Social Network

The internet surely has given humanity a giant leap forward in the way we interact with one another and
gather information. From its humble beginnings in 1958, all thanks to the Soviet Union’s launch of
Sputnik a year earlier, the United States looked for a way to get information across vast distances faster
in fear that the Russians could launch weapons from space making the time it took to detonate on U.S .
territory much shorter. The response time needed to be instantaneous.
So DARPA was formed – Defense Advanced Research Project Agency. Eleven years later in 1969 the first
instant message was sent between UCLA and Stanford Universities. The interaction that took place
between those two colleges via computers gave birth to today’s internet. It was not until 1990 that the
National Science Foundation took over management of DARPA’s work and in 1992 it went public for
every citizen of the world to use. Not just the United States.
Ten years later social networking websites were born with Friendster.com and LinkedIn.com being the
first in 2002. Followed by Myspace.com in 2003, Facebook.com in 2004 and Twitter.com in 2006 to
name a few. Now the world could easily connect with one another and share personal information in
seconds. Although emailing had been available for a decade prior to these social networks, emailing
could only carry words and pictures in letter form and only those that were addressed could see.
Social networks now made it easy to capture a large audience all at once. Everyone was in the know at
the same time. A few clicks of the keyboard and they could find any and all information about any
subject or person they desired.
This new phenomenon was not without its shortcomings though. The negative implications were
apparent from the first day. Computer hacking, identity theft, unwanted personal information for the
world to see and computer viruses to name a few. But the real downside is often overlooked and
ignored. This new found speed of information, easily accessed from the comfort of your home, has
actually hindered us than helped us. Ready information a click away is wonderful, but it has de-
humanized us to the point that humanity stands to lose its humility. We are removing ourselves from
the face to face interaction that we needed to have before the internet came into being. Staring blankly
at a cold screen and running our fingers across an uncaring keyboard has made us callas and cold
hearted to our fellow man. The interface we had with one another before online chat rooms and social
networking became such an integral part of our lives meant that we had to take into consideration the
feelings of the person we were corresponding with. Now we stare at an unfeeling and uncaring monitor
and envision the person we are chatting with is the same as that screen. Instead of hello my name is
Arty, it has become Arty_123 is online.
Politeness and civility may very well have died the day we first scrolled the cursor over that username
and password box.

Persuasive Writing Essay

You Need Insurances, Don’t you!

Do you have any insurance? It is a simple question, but a very important one. Do you think you should have insurance? Why do you think you must have insurance? What kind of insurance should you purchase? I think these questions can be asked of anyone. It happened to me when I was a senior undergraduate student. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to join seminars about commercial insurance companies like AIA (American International Assurance), AACP (Ayutthaya Allianz C.P.), and ING. They talked about the truth of life. Truth is not dead. You cannot avoid birth, old age, pain, and death. It can happen to anyone, anytime. You do not know when you will become sick or when you will die. Certainty is uncertainty.

Who should have life insurance and health insurance? A life can be divided into four age ranges: baby, student, working age, and retirement. People can be sick at any age so whether you are in any of the ranges, you should have health insurance especially during working age and retirement age. How much do you have to spend for a critical illness or accident? Do you have enough money? If you don’t you should have insurance. If you are the source of the main family income, you cannot go to work forever. What will happen to your family? Whether you live or die, your family can still survive. In my country, life and health insurance must be purchased together. You can buy only life insurance without health insurance but you cannot buy health insurance without life insurance because life insurance is the core part. The premium for life insurance doesn’t change but the premium of health insurance will be changed by age. Younger people will pay less than older people. One more thing, you should buy insurance when you are healthy because you cannot buy insurance when you are sick and when you have a history of treatment. Under these last two situations health insurance premiums will increase or you cannot obtain insurance at all. Insurance does not help people only in death, but it helps those who have a long life too. Current life insurance policy is also similar to a savings account. With policy maturity, you will receive the insured sum that you can use to live.
The best way of investment is diversification. When you have 10 eggs, you shouldn’t put all of them in one basket because when the basket falls down you are going to lose all the eggs. Insurance is one of the baskets of investment. When something happen to owner, this basket is working to cover them.

