Personal Narrative Get Up, Snowflake ! - 1459 Words

Get up, Snowflake! I moaned, weakly pushed myself off the dirt ground of the arena. My everything hurts. I slowly make my way to my feet and hardly dodged another oncoming attack from Scorpion. Ever if we were friends, he was still brutal when we trained. He didn’t disagree with the monks for keeping me around, but he didn’t think I needed to be trained to fight. I don’t blame him, I’m not great. I stepped to the side fast enough to get out of the way as Scorpion tripped and fell face first in the dirt. I would have never guessed seven year-olds had the capacity to be taught some of the martial arts methods that we were supposed to be practicing. I smiled mostly pleased with myself. Scorpion came back. Throwing punches wildly. He was†¦show more content†¦I hear everyone leave as I sit up and dust myself off. And enjoying the quiet after the storm, even if I was covered in dirt. Break The worst part of being a†¦ a weapon, I guess you could say. Yes, that’s what I am. A weapon. I am a blade that can cut both ways. People I care about get hurt†¦ I’m a weapon. The worst part of it all is the training; I learned the hard way once when I was sick. Skipping even one day of training will throw you completely off, it makes every motion you do seem to lose an edge. That feeling of perfection. One day off and you lose it. You lose that feeling of perfection. Efficiently, power, strength. One day is all it takes and it goes away. I can’t afford that, Shoa-Loa told me that. He had spoken to me many times following out first encounter. He knows so many hidden techniques, so many things I didn’t know. Aikido was always one of the martial arts I had been fonder of. I also enjoyed Judo. So that was today’s practice. Aikido. I was in a gym, smaller than the court, and nicer, there were punching bag, mats, and other things that could be used in physical training. I slowly and carefully go through each motion, for some reason my mind wanders back to the past. Funny to think I was the complete worst in my class, and now†¦ I was within a year away from competing to become King of K’un-Lun. The idea had begun to grow on me. ‘Focus! Focus! Focus! Young Dragon! Please Focus!’ A loud and commanding voice floods my ears

