An Evaluation of Jessie Nelson’s Directed Film, I Am Sam

An Evaluation of Jessie Nelson’s Directed Film, I Am Sam The movie I chose to review is I am Sam. This movie is about a man, Sam, with a mentally disability coping with the struggles of raising his daughter. He has the mind of a seven year old so things get tough when his daughter, Lucy, becomes seven and surpasses his intelligence and the kids in her classroom begin to make fun of him. Sam soon gets in trouble with social services and finds a lawyer, Rita, to help win his daughter back. The movie ends with a couple co-parenting Lucy, with Sam. So in a sense everyone wins; Sam and Lucy still get to have their relationship and the couple gets a daughter and can raise and take care of her needs. Sam’s character is said to have autism and a mental disability but did not specify what it was exactly. All that was said is that he had the mind of a seven year old. He was portrayed as a loving and caring father who read to his daughter every night and even threw her birthday parties. He also had a group of friends, who were also disabled, that helped raise Lucy. In one scene Sam did not have enough money to buy Lucy a new pair of shoes for school and all of the friends chipped in to pay for the shoes. You could also see how he struggled because Wednesday nights were IHOP nights but Lucy wanted to try a different restaurant. Sam went to the other restaurant but threw a fit when they did not have the pancakes that he wanted. It was hard for him to change his routine, but he tried because Lucy asked him too even though, with his disability, it was very hard for him. During the trial to win Lucy back Sam did everything in his power to get her back. Rita, the lawyer, was portrayed as a woman who put work before her family and kids. This was the reverse role of Sam because all he wanted was to be with Lucy. Once she got to know Sam she tried to do everything she could to help him and they even became great friends and she became a better mom because of him. You could really see how he struggled in the trial due to his disability. It was hard for him to keep up with the questions being asked and sometimes when he got confused he would quote The Beatles or things that happened to The Beatles; they were his favorite band. The movie wanted you to feel sympathy for him and pity him because he wanted so bad to be the father he needed to be put was held back by his disability. This movie was a positive portrayal of individuals with disabilities because it showed that even though Sam had a disability it did not affect his ability to love. Playing off the role of Rita, which was the opposite of Sam, she was the typical lawyer who had lost touch with his young son and even admitted to hating him. This scenario also showed that people without disabilities are not perfect and can learn from individuals with disabilities. She even said in one scene, towards the end of the movie, that she gained more from their relationship than Sam had gained from it. This shows how special individuals with disabilities are and how much they can better the lives of others and all that they want is to be treated like everyone else, because they do have feelings. Since the movie said that he had some form of autism I think they portrayed it well. Autism disorders are known to be on a spectrum and full of variety. Some people can be somewhat autistic while others are considered to be very autistic. Autism can, â€Å"affect a child’s development and ability to communicate and that includes unusual behavioral manifestations such as repetitive motor movements† (Kirk, 2012, p. 148). During the movie Sam constantly tilted his head up when he was frustrated and did not understand what was going on. This happened often in court when he was asked questions that he did not understand or too many questions were being asked to him at one time. Asperger’s Syndrome is also considered to be on the spectrum of autism and Sam showed signs of, â€Å"a preoccupation with certain subjects almost to the exclusion of other subjects† (Kirk, 2012, p. 148). This is seen with how he relates everything to The Beatles or things that happened between the band members. Another sign of Asperger’s Syndrome that Sam portrayed was hand flapping, especially when he was excited. He also had a job at Starbucks and every sugar had to be in the correct order and in the same place which is also a classic sign of Asperger’s Syndrome. He also had a routine as mentioned before Wednesday nights were IHOP nights and Friday nights were movie nights with his friends. A difference in Sam and Asperger’s Syndrome is that he had no difficulty socially. He was very sociable and enjoyed meeting new people. Rita had a couple in her office who were fighting over custody and the mother was crying and Sam went up to her and gave he r a hug to make her feel better. With all this being said I think the movie did an excellent job portraying autism in Sam’s character. It was clear that he struggled in certain aspects of everyday life mentally, but he had no physical disability. One thing I did notice in the movie is that they kept referring to Sam as â€Å"retarded.† This movie came out in 2001 so I am not sure if that is what they were still calling people with exceptionalities but it made me feel ashamed of those people for referring to him that way. This movie impacted me greatly and by the end of it I was in tears. It was amazing to see a person with disability love someone so much and do anything for them and impact so many lives in the process. I have read several movie reviews and most of them say it was an amazing and accurate performance, for example, â€Å"I Am Sam deserves to be remembered for Sean Penns remarkable performance as a mentally challenged man. Penns accuracy, his lack of condescension or sentiment, and his w illingness to inhabit his character without any implicit commentary take what might have been the equivalent of an inflated TV movie and elevate it to the level of art† (LaSalle, 2002). I feel that I got a lot out of this assignment and really enjoyed it. It was great to see the love and compassion that individuals with disabilities feel and how much they can impact society and the lives of others. It shows that even though they have a disability they are first and foremost a person who can feel and express themselves, just a little bit differently. I think this was the entire purpose of the movie; to make the viewer feel sympathy for Sam but also realize that he is not so different after all.

