contrasting with her a uthoritarian manner (21 min 17). Ana seems to understand that spontaneous stories of housemaid Rosa [Florinda Chico] with her genuine speech (24 min 37, 74 min 33) are more sincere than the orders of her aunt. The kitchen, which is Rosas realm, is also accentuated by means of bright lightning and grows into Anas safest place in the whole house. All in all, Anas character invites the audience to participate in estimation of cause-and-effect relations of the precedent and current epochs, depicted in her parents, as well as their impact on her future. As for the Anas surroundings, her household is characterised by double absence of parents and feminine composition. Since in Francos time the patriarchal family structure prevailed and the man was supposed to be the head of such mà ©nage (Helen Graham 1995, 184), this role is successfully played by Aunt Paulina whose iron discipline substitutes maternal affection. As Ana has already disclosed the illusion of the paternal system when she found her father dead in the arms of his mistress [Mirta Miller] at the beginning of the film (05 min 28), she does not obey her aunts orders and refuses to kiss her dead father (13 min 27). The symbolic meaning of this act lies in disapproval of established Catholic and militarist models embodied in her aunt and the servicemen present at her fathers funeral. Anas further rebel against her aunts rigorous education up to attempt to shoot (88 min 41) and to poison her (91 min 09) in the climax could be interpreted as an appeal for emancipation of the n ew generation, the yearning to burst the bonds of patriarchal family and to uphold womens rights in the society (Helen Graham 1995, 329). Yet Ana re-plays this rebellion in the scene with a doll blaming her disobedience (66 min 09). Girls dynamism and thirst for action are opposed to her grandmothers [Josefina Dà ­az] immobility and passivity. Her paralysed and silent figure stands for the nostalgia for the glorious past of the Spanish Empire and is a true allusion to her powerlessness in Francos society. Her life was destroyed by wars and regimes; she remains merely a silent witness of the present epoch finding her comfort in photographs that accompanied by an old-fashioned song  ¡Hay, Maricruz! bring back her sweet memories. Moreover, Saura attributes an emblematic soundtrack to every women generation in the film. The opening credits start with the melancholic piano piece  Cancià ³n y Danzas N.6 by Federico Mompou; it is performed later by Anas mother with a symbolic reference to her abandoned career of concert pianist and her unfortunate marriage (Helen Graham 1995, 308). Finally, Jeanettes rhythmic tune Porque te vas (Because You are Leaving) is a pop song about the failed relationships but it also has a connotation of Anas revolt and vitality. Thus, the self-conscious role of diegetic music makes characters and their ideological values more vivid. Being an example for masculinities, Anas father Anselmo does not have any associated tune: he is a former military officer from the Blue Division devoted to his Fatherland, though unfaithful tyrannical husband and neglecting parent. Overflowed with authoritarianism, Anselmo stands for a purest metaphor for the Francos military regime with all its dreads, oppressions and gender inequalities. His dominating position is illustrated in one of the photographs from the opening credits where he rides a horse (01 min 13).The legacy of the Spanish Civil War subsists in the sequence when children put in order their fathers cabinet asking questions about his military role (87 min 00). His gifts (pistol, gun and colours) could signify the transmission of values of the dying regime, e.g. violence, brutal power and nationalism. Furthermore, Anselmos character reveals and completes the image of his passive wife Maria. Being the typical spouse of the Francoist society, she renounced her vocation so as to accept the upbringing of children (Helen Graham, 183-193). Indeed, she was not convinced of her success and this can suggest a hidden parallel to the dictatorship, when none of the artistic activities was beyond censors attention. Maria is also a vivid example of a victim recluse in the house dying in agony, as it was the destiny of the Second Spanish Republic that did not lived up to Spaniards expectations. Redefinition of gender roles of the parents takes place in the domestic play staged by the children where Ana and her elder sister Iren [Conchita Pà ©rez] act their parents (37 min 59). Performing the mise-en-abà ®me of their conflict, Ana metamorphoses her mothers character according to her rebel head that stands for a shift in the new generations mind. This scene appeals to the open-ending (102 min 06) when girls leave their family house for the school accompanied by the soundtrack Porque te vas foreshadowing Spains optimistic opening to the world. All in all, these examples do not pretend to be exhaustive but seem sufficient to evaluate Sauras creative authorial insight and his attempt of dramatising the historical background in terms of