Viriginia Woolf :: Author Viriginia Woolf feminism relationships

Viriginia Woolf (this essay has problems with the format) One of the greatest female authors of all time, Virginia Woolf, produced a body of writing respected worldwide. Driven by uncontrollable circumstances and internal conflict, her life was cut short by suicide. Her role in feminism, along with the personal relationships in her life, influenced her literary works. Virginia's relationships throughout her life contributed, not only to her literature, but the quality of her life as well. Perhaps the greatest influence in Virginia's life is her mother, Julia Stephen. "Julia Stephen was the most arresting figure which her daughter [Virginia Woolf] tried to resurrect and preserve" (Gordon 4). Woolf, a manic-depressive, found herself constantly searching for approval. "Virginia needed her mother's approval in order to 'measure her own stature" (Bond 38). Battling with a sense of worthlessness, Virginia's mother helped her temporarily rid herself of self-criticism and doubt. This however was short-lived. When Mrs. Stephen rejected Virginia, she felt her mother's disapproval directly related to the quality of her writing. "Virginia Woolf could not bear to reread anything she had written†¦ Mrs. Stephen's rejection of Virginia may have been the paradigm of her failure to meet her own standards" (Bond 39). With the death of her mother Woolf used her novel, To the Lighthouse to "reconstruct and preserve" the memories that still remained. According to Woolf, "the character of Mrs. Ramsey in To the Lighthouse was modeled entirely upon that of her mother" (Bond 27). This helped Virginia in her closure when dealing with the loss and obsession with her mother. Although Virginia clung to the relationship with her mother, she favored her father, Leslie Stephen. Virginia resembled her father uncannily in character traits, in her writing and self-doubts, in her great and malicious sense of humor, in her marriage, in her frugality, in her fear of aging, and in her social consciousness. (Bond 59) They were both extremely outspoken while sparing no one's feelings with their comments. Virginia and Leslie both had strong personalities and rapid mood changes. Woolf portrayed her father, like her mother, through characterization in To the Lighthouse. Mr. Ramsey captures her father as a man of "baffling mutability, a lightening switch from the m ost lovable of men, to a 'famished wolfhound' and back again" (Gordon 22). This portrayal of Leslie Stephens relates to his uncontrollable rages and mood swings. Leslie Stephen not only controlled Virginia's mental development, but her intellectual development as well.