Lao-tzu Taoism and Moral Philosophy Free Essays

Lao-tzu Believed in Tao Te Ching: The way things are The Tao is the way, law, principle. Essence, balance of nature 1. The Tao escapes precise definition 2. We will write a custom essay sample on Lao-tzu: Taoism and Moral Philosophy or any similar topic only for you Order Now Tao is intangible, it’s energy 3. Tao is powerful, humans are weak 4. Radical Naturalism Tao is a force of nature not a force of spirit * Art over science art is wiser, deeper * Intuition over logic * Nature over society. Social Pessimism (Escapism) Every society is corrupted bureaucracy society restricts you gives you an artificial life 5. Structure of the Tao Yin: female slow dark night passive intuitive earth Yang: male fast bright day aggressive logical sky Yin and Yang are immortals they have a love/ have relationship each person has yin and yang 6. The wu-wei: non-action, respect to the flow of time, the art of waiting. Opposite of confusious Buddha Buddha is a spiritualist, a prince, gifted 1. Darhma (The teaching) -what is the meaning of human life? Dukkha: suffering, fight, struggle, competition – Why do we inflict upon ourselves unnecessary suffering? Tanha: egotism, selfishness, Trrisha: greed, addiction to pleasure Hudonism: seeking pleasure over pain. Seeking pleasure is a very sophisticated trap any addiction Is loss of freedom. You become a slave of your pleasure – What to do? Anatta: abstinence, restrained. No to any excessive pleasure. The art of no. – What is the goal? Anicca: liberation from addiction 2. The eight fold Noble Path: – Panna: wisdom 1. Understanding 2. Purpose – sila : conflict 3. Speech 4. Behavior Five moral rules: do not kill, steal, adultry, drugs, gossips Have consistancy in your morality, hypocracy corrupts you, don’t live a double life, fake identity Steps 1-5 are for normal people 6-8 are for monks or nuns – Samadhi: Contemplation 6. Effort you control your body, physical needs, tell body when to sleep and eat 7. houghtfulness control your emotions 8. Dhayana: deep meditation: control your mind. 3. Karma 3 types of karma * Sabija Karma: my birth karma. Born with culture in sould, reincarnation 4. Nirvana: Two kingdoms of reality Samsava: kingdom of pleasure, shallow Alaya Vijhara: The Kingdom of internal ideas, deep Nirvana: the state of et ernal spiritual bliss Protageras: He was king of sophists in athens. Sophist: pofessional teacher 1. Panton anttropas metron : man is the measure of all things 2. Subjectivism: there is no objective truth, every truth is somebody’s truth, or has its face 3. Relativism: as many people as many truths, they are all equal. Accepting diversity 4. Pragmatism: truth has to be helpful, practical, useful 5. Conventionalism: truth is what we have agreed upon (sometimes silently) Ex: cultural expectations, gender roles 6. Conformism: truth of the majority has to be respected by the minorities 7. Tolerance: The truth of the minority has to be tolerated by the majority He reminds me of president obama because his ideas reflect democratic beliefs. Socrates: 1. Choti Seanton: Know Yourself We humans are animals + Animals + psyche : ( soul) Care for your soul Soul = my self reflection We are reflective animals To reflect = to have knowledge ‘I know that I know nothing’ â€Å"a life unexamined is not worth living† 2. Epistemology (4 principles) Define the basic concepts as clear as you can, avoid misunderstandings Don’t be afraid of intellectual contradictions, diversity in opinions Socratic irony, don’t lose your sense of humor, don’t take yourself so seriously Only god knows the absolute truth, our human truth is limited Protageras: absolute truth doesn’t exist Socrates: absolute truth exits but only god knows 3. Moral Philosophy The essence of morality is to teach us arete: virtue, skills Perfect your skills, perectionism Its better to not be committed than to have a loose commitment Skills =knowledge Life-long education, ignorance is the mother of all evil 4. The idea of god God is the one, god is the absolute wisdom God is my moral vocation God is the voice of my conscience He believes in one god, god speaks to us from inside Find god through self reflection Plato Rich talented, student of socrates 1. Ontology What is the structure of reality? Being: essence deep form logical traditional moral spiritual eternal Becoming: surface, shallow, content, fashionable immoral material temporary What is the structure of being? Being consists of eidoses Eidos: spiritual form, intellectual bluepring , the law, the mold, the model Anything that exists physically has an eidos, it creates each specific physical ting Invention does not exist: discovery, before discovery eidos exists but its like a cold sun without rays The eidos of eidoses is goodness 2. Epistemelogy Levels:RealityKnowledge 1. Fake images illusions, kingdom of the stupid, wild imagination 2. Physcial things, kingdom of the everyday life, practical common sense 3. Low level idoses, kingdom of the professional, professional analytic mind 4. High eidoses, (love, justice, forgiveness) kingdom of the genius, the intellectual intuition of the genius 1 and 2 is becoming 3 and 4 is being 1 is artificial life, building a bubble around yourself 2. Practical things know how to take care of yourself 3. Professional knowledge become an expert in a subject need an analytical mind 4. Very few geniuses, best of the best, shakespeare, einstein, mozart. Have a gift from god or not, only males are geniuses, women are naturally born with common sens e and to become a genius you have to kill your common sense, every genius is a madman 3. Moral Philosophy To be moral means to have a arete: virture The fear of social change, social disorder, social chaos. Arete = not so much perfection but discipline, obedience, good organization, loyalty Plato supports closed social classes doesn’t like social mobility, caste system 4. Hates democracy. Problems are: phony promises of politicians, equal political rights for unequally educated people, excessive freedoms result is anarchy and tyranny he wants aristocratic republic Reminds me of hitler Aristotle Platos student 1. Ontology The kingdom of eidoses doesn’t exist, only nature does exist. Nature is a sum total of physical things Every physical thing consists of hyle: body, matter and telos: form Telos not so much outer form but an inner form the potential of the thing its prgram Dna ex: potential of talent God is the telos of nature when you die your telos dies god and nature coexist eternally 2. Eistemology Using observation and experimentation collect all relevant facts, using analysis, find out the laws of those facts, using logic, combine these laws into a comprehensive theory Scientific theory ^^ 3. Moral Philosophy Nicomachagu Ethics : Eudaimonia: noble destiny, fulfilling duty Sophro syhe: moderation Have good taste keep the mean, be a gentleman Fulfill your telos he believes all of us have gifts a duty to fulfill your gift, work hard we each have gifts to different degrees Don’t betray yourself (lie, cheat) Every betrayal starts as self betrayal you destroy yourself and then destroy everyone around you Honesty and integrity Obstacles: don’t underestimate them but don’t overestimate them Pleasure: not the goal of your activity but a by product Build your character its better to be always bad then unpridictable either be always bad or always bood Friendship: be a good loyal friend 4. Political Philosophy Democracy is the best regime Democracy is the power of middle class The middle class is the foundation of the healthy society How to cite Lao-tzu: Taoism and Moral Philosophy, Essay examples