family life. So the childs trauma in the film refers to the disease of the nation under the infamous Francos dictatorship. The semiotic of Sauras film including the non-linear narrative, cinematographic blurring of the events due to the camera movement and its different angles; use of diegetic music and sounds, natural lightning as well as actors play, all this might have contributed to censors confusion and they allowed its release without any cut, moreover it was awarded the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes Film Festival. RR can be also compared to the earlier works by Saura: La prima Angà ©lica/Cousin Angelica [Carlos Saura, 1974] and El jardà ­n de las delicias/Garden of Delights [Carlos Saura, 1970] which plots are also built on the family life with inevitable political subtext orienta ted on the intellectually engaged viewer. Word count: 2236 words Filmography Title: Crà ­a Cuervosà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Raise Ravens) Director: Carlos Saura Screenwriter: Carlos Saura Cinematographer: Teodoro Escamilla Editor: Pablo Gonzà ¡lez del Amo Music: Federico Mompou Year of release: 1976 Production Company: Elà ­as Querejeta Producciones Cinematogrà ¡ficas S.L. DVD reference: E166377

Two Nation: The War Continues... Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"So the question for white Americans is essentially moral: is it right to impose on members of an entire race a lesser start in life and then to expect from them a certain degree of resolution that has never been demanded from your own race?† With this question the author concludes his book. The book is called â€Å"Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal.† The author is Andrew Hacker, a professor of political science at Queens College. He has written many books along with this one mostly dealing with race and other social problems faced in America. He believes that race plays a larger role in America than it does anywhere else in the world. The title has many sources and foreshadows some of the conclusions he makes in the book. The â€Å"two nations† being discussed are the White nation and the African-American (Black) nation. It has been said many times in history that the two major races in this country have been separ ate, hostile and unequal. It is interesting to find out what Mr. Hacker thinks about all of this as well.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The book is separated into three parts. In the first part Hacker wishes to give the reader insight on how â€Å"we† define and divide people into races. He will also discuss what it feels like to be black in this country and why white Americans act the way they do to those of African-American descent. In the second part he will focus more on the role race plays in such areas as education, family life, economy, politics and crime. In the third section there are statistics based on race and an index. In the opening chapter of the book Hacker discusses the â€Å"origin† of races. Separation and the giving of names to peoples belonging to a group have been done since the first time differences in physical appearance began to appear. He argues that the Native Americans have been at a low population but the population suddenly increased when many individuals began to claim their race as being Native American. He also says that the race once known as â€Å"mongoloid† and other races from the Asian continent have all been combined and renamed by the majority white race to â€Å"Asian-American†. The author then discusses how ridiculous it is that the people in this country have designated everyone in the world to a separate group. Defining them before they can define themselves.   Ã‚   ... ...urban areas anymore. After going to public schools for almost 16 years I can say that there is a lot of segregation everywhere because people feel more comfortable among those of their own race. Does this mean that if there are a group of white kids hanging out together that they are racist? No, this just means that all they are is a group of kids. For someone to point out their race and the fact that they are all the same and then to judge them and their beliefs without knowing anything for sure is a racist statement in itself. Overall, Andrew Hacker is a good writer. I don’t agree with all of his beliefs but he makes a very good argument. There are many people that feel strongly about an issue and do not speak up. The admirable thing about Hacker is that he said what he feels and he is not scared to speak his mind. That is a respectable trait. Don’t you agree? â€Å"A huge racial chasm remains, and there are few signs that he coming century will see it closed. A century and a quarter after slavery, white America continues to ask of its black citizens an extra patience and perseverance that whites have never required of themselves† -Andrew Hacker (On the final paragraph of his book)

D.W.Griffith Essay -- Biography Biographies Bio