A Historical Look at U.S. GAAP Essay

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the historical development of generally accepted accounting principles through its contributing sources from 1930 to the present. U.S. Businesses had been using double entry accounting since the 1800s yet no uniform accounting practices had been introduced until the American Institute of Accountants (AIA) recommended to the New York Stock Exchange in 1932, †¦Ã¢â‚¬ five broad principles of accounting which have won fairly general acceptance†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , (Zeff, 2005, para. 4). In which, the terms â€Å"fairly present† and â€Å"in accordance with† were first used followed up with â€Å"generally accepted accounting principles†. Later, a sixth principle was approved. These recommendations were based on the three assumptions that all business transactions were apart from the business owner, all transaction currencies measured in the US dollar, the assumption of time and the matching principle. Thus establishing a foundation of which all future accounting principles are based. The AIA formed the Committee on Accounting Procedures (CAP) to publish Accounting Research Bulletins (ARB) on GAAP under the authority of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) created by the Securities Act of 1934. The CAP was later reorganized into the Accounting Principles Board (APB) that issued Opinions between 1959 and 1973. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has been the source for private sector generally accepted accounting principles since 1973. Input by the private sector has been crucial to the development of GAAP since 1930. Historically, GAAP is influenced by the business condition and public interest. The Great Depression left the public with little faith in the private sector. Although the knowledge and experience of businesses would be consulted for standards; businesses were not trusted to set and regulate accounting standards. A common practice in the 1920s was to adjust asset values upward to the highest market value arguably misleading investors prior to the 1929 crash (Zeff, 2005, para. 10). In response, CAP and the SEC strongly mandated historical cost accounting as the acceptable basis of reporting. Shortly after, the U.S. was brought into WWII directing the CAP’s focus to issues pertaining to war time accounting. In addition, the CAP addressed the issues of the exclusion of unrealized profit from income, the use of capital surplus to offset losses, and notes and accounts receivable from officers, employees, and affiliated companies. The most notable item during the CAP’s tenure summed up was its ARBs issued in response to congress’s decision permitting companies to use the LIFO inventory method. This was a rare instance that tax policy influenced GAAP and was initially directed to companies purchasing natural metals because the FIFO method was equated to higher income taxes due to the time lapse between the asset’s acquisition and sale (Zeff, 2005). The method was available to all industries in 1939. While CAP was praised for addressing questionable reporting practices prior to the crash; it was mostly labeled as weak by critics for failing to set a uniform accounting framework to mitigate comparability issues. At the advice of the AIA, now known as the AICPA, the Accounting Principles Board replaced the CAP. ARB 43 was quickly published to restate all Accounting Research Bulletins and eliminate any superseded ARBs. The research driven APB published 31 opinions. The first few answered reporting questions regarding the investment credit per the Revenue Act of 1962 allotting businesses a credit for a â€Å"†¦specified percentage of the cost of certain depreciable assets placed into service after 1961† (FASB, 1962, para.1). The board concluded that the credit may be recorded as an offset to net income over the asset’s life or as a reduction in acquisition cost during the period it occurred. This is important because it is a conceptual precursor to today’s section 179 and bonus depreciation credits of which most small and medium sized businesses depend on and consider when determining capital investments. All opinions regarding credits and other tax reporting issues were later superseded by the FASB’s statement number 109, Accounting for Income Tax. Many of the APB’s remaining opinions dealt with emerging issues brought about by the postindustrial economy. For instance, the board developed guidelines for intangible assets such as goodwill, the equity method of accounting for common stock, accounting for employee stock options, the reporting of extraordinary items in the income statement, and set the criteria to use pooling of interest or the purchase method in business combinations. The most controversial accomplishment of the APB was its 1970 publication Basic Concepts and Accounting Principles Underlying Financial Statements of Business Enterprises. The board’s issuance of this as a non-authoritative â€Å"standard† rather than opinion was met with negative criticism as it failed to commit to any conceptual framework solutions and reaffirmed the fundamental disagreement among members on this topic. The board was soon after dissolved and replaced by the FASB with new, independent members in 1973. Nearly all APB Opinions were superseded by FASB statements (FAS) at different points in time. The FASB remains the authoritative source for private sector accounting practices today. The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 restated the FASB’s position in setting accounting standards. The FASB does not have the authority to enforce standards. The responsibility has always been with managers to prepare and file financial statements in accordance to GAAP with the SEC. Auditors, overseen by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), issue opinions on the conformity and accuracy of the financial statements. The role of auditors has become increasingly crucial in the post Enron era. The FASB remains committed to addressing any deficiencies in the reporting process and meeting regularly with the PCAOB and SEC to prevent future financial disasters. Probably the most serious issues to date addressed by the FASB resulted from the subprime mortgage crisis and the subsequent financial crisis of 2008. According to Leslie Seidman (2011), chairman of the FASB, high profile controversy relating to the determination of the fair value of assets and liabilities in an illiquid market prompted the issuance of FAS 157, Fair Value Measurements. Effective November 2007, the standard expanded disclosure for fair value measurements and included changes in fair value practice â€Å"†¦ for certain entities† (FASB, 2006, para. 1). The FAS 133 released in January 2008 provided new and additional guidance on derivatives and designated a team within the FASB to assist with statement implementation. The FASB works to â€Å"harmonize† the previously mentioned standards and all others with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Discussion of international accounting principles has occurred for decades and an International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) has existed since 1973. It was not until the 1990s when globalization motivated the FASB to deliberate a strategic plan for international activities. In 2002, the FASB and IASB started collaborating to â€Å"converge† US GAAP and International Accounting Standards. A memorandum of understanding was released by the two boards in 2006 and amended in 2008. In 2011, the FASB sent a letter to the IFRS Foundation Trustees describing its views on many key issues. The FASB continues to balance long term IASB projects with its work on issues relating to US GAAP. REFERENCES Financial Accounting Standards Board. (1962). APB 2: Accounting for the â€Å"Investment Credit†. Retrieved from http://www.fasb.org/cs/BlobServer?blobkey=id&blobwhere=1175820900137&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs Financial Accounting Standards Board. (2006). Summary of Statement No. 157. Fair Value Measurements. Retrieved from http://www.fasb.org/summary/stsum157.shtml Financial Accounting Standards Board. (2012). International Convergence of Accounting Standards –Overview. IASB-FASB Update Report. Retrieved from http://www.fasb.org/jsp/FASB/Page/SectionPage&cid=1176156245663 Seidman, L.F. â€Å"The Role of the Accounting Profession in Preventing Another Financial Crisis.† U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment [Testimony]. FASB. April 6, 2011. Zeff, S. A. (2005). The Evolution of U.S. GAAP: The Political Forces behind Professional Standards. The CPA Joural, Retrieve d from http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/105/infocus/p18.htm

