Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolff

Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolff Short Response to Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolff My initial thought of this reading was that the title would be some metaphor for something else that happens. The story was short and straight to the point. It starts off with a man in a bank waiting, he has to wait in a long line due to going right before it closes. Anders starts off by seeming like a very irritable guy. Immediately he is annoyed with the two when in front of him. They are just complaining about everything. This is where we first see a sense of who Anders is. Two masked men come in to the bank making an attempt to rob it. Anders irritable attitude gets him in trouble a he starts making snide comments to the annoying lady in front of him. One of the men hears him. The man repeatedly tells Anders to be quite, but Anders does not listen. The man shoots Anders in the head, and then he his brain reflects on a distant memory. One from long ago that had much been forgotten. It recalls on a summer when Anders was out playing baseball with him friends. One friend brings a co usin who wants to play as well. When they ask him what position he wants to play he say short stop because ..Thats the best they is. Anders is shocked by what this boy has said, but it stays in his mind for the rest of the game. Memory is what builds this story. It is also what keeps this story going. We first start off with the scene of him in the bank, but eventually more to his recollection of a particular event in his life. Surprisingly he does not remember his first love, his daughter, or his wife. He remembers a time long ago playing baseball with friends. The memory is not one that you would expect from the first character we meet. Initially Anders is irritable and rude. Due to the use of memory in this story we see that Anders is not all bad. He once loved his job as a book critic, but the longer he did this the less he grew to like it. The actual memory that Anders draws on makes me think that this may have pushed him into the direction of being an editor. He remembers a friends cousin say Thats the best they is, he did not stop to fix his grammar but replayed what this boy said in his head. After being shot he plays a distant memory, but to him this is one that was really good for him. Anders memory definitely redeems him. My first thought of Anders is that I dont like him. He just does not seem like the type of person you would want to be around. On top of this, he is provoking one of the robbers. This memory takes us back to a time where Anders was happy. A young boy playing baseball with his friends. It shows us that Anders has not always been and irritable jerk, but a kind person. Someone who is accepting of you no matter. Due to circumstances throughout his life, Anders became a completely different person from that boy on the baseball field that day. Memory gives us a big look into his life, who he is and what he loves (or doesnt love). Memory and Identity The formation of identity comes from the World around you. I believe that your identity is formed based off of your family and environment. We learn morals and rules based off what our parents believe are good morals and rules to have. Each parenting style is different. I have always had more lenient parents while others have parents that can be pretty strict. This formed my identity. I never had to lie to do the things that I wanted. I would always tell my parents, and I knew that if they ever said no what I wanted to do probably wasnt a good idea. I would accept this and move on. Identity does not just come from your parents or your family, but from the places you visit frequently. You dont really form you identity until you are older. I am twenty, and still feel as if I am forming my identity. I often times ask myself Who is Kaylee Strahl? Who do I want to be? As we go to school we start to get a sense of our identity from a different perspective. We will be similar to the people we interact with frequently. I went to a really small school, this formed my identity in a different way. All of the people I graduated had a similar mind set. If you played sports or danced or other things like this. This also plays part in forming your identity. Memory and identity are similar because one has to build off the other. In order to form your identity we base it off the things that have happened in the past, our memory. Memory helps to shape us into the person that we eventually become. If there have been traumatic events in your life, your identity can change based off of that memory.

The Starbucks Corporation Essay -- essays research papers

1. Starbucks Corporation's rise seems to be out of a storybook for Howard Schultz. Starbucks began selling whole bean coffee in 1971 under Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker. Business grew at a slow and steady pace until Schulz joined the company as manager of retail sales and marketing. After a visit to Milan, Italy, Schultz was inspired by a vision. He saw how important coffee was to the romantic culture of Italy. He believed that if Americans had such places to socialize over a cup of coffee, espresso, cappuccino, etc., that they would pay good money for his quality product. The owners of the Starbucks Corporation were not as excited and did not want to operate in the restaurant business. Schultz filmed these coffee bars and began to pitch his ideas to investors. By April of 1985, his first coffee bar had opened and by 1987 he had bought the Starbucks name. Although the first few years of the company were less than profitable, Schultz looked at the long-term opportunities and never let his idea die. Within a few years sales shot up 84%. This left room for expansion. By 1995 there were almost 200 stores opened across the U.S. and Starbucks was already looking international at this point and began operations to look to Asia. Starbucks now has opened bars all over the world and is one of the most successful businesses in the world. 2. The topics we have been looking at include the external environments of businesses and deciding on what a company is to do in the...