Perhaps no other director has generated such a broad range of critical reaction as D.W. Griffith. For students of the motion picture, Griffith's is the most familiar name in film history. Generally acknowledged as America's most influential director (and certainly one of the most prolific), he is also perceived as being among the most limited. Praise for his mastery of film technique is matched by repeated indictments of his moral, artistic, and intellectual inadequacies. At one extreme, Kevin Brownlow has characterized him as "the only director in America creative enough to be called a genius." At the other, Paul Rotha calls his contribution to the advance of film "negligible" and Susan Sontag complains of his "supreme vulgarity and even inanity"; his work "reeks of a fervid moralizing about sexuality and violence" and his energy comes "from suppressed voluptuousness." Griffith started his directing career in 1908, and in the following five years made some 485 films, almost all of which have been preserved. These films, one or two reels in length, have customarily been regarded as apprentice works, films in which, to quote Stephen Zito, "Griffith borrowed, invented, and perfected the forms and techniques that he later used to such memorable effect in The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, Broken Blossoms, and Way Down East." These early "Biographs" (named after the studio at which Griffith worked) have usually been studied for their stylistic features, notably parallel editing, camera placement, and treatment of light and shadow. Their most famous structuring devices are the last-minute rescue and the cross-cut. In recent years, however, the Biographs have assumed higher status in film history. Many historians and critics rank the... ...oes Griffith create the impression of narrative immobility? By and large, Griffith's films of the mid- and late 1920s have not fared well critically, although they have their defenders. The customary view—that Griffith's work became dull and undistinguished when he lost his personal studio at Mamaroneck in 1924—continues to prevail, despite calls from John Dorr, Arthur Lennig, and Richard Roud for re-evaluation. The eight films he made as a contract director for Paramount and United Artists are usually studied (if at all) as examples of late 1920s studio style. What critics find startling about them—particularly the United Artists features—is not the lack of quality, but the absence of any identifiable Griffith traits. Only Abraham Lincoln and The Struggle (Griffith's two sound films) are recognizable as his work, and they are usually treated as early 1930s oddities.

Bullying: A Force That Must Be Stopped Essay -- Violence

Bullies are looked upon as vestibules of unhealthy tendencies while also harboring deep seeded emotions including anger and hatred. Feelings of anger and hatred can force a person down a path of darkness that only leads one way; into the pit of self-destruction. In present times, these destructive acts can cause a child to become a relic of pain and sullenness; all of these emotions create a bully. â€Å"Bullying is commonly defined as a specific type of aggressive behavior that involves intent to cause harm, occurs repeatedly, and involves a power imbalance.† (Hunt, Peters, and Rapee 156) This aggressive behavior has been constantly studied over the past ten years due to an increase in abnormal tendencies in children and teenagers. Three different categories of bullying exist, â€Å"†¦direct physical bullying, direct verbal bullying, and indirect bullying in which the person or group of persons doing the bullying is not necessarily identified.† (Hunt, Peters, and Rapee 156) All three of these menaces need to be put at halt as much as possible, for if they are allowed to run amuck all that will be produced is chaos. The responsibility of stopping a bully falls upon the teachers and staff members who are charged with ensuring the safety and security of students, and the only possible strategy to stop bullying is to ensure these people are always attentive and aware of their student’s life in the school environment. Easily one the most noticeable type of bullying that exists is the direct and physical approach. More often than not, a bully will physically approach the victim on a daily basis; whether it occurs in the hall, the lunchroom, or after hours. Interestingly enough, an instance of bullying is almost never reported to a teacher or s... ...ayground: Changes Associated With Universal Intervention, Retaliation Beliefs, And Supportive Friends." School Psychology Review 39.4 (2010): 536-551. Academic Search Premier. Web. Mior, AJ. "Do Anti Bullying Programs Work?." Ezine Articles. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2012. . O'Brennan, Lindsey M., Catherine P. Bradshaw, and Anne L. Sawyer. "Examining Developmental Differences In The Social-Emotional Problems Among Frequent Bullies, Victims, And Bully/Victims." Psychology In The Schools 46.2 (2009): 100-115. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. Stop Bullying. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2012. . Utterly Global. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2012. .