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” – Selfish Grandmother

Grandparents are the parents of one’s own parent. Grandparents spoil and care for you whenever your parents are not. In some situations, grandmothers are more involved with the grandchildren than any family member. In â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find†, the main characters is the Grandmother and her son, Bailey. The son’s family goes on a family vacation to Florida. The grandmother tags along after she insisted not to ride along. She didn’t want to be left alone at home and wanted to keep the kids company on the ride to Florida.Throughout the whole story, the family experienced certain events that the grandmother is to blame for the family’s fate and tragic ending. She told stories to the children about the old days and compared it to present day in the story. Also she insisted to make a couple stops and gestures that could have been avoided if she did not come on the trip. â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find† is an ironic title for this short st ory by Flannery O’Conner. The southern Gothic writer wrote about the things she observed in Georgia. Her stories were far from the normal because her ending fates of the characters were dramatically disastrous.Clearly stated, the grandmother is to blame for the family’s fate because of the unexpected effort to stop at the plantation house, the cat a board the car ride, and recognizing the Misfit and his fellows. Bailey and his family resided in Georgia. The road trip was expected to be a success, but made a tragic turn at the end. They left Atlanta with the grandmother, Bailey, his two children, June Star and John Wesley, and the mother of the children with the youngest child in her arms. The grandmother sat in the middle of the back seat with John Wesley and June Star on either side of her.Bailey and the children's mother and the baby sat in front. Their planned vacation to Florida had an additional unplanned member in the car. Pitty Sing, grandma’s cat, was th e uninvited member, who sat on the grandmother’s lap in the back seat. The grandchildren listened to the grandmother’s childhood stories of Tennessee as they focus on their comic books. Halfway to Florida they made their first stop at The Tower and decided to eat dinner. After dinner, Bailey and his family continued their journey to Florida. As they drove off, the grandmother continued telling her stories.She started one childhood story about a plantation that she spent most time at a young age. The kids got interested in her story because she spoke about the house having a secret panel where silver was hidden. The kids were excited and wanted to know more. The grandmother noticed a plantation with very similar features like the one she visited a lot. Her announcement of recognition made the kids beg. â€Å"The baby began to scream and John Wesley kicked the back of the seat so hard that his father could feel the blows in his kidney† (O’Conner, 1080).As s tated above, the screams of excitement and curiosity of the children and the convincing grandmother persuaded Bailey to turn around and go down the dirt road where the entrance of the house with the secret panel stood. The grandmother finally convinced her son to go up the dirt road because she kept describing the rush of joy to see the house with the secret panel was nearby. The grandmother’s insistence to stop at the plantation house by driving down a road off the highway is one supporting fact proving that slowly all the events caused by the grandmother will be the reason for the family’s fate.On the quiet road, everyone kept to themselves all the excited as they watched the trees pass by. Bailey asked, â€Å"how further more†, and the grandmother replied, â€Å"Not much further. † The grandmother thought to herself as she remembered that this plantation house they were driving to be actually in Tennessee and not in Georgia. Instantly, â€Å"the thoug ht was so embarrassing that she turned red in the face and her eyes dilated and her feet jumped up upsetting the valise in the corner. The instant valise moved the basket under it rose up Pitty Sing, the cat, sprang onto Bailey’s shoulder†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (O’Conner, 1081).After she realized this drive down the road was unnecessary and held it in because she knew Bailey and the children would be upset. Driving over a long hill, she rendered to what would actually be on the other side of the hill. Since the plantation house didn’t exist. When Pitty Sing jumped onto Bailey, he was so surprised and lost control of the car. The car with the whole family flipped twice then landed in the ditch off to the side of the road after the big hill. Again the grandmother is responsible for another event the family has experienced.The cat jumped on Bailey causing the car to crash. This could have been prevented if she would have left Pitty Sing at home like Bailey requested because he did not want the cat with them on the family vacation or if she could have stayed home since she did not want to go to Florida, but Tennessee instead. But then again, the grandmother seemed it was alright and nothing would be wrong with bringing the cat. Moments after the chaos of the accident had settled; Bailey spotted a car coming from the end of the road. The car approached the family and parked near the car and the family.Three individuals came out the car and looked into the ditch onto the family. The whole family was in pain and hurt from the car flipping. They screamed for help as the three walked down to them. The grandmother noticed that one of the individuals was someone she knows or saw before. She realized and spoke out loud that all three men were convicts that have escaped from prison and were driving down to Florida to hide out. The leader of the trio was the Misfit. He told the grandmother that the best thing she could have done was stay quiet.The two accomplice s of the Misfit took Bailey and his son, John Wesley, into the woods. Soon after the mother, the baby, and June Star were walked into the woods. Gunshots went off in the woods. â€Å"The Misfit's statements and actions take to a much more blatant extreme that which is hinted at by the grandmother's behavior†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Owens). Leaving the grandmother alone and last to kill by Misfit since the other two men were in the forest. She kept reminding him how good of a man he was to stop and help them. She exclaimed to Misfit, â€Å"You’ve got good blood!I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady! I know you come from nice people! Pray! Jesus ought not to shoot a lady. I’ll give you all the money I’ve got! † (O’Conner, 1086). Misfit had enough of her yapping and shot her dead with three gunshots to the chest as she lay in the ditch. â€Å"In her final moment, the Grandmother reaches out and touches the Misfit, whispering ‘You're one of my own chil dren! ’. The Misfit's final commentary on the grandmother is that ‘she would of been a good woman . . . if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life’† (Overview: Wilson).The family’s fate ended with them being murdered by the Misfit and his companions. The grandmother could be perfectly blamed for this whole event because if she would have stayed home, left the cat behind, and not recognize the Misfit. The tragic and sad finale was the final situation that the grandmother will ever put the family into ever again. The â€Å"good man† the grandmother claimed the Misfit was and his two friends are murderers. Throughout the story the ironic title is connected to all three situations the grandmother placed the family in causing their ending fate of death. She is selfish and pushy; in fact, her desire to see a house from her childhood results in the family's death at the end of the story† (Overview: Wilson). Clearly stat ed, the grandmother is to blame for the family’s fate because of the unexpected effort to stop at the plantation house, the cat aboard the car ride, and recognizing the Misfit and his fellows. Persuasion was a key part that played by the grandmother throughout the short story of O’Conner. The moral of the story helps the reader realize that it is â€Å"hard to find a good man†. ? Works CitedO'Conner, Flannery. â€Å"A Good Man Is Hard To Find. † Literature and Ourselves. 6th ed. New York: Pearson, 2009. 1075-087. Print. â€Å"Overview: ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find'. † Short Stories for Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1997. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 24 Sep. 2012. Owens, Mitchell. â€Å"The Function of Signature in ‘A Good Is Hard to Find. ‘. † Studies in Short Fiction 33. 1 (Winter 1996): 101-106. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 61. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resour ces from Gale. Web. 24 Sep. 2012.