Mademoiselle Magazine: a Christmas Memory Essay

â€Å"A Christmas Memory†, which was written by Truman Capote and originally published in Mademoiselle Magazine in December 1956, is a meaningful and emotional story about family. In which, the characters of a family are defined especially:† Family is not only a shelter but also a safe place to care, share memories, sacrifice, and love. † There are many definitions about family. One of them is â€Å"A family consists of two or more people (one of whom is the householder) related by birth, marriage, or adoption residing in the same housing unit â€Å"(US Census Bureau. Its main functions are to produce and reproduce persons, biologically and/or socially; share material substances (such as food, shelter. ) However, two family members (Buddy and his cousin) in â€Å"A Christmas Memory† are connected with each other not only by consanguinity but also by love and friendship. The story employs a first-person narrator who is called Buddy –a seven-year-old boy, but it is not his real name. It was given by his distant cousin who is â€Å"sixty-something† and is described as â€Å"still a child. Though it is so sad that the more Buddy grows up, the older his friend is. His friend used to realize: â€Å"†¦ I guess I hate to see you grow up. When you’re grown up, will we still be friends? † But, their innocence keeps them be best friends despite age. Besides, both of them are poor and lonely. They are considered outsiders by their family. â€Å"Other people inhabit the house, relatives; and though they have power over us, and frequently make us cry, we are not, on the whole, too much aware of them. † (â€Å"A Christmas Memory†, p. ) Throughout the story, other family members did not appear too much except for two occasions: One is when the Buddy’s friend let Buddy drink the leftover whiskey, the relatives yelled at her and brought up cousins and uncles who were involved in scandals and humiliated the family. This hurts Buddy’s friend and makes she cried all night. Another is on the Christmas morning when they gave Buddy gifts which made him angry: hand-me-downs, a church shirt, and a subscription to a religious magazine. Both of these appearances only bring sadness, tears and disappointment instead of charm or love. Moreover, they do not know about Buddy’s needs and desire: a bicycle. An interesting detail is: Buddy and his friend are very poor but why do they save every penny to make fruitcakes every year? Instead of selling fruitcakes to have some money or keeping them for themselves, Buddy and his cousin give these fruitcakes away to strangers: President Roosevelt, a knife grinder who comes through town twice a year, a driver of the six o’clock bus from Mobile who exchanges waves with them every day, a California couple whose car one afternoon broke down outside the house and chatted with them on the porch. Especially, although Mr. Haha Johnes is described as a â€Å"giant with razor scars across his cheeks† and never smiles, when Buddy and his cousin purchase whiskey for their fruitcakes from him, he gives it for free with a smile that means there is good in all people. People cannot be judged on their appearance. Sadly, these warm gestures are given to Buddy and his cousin by outsiders instead of their family. They are lonely and need love; especially at Christmas – a season for giving and reunite. It is a wonderful time of greetings, gifts, joy, care and sharing that their relatives never give them. Family is also where members sacrifice for each other. The story is a bittersweet reminiscence beginning with† Imagine a morning in later November. A coming of winter morning more than twenty years ago. Consider the kitchen of a spreading old house in a country town. † (â€Å"A Christmas Memory†, p. 1) This places the story during the Great Depression- a time of great poverty which then results in many emotional details. The way Buddy and his cousin hide their money is so impressive:† These money we keep hidden in an ancient bead purse under a loose board under the floor under a chamber pot under my friend’s bed. (â€Å"A Christmas Memory,† p. 6) This purse seems very important and valuable with them and the women saves money and keep it carefully. She has never traveled more than five miles from homes and eaten in a restaurant. She still gives Buddy a dime to watch the movie show every Saturday. Even when Buddy is in military school, in every letter she also encloses a dime wadded in toilet paper. She wants to enhance Buddy’s skills. Buddy likes her eyes to describe the world outside for her. She is strong with morals and purity- innocent and trusts in the Lord. Moreover, she is charming like a mother or grandmother. Family is where people share happiness and sadness which become the most beautiful memories in their lives. Buddy and his friends have many unforgettable Christmas holidays together. They save money by selling fruits and flowers, killing flies, holding their own shows with pictures and a three-legged biddy chicken. And when the â€Å"fruitcake weather† comes, they buy ingredients to make fruitcakes and present it to their neighbors, friends or also strangers. Next, they venture into the woods and cut down a majestic tree. When a â€Å"rich mill owner’s lazy wife† offers to buy it, Buddy’s friend insists on refusing. They respect the Christmas spirit. It is much more valuable than money. Then, they decorate the tree with homemade ornaments and odds and ends found in the attic. Finally, they create gifts for their relatives. Buddy wishes he could give his friend a knife, a radio, and the chocolate-covered cherries she craves. His cousin wants to give Buddy a new bicycle. However, they embarrass to confess that they only have kites for each other like the previous Christmas. Despite that, Buddy and his friend are happy with their kites rather than what their relatives gave them. They spend Christmas day happily watching their homemade kites soar in the breeze. Buddy soon forgets disappointed gifts from his relatives and is excited â€Å"†¦as if we’d already won the fifty-thousand-dollar Grand Prize in that coffee-naming contest† while his friend happy as if she could see the Lord. (â€Å"A Christmas Memory, p. 20†). It is their last perfect Christmas together. â€Å"Those who Know Best† – the adults who do not care much about Buddy’s life as well as his dream- send Buddy to a military school where he is separated from his friend forever. Although Buddy has a new home, in his mind:† Home is where my friend is, and there I never go. † (â€Å"A Christmas Memory,† p. 21) Home is not defined as a shelter. It is where he can find love and safety. Another meaningful in this story is the kite which is a symbol of freedom, heart, friendship, and dream to fly up high to touch the sky. Kites are also memories of their beautiful days together. Memories are something passing by our life that we cannot touch them again except for remembering them sometimes. However, they are important parts in our heart eternally. Thus, even when Buddy is far from his house, his childhood’s memories about his lovely friend, his dog- Queenie, Christmas holidays, and the kites always alive in his soul that make him strong and keep forward. That is why when his friend dies, Buddy feels as if he lost an irreplaceable part and while walking across the campus on December morning- Christmas time, Buddy still searches the sky with hope to see a pair of kites- his unforgettable memories about his lovely friend. â€Å"A Christmas Memory† is a vivid picture of family and lovely friendship of Buddy and his cousin that leaves a message for the reader: Family likes a house which has the base built by love  , four walls connected by care, the roof made by share  and the furniture inside are sacrifice.