Compare and Contrast Texting vs Calling Essay

What would we do without cell phones? Have you ever tried to leave your phone at home just to see how much it’s really needed in your everyday life? I have and it’s a lot harder than you think. Technology has grown so much in the past ten years then you would ever know. From little black and white flip phones to tablets with apps, games, music and pretty much anything you could ever want just in the palm of your hand. In 1973 the first cell phone was invented, and it took twenty-two years after that, 1995, to invent text messaging. Now it seems as though text messaging is among the most popular way of communication. Although texting and phone calls aim to accomplish the same task, they both have their differences. Texting can be quick and easy, saves you time and battery life and lastly, it keeps all conversations private from the public. Calling makes conversations feel more personal and professional, takes less time to explain what needs to be done and saves on your monthly bill. Everyday someone new is signing up for cell phone services. Whether it be At&t, Sprint, Verizon, US cellular, and the list goes on, we are dealt with the decision of what is more important minutes or data plan. Minutes are the allowed time per month to receive incoming and outgoing calls. Whereas, Data plan is the allowed text messages and pictures that can be sent. Nowadays most cell phone plans come with unlimited text and call minutes due to high amounts of each being placed each month. Texting is the newest and coolest thing to do among young adults. Texting allows you to say what you have to say without carrying on a long conversation. It saves you time and battery life. We all know how important it can be to save battery life when there is no charger around or if out in public with nowhere to charge it. Texting can help with explaining something to a friend about a â€Å"cute shirt† you see while shopping. Easy as one, two, three, take a picture hit forward in a text message then hit send. They will be able to see it as soon as the message is delivered. Also, texting can save you from that embarrassing moment in public when having a private conversation about yourself or someone you know. With texting there are advantages, but they also come with disadvantages. Texting can be faster and get to the point, but, when you enter in a â€Å"no service area† your message won’t get delivered at that direct moment. Could take a few hours before the recipient receives it. Which could be a disadvantage to both calling and texting. Auto correct is a feature on your phone that changes words in your sentences making them different from what you meant. Therefore, could be the cause to a message being misinterpreted by the receiver and take it the wrong way then it was intended to be understood. Causing more trouble than it should have. A big problem around the world today is the distraction with texting and driving, causing you to take your eyes and attention off the road. Hearing a voice rather than seeing a text can make a phone conversation feel more personal and make an important call have a professional touch to it. If you are going to be late for a job or professional event it is always better to call rather than text. One feature with call phones, is when calling and the other end does not answer you are able to leave a voice mail to what you were calling about. Calling takes less time to explain what you are doing and what needs to be done. Therefore having a longer conversation in a less amount of time. Another advantage to calling is getting the quick response to a question you may have rather than wait on a response. The main advantage would be unlimited minutes for incoming and outgoing calls that could help save on your monthly statement bill. If you’re on a family plan this could definitely be a plus especially if you have a big family. Have you ever had to be put on hold by the cable company, for example, and you waited ten minutes for a representative to pick up, and that moment you are waiting for the solution and beep, beep, beep the call was dropped. Nothing can be more annoying than having to call back and start all over, worried it will happen again. Having no service, just like when texting, and a call is needing to be made can cause anger/frustration in a person. Driving while talking on the phone can be just as distracting as texting, having only one hand on the wheel engaged in your conversation can cause distractions to paying attention to other drivers around you. In some tates talking on a cell phone while driving can get you a ticket and fined. Texting VS Calling can only be judged by each individuals experience and preference. A teenager will most likely choose texting, to avoid awkward phone conversations, whereas, an old fashioned mom or dad would choose to call or vice versa, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Personally I enjoy using both, I will text when bored and want to prolong a conversation, and call if I need a quick and easy response.