Competitive advantage free essay sample

Competitive advantage(CA) is an advantage competitors gain by providing or offering customers or consumers greater value for their money through product and service differentiation or through lower prices. Maintaining competitive advantage is crucial to many businesses or organizations success in order to survive in the market. Competitive advantage is characterized by superior performance which could be an attribute to outperform the competitors whether current or potential; or gaining a higher market share in a particular industry thereby ensuring market leadership; or ultimately, maximization of profit. This essay will critically analyze how competitive advantage is created i. e. Porters 3 generic strategies: differentiation, cost leadership and focus: giving theories and practical examples. It will examine the essence of choosing a competitive strategy that best suits a business. Furthermore, the sources of CA and how to sustain it will be discussed. A company cannot just boast of providing superior performance or quality, it has to actually deliver the said quality and the customers or consumers have to be able to perceive and see it as well, which is what sets it apart from other products. This source of finance remains available despite the tightening credit conditions. Plant operations We have comprehensive power station operational experience and skills. Through-life engineering and maintenance plans, meticulously implemented, ensure maximum availability and efficiency in the operation of our plant and are key for delivering value in both our merchant and long-term contracted markets. Effective plant operations are enhanced by ensuring information is shared across the portfolio and key operational staff are rotated to different assets on a regular basis. Safe behaviour and environmental best practice are cornerstones of International Powers operations, and we share best practices across the portfolio to ensure all of our assets operate to the highest possible safety and environmental standards. Trading We operate in a number of merchant markets. We have the skills necessary to maximise our returns in these markets, with a practical focus on closely co-ordinating trading and plant operations to optimise value. For us, trading predominately means selling the physical output generated by our plants, which we call asset-backed trading. Our traders operate within strict guidelines and risk policies to ensure our traded position is carefully monitored and managed. This includes matching fuel purchases with power sales and carrying out only a very limited amount of non-asset backed trading. Where possible we will forward sell output if we consider the return is favourable, which secures earnings and cash flow. For example, a large proportion of Rugeleys 2007 output was forward sold during the high prices of 2006, ensuring good financial returns during 2007, despite market dark spreads falling during the year. Long-term power contracts expertise We have strong commercial skills to structure and negotiate long-term power and water contracts in regulated markets such as Asia and the Middle East. Under these contracts, key cost risks such as fuel and turbine maintenance are mitigated through long-term hedging and supply arrangements. Availability bonuses incentivise us to keep the plant well maintained in order to minimise the risk of forced outages. Overall, the contracts provide visibility and stability of earnings and cash generation over the long-term.