In addition non life insurances are important, for example car insurance, house insurance, including insurance of household goods. You never know… an accident can happen to anyone; it is better to be protected. An accident occurs due to lack of proper care. You drive carefully but the other drivers might be not careful. Insurance coverage for repairs and medical expenses due to accidents vary from policy to policy. Some laws force a vehicle to have insurance. You have to spend money to fix your car so it is ‘penny wise and pound foolish’ for you to only buy liability car insurance.

You don’t need insurance if you know what is going to happen in the future. You don’t need insurance if you are immortal. No one wants bad things to happen to themselves and their families. Prevention is better than cure. Life insurance is a pledge of love and our responsibility to those we love. Life is not sports games, no half time, no request for time off, no request for time out, no injury time. It is never too late to mend. Joy and sorrow are as near as today and tomorrow.

Analytical Writing

How do the four P’s work?

The term “marketing mix” was first used in 1953 when Neil Borden took the recipe idea one step further and coined the term “marketing mix.” Elements of the marketing mix are often referred to as 'the four Ps'; product, price, place, and promotion. This is taught in basic marketing courses and widely known in fields beyond marketing. I learned this concept when I was an undergraduate student in Thailand and applied it in my own business in Texas. How can you apply ‘the four P’s’ in your business?

Product -- A tangible object or an intangible service that is mass produced or manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units. I think the product is the most important thing when doing business. Before I opened a Thai restaurant, I had to create the food menu. What do we have? It should be cosmopolitan Thai food that is well known. It should be easy for the customer to understand and order. You have to be confident your product is good. You must have a measuring standard for the food; it cannot fluctuate according to the chef and the quantity of food should be consistent. The product should be priced at a value the customer is willing to pay. In addition you must have a special menu for various events.

Price – The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. It is determined by considering a number of factors including market share, competition, material costs, product identity and the customer's perceived value of the product. The business may increase or decrease the price of the product if other stores have the same product. How can you do the product pricing? In my experience, before we price we need to know the cost of goods. Typically, the cost of goods should not exceed thirty percent of the price. Furthermore, we should explore the price from other stores with the same product. Before I opened the restaurant, I went to all kinds of restaurants in the area to check their prices. After that I could decide the pricing; not too expensive but not too cheap either. I said not too cheap because the people in that area of the city can afford restaurant food and this also helps select the quality customer-a customer likely to return. Another factor in pricing is the place.

Place – Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet. We should study the place both inside and outside. Outside, the location should be visible, prominent, and have adequate parking for customers. There should be a large sign or banner that is clearly visible. I always use a banner because the cost is not too expensive, though the cost of banner is different in different areas. In Texas you pay thirty dollars a month for a time period of ninety days for one banner. After that it is expired. If you want to do it again you have to wait for three months; they don’t allow consecutive banner periods.
Inside, it should be clean, organized, and tidy. It is very important because the health department will inspect every six months and the fire department will inspect every year. The place may be decorated to reflect seasonal changes. In Texas, I found that people like to go to large restaurants for special occasions. Therefore, on those occasions such as Valentine's Day, Mother’s day, etc. a small shop will not have customers. That shows if you want to open a restaurant in Texas, in my opinion you should open a big restaurant. This is one of the reasons I sold the business.

Promotion- Promotion represents all of the communications that a marketer may use in the marketplace. Promotion has four distinct elements: advertising, public relations, word of mouth and point of sale. A certain amount of crossover occurs when using the four principal elements together. There are several objectives of promotion. In the beginning I wanted to make everyone in the area aware of my restaurant. I advertised with the Money Mailer. They are a company that does advertising via mail to homes. They put a lot of business handouts in the same envelope. I found it didn’t work because I never heard the customer say they heard about the restaurant from Money Mailer. After that we tried market competitive pricing like discount coupons, premium discount, happy hour, etc. that I passed out using hangers and flyers. It was very successful. I offered discount coupons and premium discounts. I noticed that more people preferred the premium discount because of differences in lifestyle. Before you launch the coupon, you should study consumer behavior and customer needs.
Marketing is not fixed. It depends on the situation at the time, location, customer lifestyle, etc. In the current economy one should be cautious about investing. It is important to know how to combine knowledge of ‘the four P’s’ and use it beneficially. Marketing is all around us all the time.