Operation Management Assignment Essay

Question1: Why is operations management important in this company ?Operations management refers to the administration of business practices to create the highest level of efficiency possible within an organization. Operations management is concerned with converting materials and labor into goods and services as efficiently as possible to maximize the profit of an organization (Stevenson, W. J., & Hojati, M., 2007). The operations function comprises a significant percentage of the employees and physical assets in most organizations. Operations managers are concerned with each step in providing a product or service. They determine what should go into an operating system, such as equipment, labor, facilities, materials, energy, and information, to produce the output(Stevenson, William J., and Mehran Hojati., 2007). Operations managers are also responsible for critical activities such as materials management, capacity planning, purchasing, scheduling and quality. The importance of operat ions management has increased dramatically in recent years. Significant competition, shorter product and service life cycles, better educated and quality-conscious consumers, and the capabilities of new technology have placed pressures on the operations function to improve productivity while providing a broader array of high-quality products and services. Concept Design Services was an inward looking manufacturing company which focused on complex and cyclical industrial mouldings. Since 1999, it transformed and upgraded to more profitable household products business. Right now, it is an integrated service provider that works with design houses to provide end-to-end product design, manufacturing and distribution of high-quality design homeware. Jim Thompson explained the differentiation CDS from other competitors is that CDS uses the latest, precision equipment, bought the best quality moulds, and generally positioned as ‘technical professionals with a customer focused service’. Under the management of Linda Fleet, they discovered that one of their major strengths could be turned into a high generator of profitable business. They set up two different brands. ‘Focus’ and ‘Concept’. Focus products are more traditional with stable volumes, while concept products  are much more fashion and seasonal with variable sales volumes. Within two years of introducing their new product lines, concept products began to generate 75 percent of their profits. For dealing with the more and more requirements, 24 large injection-moulding machines and robotic devices are involved in the productive process. However these new products require more complex machinery and longer operating times. With the company’s expansion and increased demand for their products, operations management is important for achieving time efficiency so that to achieve the profit efficiency the most. It is also significant because it enables proper production planning through coordination of activities among the design, manufacturing, sales and distribution departments. The complexity of their production process and delivery services with seasonal volume change demand good operation management if they are to succeed in forecasting and meeting their customer demands on time meanwhile reserve reasonable inventory(Drà ¶ge, C., Vickery, S., & Mark land, R. E., 1994). Through proper operations management, out of stock occurrences can be greatly reduced by accurately forecasting sales leading to reduction in delivery costs. Moreover, due to the product life cycle becomes shorter and shorter, developing new products to fulfill the needs of customers and understanding the fashion trend are also needed great operation management. Question 2: How do the 4 V’s (volume, variety, variation, visibility) influence the way CDS operates? Draw a 4 V’s profile for the companies’ goods and services. Volume: CDS has two main brands ‘Focus’ and ‘Concept’. Concept products take up 75% of their revenue and the bulk of their profits. Concept products are premium-priced whose lift cycle is short from the survey of a lifestyle magazines. The products are low repetition with high unit costs due to the SKU are with large numbers, but the only unit sales volume is not very high. The old fashioned products are usually replaced by a new version in pretty short time. Concept products are less systemization compared with Focus products. Focus products focus on a small handful of customers with large size of each order. Variety: CDS has an excellent new product development process. It usually takes around three months to get a new mould, which then has to be tested. For the help of bonus payment, they have good output and excellent productivity. The products are flexible according to the market  condition and customer needs. Concept products and the whole design, ma nufacture, sales, distribution process is rather complex. The new product development department receive detailed drawings of the new products from the Design Office managed by Marketing department, which shows CDS pay much attention to match customer needs. For doing the whole things above, the unit cost of CDS product is high. Variation: For Focus products , the vast majority of deliveries are to a small handful of customers. The size of each order is usually very large, with deliveries usually to customers own depots, which means the variation is stable, predictable. While for the more profitable Concept products, they are much more seasonal so that it is difficult to makes capacity planning and scheduling at peak times