Best/Worst Experience in Modern Communication Essay

l rather than physical presence or written/printed channel. The best experience I’ve had communicating electronically was via e-mail. Last year in March, I went back to Israel to visit my family for a few weeks. Doing so each year is very hard on the family I leave behind, taking care of the everyday life without me around. My husband and I got to talk on the phone once or twice a day, but never too long due to the facts of the surrounding aspects (such as: noise, people that came to see me, and so on). Our landlord decided to sell his house and gave us one month notice as was written in the contract. We only had one month to find another place to live with 3 kids, while I was in Israel for the next 2 weeks. This was a very positive experience for my husband and I. It enabled us to communicate with each other and our realtor via the e-mail. If not for the e-mail options, I couldn’t have done what I succeed to do. I e-mailed each day to our realtor, knowing I can’t communicate with him with the 10 hours difference between us. He sent me houses to look for in the e-mails, and I e-mailed him what I liked and what not. The e-mail availability gave us the option to manage the issue from a distance, without being scared and cancel the visit with my extended family. Channels are the mediums that carry messages between communicators. (Dobkin-Pace, 2006). Worst experience I have had communicating in an electronic/computer communication channel rather than physical presence or written/printed channel. It happened in Canada 5 years ago. I was working in the Jewish community center as an event planner for the center. I was doing my daily tasks when suddenly I looked at my inbox and saw that I have an e-mail from the CEO. I looked at the e-mail and saw that she decided to cancel an event that I worked so hard on, with no reason. To me it felt so wrong and with no feelings. I felt so upset and thought to myself that this should have been done face to face and not through e-mail. She might have had her own reasons to why she did it, and she might have done the right decision.