My Worst Day

My Worst Day

Usually I go to school every Tuesday and Thursday. I always park my car at the BART station. Today’s April, 1 2010. I went to school in the morning and parked my car at BART station. I got the good news that I got one more A for midterm exam. After school I went into the city to hang out with my friend. And then I took the train to get my car and drove back home. I didn’t know what happened to my car until I got in and didn’t see my stereo. Can you believe that? Oh my gosh someone broke my car. I couldn’t find the BART police and then I walked back to the BART station and told the officer guy that my car was broken. He asked me some information about the car and told me to get back to the car and wait there. It was so cold and windy and I had to wait for the police about 30 minutes. It never happened to me before. I got scared and nervous. After police came, he asked me when I parked here, what time I came back here, etc. I told the police I thought the thief just want to steal my stuffs in my car but the police said he didn’t want just my stuffs but he wanted to steal the car because the police saw something happened around the key start. Then the police tried to start but he could put the key in but wouldn’t turn because the thief tried to break it. Finally I had to pay for the toll truck to move the car to my house. Why did it happen to me? Today is April fool’s day. It shouldn’t be real!!! Please….

E82A Persuasive Writing

Chapter 17-20 Persuasive Writing

E82A Monarch

Monarchs

My First Business in The U.S.

My First Business in The U.S.
The name of my business was Thai Café at 201 E Bethany Dr. Allen, Texas. There were 32 seats in Thai Café in the small shopping district. It was a brand new restaurant about 1,050 SQ.FT. The building is two years old and there are 5 stores in this area: Japanese restaurant, Thai restaurant, Brooklyn Deli, salon, and an empty space. The Japanese restaurant named Hibachi and the Brooklyn Deli belong to the landlord.

We started our business on March 2008. My sister bought the business because the landlords were so nice, and offered her everything, such as setting up, and helping to make a down payment plus rent free for two months. The landlords are also Thai. When Jang bought the business, I was in California. I didn’t know anything about the restaurant until August 2008. I went there to visit my sister and surprised her for her birthday but I was surprised more than her when I learned she bought the restaurant. Before I went to visit her, she asked me to move there many times but I said no because she didn’t give me any reasons. I thought a lot about it because I just applied for school. Finally I moved because she couldn’t take care of her business by herself and I thought I could build the business. It was the hardest time in my life. I was so proud to have my own business instead of being a student. After I moved, I redecorated and reengineered the restaurant. Then I started to do the marketing strategy that I learned from my undergraduate education. I tried to apply this knowledge to run the business.


The location was good because there is only one Thai restaurant in this eastern site. It is close to freeway and on the main street is busy in this part of town. My place was so small and hard to see. The customers recommended doing the sign outside. I tried to ask the landlord to do the monument sign but they said they didn’t have money to do that. Then I thought I had to do something else to present my restaurant. I advertised flyers, hangers, a banner, in a local magazine, and communication online. I tried to create a good advertisement but I had no idea about the community because I just moved there. I didn’t know about their lifestyle and that challenged me. I had to work 7 days a week, no holidays, no days-off to improve the business. Besides my job in the restaurant I had to do all the paperwork and it was so difficult because I was not very good in English. I never had any kind of business here before. It was so different from my country, such as sale tax, property tax, income tax, state law, and federal law. I just moved there 2 years ago and I didn’t have any idea about the law in Texas. I worked hard and studied hard by myself because my sister couldn’t understand English at all.
In the kitchen, my sister’s friend was the chef. The chef was responsible, adroit, and skillful but she lacked the consistency of quality. Chef must cook good food, good taste, and maintain the flavor but the problem was my chef couldn’t maintain the flavor. Her flavor of food often fluctuated. After that happened, I told her to have standard cooking measurement. Although I had a chef, she was not enough, I still had to go buy the ingredients in the morning, do the inventory, and prepare the ingredients for cooking. It was a lot of work.



My business grew very well until October 2008. Then the economic recession began and the Wamu bank closed. This was directly affecting to all kinds of businesses. The restaurant was slow. In the meantime my business still maintained and the income still covered the expenses. Then I realized that the restaurant was not growing anymore or perhaps it would take a long time to build the business.
I finally realized I need to get more education and I needed more business experience. I discussed with my sister about our business situation. We should sell the business even though we couldn’t get the capital gain. We couldn’t make money and we lost the time. Even if my business wasn’t successful, I didn’t feel guilty because I thought I was lucky to have a restaurant business. I remember the customers who became my friend were candid and cordial. In the end I don’t feel bad because even though we sold the business, it was my first Thai restaurant business in the United State of America.