Maintaining a Tree Through the Next Decade

Specimen trees in the landscape need consistent care over time to ensure their continued health, proper conditions for growth and to prevent hazardous conditions that threaten surrounding property. Here is a tree care schedule developed by the United States Forest Service for a tree owners use and listed according to tree care type. Watering the Tree The key to newly planted tree survival is providing adequate water. Although the first 3 years are most critical, a trees watering needs should be maintained for life. Initially, a newly planted tree needs to be properly watered with an adequate amount to pack the soil, to remove root-drying air and to moisten the root ball. On adequately draining soils, 5 gallons of initial water should be enough. Fast draining soils may need more frequent watering than a slow draining soil. Year 1 - 3: It is most critical to provide adequate water during the annual growing season, between late spring and autumn.Year 4 and after: You can relax a bit on tree watering in later years but water may be needed during long periods of drought. Mulching the Tree Mulching a newly planted tree ensures that moisture is available to roots over time and reduces grass competition. A good mulch (organic materials like leaves, bark, needles and fine wood chips) should ring the tree base (over the critical root zone) but never touch the tree. No fertilizer is necessary when quality composted mulch is used. Year 1 - 3: Maintain the mulch level with no more than 4 inches of material over the roots (the wider the better) but not touching the tree.Year 4 and after: A tree appreciates a good mulch so it is appropriate to maintain adequate mulch levels annually during spring. Avoid using nitrogen fertilizers — use complete fertilizers only after a soil test. Staking the Tree Not all newly planted trees need staking to remain standing straight. Stake only if the root ball is unstable or the tree trunk is bending. Use only loosely tied, wide straps and limit the number of straps to a minimum for support. Year 1 - 3: Use tree stakes only when needed. Many tree owners automatically stake every tree not knowing that it is often unnecessary. Check all stakes and straps during spring and autumn for loose fit and alter to prevent trunk damage. All straps should be removed after the first or second year.Year 4 and after: Do not stake older trees. Cleaning the Root Collar Roots that encircle the trunk at the root collar can cause tree health and safety problems. A trees root collar is its transition zone between stem and root at the ground line. Proper planting depth can go a long way toward keeping the root collar clean and free of encircling roots. Remember that piling soil or mulch against the root collar encourages strangler roots. Year 1 - 3: Proper planting and mulching will go a long way toward solving most root collar problems. The first several years of growth after planting is when tree collar problems develop, so keep the collar exposed by removing soil and mulch. Overfertilization can speed up the process and make the condition worse.Year 4 and after: Revisit and check the root collar every 4 years. Use a hand trowel to loosen and remove the soil around the base of the tree until the first set of roots is uncovered. Inspecting Tree Health Checking a trees health may not only be subjective for a novice but determining the health of a tree is complicated and should be done by an expert. Still, there are things you can do that will alert you to tree health problems. Ask yourself these questions when inspecting a tree: Is the current years growth much less than in past years growth? Although fast growth does not necessarily mean good health, a dramatic reduction in growth rate may be an indication of poor health.Are there dead limbs, odd colors on leaves and bark or a patchy crown? These tree symptoms can be the first indicators that a tree is unhealthy and should be inspected in detail. Remember that planting a healthy tree from the beginning is the best way to assure its future health. Pruning the Tree When pruning a newly planted tree, only prune critical branches and no others! Critical branches are those that are either dead or broken. You can also remove multiple leaders to leave only one central stem. It may be best to postpone pruning to avoid transplanting shock due to loss of leaves. Year 1 - 3: Prune only critical branches or to eliminate extra leaders in the trees first year. You will have plenty of time to form your tree so only prune lightly in Year 2 or 3.Year 4 and after: Prune your tree for form and function every three years. As a rule of thumb, prune fruit trees every 1-3 years, prune deciduous shade trees every 5 years and evergreens only as needed.