around November and Easter just after the spring trade fair in London. Take the consideration that concept products hold the bulk of profit, in total, the variation of the products is changing capacity and flexible. They are in touch with demand so that the unit cost of product is very high. Visibility: CDS pay much attention to understand the needs of customers. They use different kinds of methods to interact with customers, such as magazine survey, face to face interaction, questionnaire, etc. From their research, they find some customers keep their products ‘on display’ in their kitchens as lifestyle statements rather than putting them away in cupboards. And they use this research result in marketing and products design, especially to develop the same product with different color to fulfill the seasonal needs. Since they produce fashion products with high quality, the time lag between production and consumption is very short, otherwise they may fall behind the fashion trend. Their sales and revenue increase very fast reflects that customers satisfy their service including products and distribution. Question 3 What would you recommend to the company if they asked you to advise them in improving their operations? (45 marks) Concept product and Concept offic e needed to be focused on, while at the same time maintain Focus products sales. From the chart 1, we can tell the total sales increase dramatically, especially after 2001 concept products are sold in the market. The net profit before tax also goes up in a pretty fast speed. As chart 2 shows, the rate of profit doubled during the year between 2001 and 2006. From chart 3,  we can see the trend of Concept products is increasing dramatically, which means CDS needs to be paid much more attention in this series. The company should go deep to research the needs of customers and the fashion trend to develop a series of satisfying products with high rate of profit and reputation score. However, after a peak in 2001, the focus products sales becomes smooth and steady, the company need to maintain the sales volumes. Due to the stable sales of focus products, company is suggested to forecast the sales and arrange the manufacturing beforehand with satisfactory accuracy. By doing that, the rate of profit of focus products may have certain increase by reducing the cost of inventory and overhead (Xiao, Y., Li, G., & Zhang, J., 2011). Inventory management needs to be strengthened. From the chart above, we can conclude that with the dramatically development of the products, the inventory increases as the sales goes up even much sharper than sales. The company should take care of the inventory management seriously. They have to take some methods to reduce inventory. On the one hand , it can reduce a lot money , on the other hand, for fashion and short life cycle products the longer time they keep in the warehouse, the less value they have. Sales channels are not only limited to the offline, but also online sales channels needed to be adopted. With the development of internet, Internet has become the fastest way and the most effective method to understand customers. Customer can upload their feedback of products immediately, and the company can use these material to arrange the following design plan. Online sales channel is good for inventory management, which meets the finding of the second suggestions. More oversea cooperation with local company brings their culture into design. Different country has different culture and different understanding of beauty and fashion. CDS is advised to cooperate with local company from oversea to enter the market with the products needed by the customers at local. The local company may better at understanding the needs of local customers. CDS can take in the efforts of local company and design the product in accordance with the market demand(Robb, D. J., Xie, B., & Arthanari, T., 2008). Adopt computer-assisted software for improve the whole process. Computer software such as ERP can effectively improve the company efficiency. A company can  use to store and manage data from every stage of business, including: Product planning, cost and development, Manufacturing, Marketing and sales, Inventory management, Shipping and payment. Measurements, analysis and simulation capabilities can help companies plan better and react sooner and more effectively to changes in demand, competitive actions, and supply chain disruptions. Balance between customers’ needs and operation costs. As a company, the main task is getting profit. The idea of being customer centric does not means that customer must be provided with everything they want. Company must have to strike balance between what customer would like and what operation can afford. Reference Stevenson, W. J., & Hojati, M. (2007). Operations management (Vol. 8). Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Xiao, Y., Li, G., & Zhang, J. (2011). Passive data storage based housewares store management system. In Web Information Systems and Mining (pp. 51-56). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.Stevenson, W. J., & Hojati, M. (2007). Operations management (Vol. 8). Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Drà ¶ge, C., Vickery, S., & Markland, R. E. (1994). Sources and outcomes of competitive advantage: an exploratory study in the furniture industry. Decision Sciences, 25(5†6), 669-689. Robb, D. J., Xie, B., & Arthanari, T. (2008). Supply chain and operations practice and performance in Chinese furniture manufacturing. International journal of production economics, 112(2), 683-699.