My Personal Interest Project Essay

The Internet is a growing space with infinite potential, yet we must question the truth and reliability of some things. Sherry Turckle, author of Together Alone quoted a subject of hers as saying â€Å"When things happen in real-time that’s it you have to show emotion and have quick responses, there is not more time left to think† My personal interest project (Henceforth referred to as PIP) is an investigation into the desire to create an online pseudo and the impact it is having on people’s social skills across a range of social situations. My first idea was to study the affect of vaccinations in society but that changed when my interest in social identity grew. The initial idea began when during conversation the topic of ‘fake’ people on the Internet was brought up and the conversation wound its way into the desire to change your identity and how that can effect the first time you meet someone face-to-face and they realise you are not the sock puppet you resonated to be via the internet. After thought on that idea, I became interested in what drove an increasing amount of people to alter themselves on the Internet and the comparison between reactions in people in a situation online and the same situation in ‘real-time’. The way peoples minds work, and the reasoning behind decision making has always intrigued me and I now have a chance to explore it in depth. This research idea resonates with the topic Change and Continuity within the Society and Culture syllabus. It explores the changing uses of technology on social and cultural practices and traditions. The primary methodologies I am using include; Interviews with professors studying similar concepts consisting mainly of open-ended questions, Focus groups to collect primary information on the comparison of effects in regard to different social situations, Questionaries to enable me to collect a range of answers for general questions and personal reflection which allows me to include my own experiences from my micro world and aid in the answering of the hypothesis, It will also allow me to see the way I have reacted in the same social situations or would potentially react. I will be constructing a questionnaire to get a general idea on the topic; I will also be constructing a group of 30, all of specific age groups, and having them record their experiences in 10 different day-to-day social situations and recording how they reacted to the situations via social media and in real-time. I aim to discover a deeper insight into the desire to change who you are over the Internet and the impact the Internet is having on peoples ability to function in day-to-day social situations. I have experienced the changing of peoples behaviours in situations were the Internet is not readily available and wish to explore the reasoning behind why people feel the need to create an online pseudo yet are slowly losing their real-time social identity and skills.

Edge cities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Edge cities - Essay Example The developer is able to make considerations on what they would want for the city and using this, they are able to choose a strategic location for the city. They developer can choose a location that will be close to the resources needed by the city or even a location that is close to the developer’s target market. A location can reduce the costs of raw materials, transportation costs and costs of delivering products to the market place. The edge city can also be located to close to social service points. Edge city developers are also able to provide proper and efficient social services and supplies such as water, electricity and medical services. In historic cities, the quality of social services is determined by the other factors such as finances, population size and geographical size. Edge cities enjoy the benefit of better planning over historic cities. This is because the developers plan for the expected population size in the edge city. When the population is determined the city planners are able to optimally determine the infrastructure needed and the layout of the various structures in the edge city. Historic cities chronically suffer from social-fiscal problems such as poverty and crime and capacity problems such as congestion. Another advantage of edge cities over historic cities is that they have flexibility in terms of redevelopment and restructuring. Since the developer has control over the layout and operations in the city, they can change the layout of the city so that it meets the desired objective. This would only need enough finances and it is done. Historic cities are quite inflexible as redeveloping them would require a lot huge amounts of funds for compensating owners of different structures as well as lots of documentation on policy and legislation. When edge city developers are choosing the location and capacity for their mega-projects, they have to make several

Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche - Essay Example Georg Wilhem Friedrich Hegel in his philosophy of world history expounds on the different types of history. The first is original history, which refers to the written historical account of the period in question (Hegel, Wood & Nisbet 1991). Reflective history is the second type, which is written after a certain period, based on the reflective thought and is laden with interpretation. Lastly, there is philosophic history, which tries to rationally interpret history. Through philosophic history, Hegel observes that world history is not guided by God’s plan rather it is through a rational process (Hegel, Wood & Nisbet, 1991). He expounds this in his Reason rules of history, which states that reason rules the world. Hegel’s philosophical history is based on that assumption; reason rules the world. Friedrich Nietzsche in his philosophy of history tries to explain, â€Å"how things become what they are†. His concern with history arises with its recording and emphasis by people who claim to represent the past. He opposes Hegel’s method of systemizing history and his adoption of teological themes (Mencken, 1993). In his opinion, history should be wholesome for future generations and its sole purpose is to influence the next generations. This purpose is not a choice rather it is a demand. Nietzsche is of the opinion that â€Å"the capacity to build a new future depends on our ability to see a fundamental continuity with the strengths of the past†. Kant’s moral theory states that freedom is not defined by the absence of law but being bound to laws one makes for himself (Höffe, 1994). His moral theory further states that rational human wills have freedom, that is they are autonomous. Freedom, according to Kant is autonomy where individuals lay their own laws that guide their actions. His view on individual freedom as being autonomous is derived from the