StarBucks Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

StarBucks - Essay Example Furthermore Starbucks does not follow traditional aggressive advertising strategy; rather it focuses on high-level branding and marketing practices (Larson, Marketing Strategy and Alliances Analysis of Starbucks Corporation). Word-of-mouth has been a widely practiced marketing communication strategy by the company. The ‘differentiation’ generic strategy provides sustainable competitive advantage to the company. Starbucks intentionally avoids traditional promotional approach. It believes that its brand is promoted through excellent in-store service, quality of the product, premium price and unique customer experiences. Such a strategy has definitely provided sustainable competitive advantages to the company. As far as customer response is concerned, Starbucks is very quick to respond to all their customer queries. Starbucks is committed to provide a unique experience to all its customers. It has all the required resources in order to support and sustain all its rapid response activities. Starbucks is one of the most successfully marketed brands in the world. The company has 16,706 stores (including both company operated and licensed) throughout the world. The company’s long term objective is to have 15,000 U.S. stores and 30,000 stores in the entire world (Horovitz, Starbucks aims beyond lattes to extend brand). Starbucks’s mission says that it is working for inspiring and nurturing human spirit – â€Å"one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time.† Generally strategic planners of any organisation develop the long term objectives in seven major areas which are profitability, competitive position, productivity, employee development, technological leadership, employee relations and public responsibility. Moreover quality of any long term objective can be evaluated on the basis of five factors namely flexible,

Arizona Statehood and Constitution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Arizona Statehood and Constitution - Essay Example This was the oldest period in the history of Arizona. The earliest inhabitants of this period introduced various cultures and traditions and started living at community level sharing their needs. These earliest people were known as Paleo. In 2000 BC, Cochise culture was developed in Arizona. Those Cochise people introduced agriculture in that area. They used to grow several crops especially corn. In 300 BC, Hohokam people settled in the southern parts of Arizona. They were more developed people and introduced new ways of refined living and civilization. They used to construct irrigation canals, roads and agricultural communities, and villages in the region. So, Hohokam along with Anasazi people paved the new ways to success. In 500 A.D. Hohokam people contributed more and more to the creation and establishment of more advanced and extensive irrigation networks. In 700 to 1100 A.D., Pueblo period came to its peak and they flourished in the regions nearby Arizona. They were the pit dwe llers and built many elaborated residences in that region. They used more extensive material like stone slabs, bricks, sticks and mud in the building process. Underground chambers were also developed and cotton fiber was introduced first by these inhabitants. Although the status of a state is recently achieved by Arizona its history goes back to thousands of years almost 12,000 years back. 1) The Spanish Period (1528 to 1821) In the time period 1528- 1536, Spanish colonist steadily began to enter in the region of Arizona via waterways from the coast of current day Texas... They were especially attracted by the deposits of silvers present there. They were quite interested in exploring the regions because of hidden treasures. In 1539, a Spanish colonist Fray Marcos searched out the city of Cibola. His discoveries for silver deposits encouraged more exploration in the region. In 1629, Franciscans were the first Europeans who planned out more missions in various parts of the region including San Xavier, Guevavi and San Miguel. In 1736, Spanish succeeded to explore more deposits and large chunks of silver near Arizonac Camp. With such discoveries, Spanish also accomplished their goals having forts in the region. Tubac Presidio was the first fort established by Spanish community in the region of Arizona. Jesuits were also replaced from key positions by Franciscans. In 1765, Charles III of Spain did a major rearrangement of military on the area extended northward. Franciscans were given the place in mission planning and implementation. It is also obvious from history that during the mid of eighteenth century, the pioneers and Spanish colonist also tried to expand the territory of Arizona towards North. However, they were stopped by some Native American tribes including Apache and Tohono O’ odham. Those tribes also began violating acts on the local villagers of the region. They also launched raids and captured the livestock of the local people. However, as a whole we may conclude that the Spanish Arizona had survived economy. Several small scale silver and gold mining operations were also held in that time period. 2) Mexican Period (1821 to 1848) However, in1821, Mexico gained independence from Spanish Rule. The independence was gained as a result of a long war which had demolished the industry of silver mining and also

Management across Culture in China. China is home to the oldest and Essay

Management across Culture in China. China is home to the oldest and most continuous culture worldwide - Essay Example With globalization came international business people. What is always confusing with different cultures is, those values that may be acceptable in one culture may be counterproductive or even unacceptable in another. In Peoples Republic of China, people view managers differently (Branine, 2011:226). People expect managers in both private and foreign sectors to be entrepreneurial, fluent, pragmatic, and flexible in both their native culture and that of their foreign investors. It is common and believable to find â€Å"benevolent authoritarian† young managers in Chinese companies. Even though this sounds rampant even in other cultures, in China employees expect their managers to deploy leadership by living an exemplary life. This means those managers involved in company operations are hard working and earn their employees respect and compliance. Management characteristics within Chinese culture are rapidly changing especially in the private sector. Traditionally, loyalty remaine d within families or groups however, this is transforming drastically. Mobility of labor is increasing dramatically especially within the foreign firms. Presently, once an employee gains some experience in a particular field, his or her employment options open up widely especially in the large coastal cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Beijing. This shows that loyalty in Chinese culture regarding employment is vividly losing magnitude and at the same time, they are replacing it with experience and labor mobility (Branine, 2011:227). Roles of managers differ coherently with place and culture. With this respect, the role of a manager in China entail that, a successful cross-cultural manager in this country has to be aware that every individual in the organization has a very distinct role to play hence maintaining that role helps in keeping order. Managers may carry out their duties in their respective manner and even function autocratically. In some cases, they might use an intermedia ry to solve problems with their staff or do it privately (Branine, 2011:247). Due to cultural aspects like these, management across such culture is hectic and requires tolerance and perseverance. Nevertheless, China’s cultural adaptability is improving rapidly in spite of her traditional medium of cultural tolerance because of the increasing demand for global marketplace. A manager should receive and address any ideas raised by an employee in order to avoid exposure (Branine, 2011:264). This shows that Chinese culture is gently incorporating approaches brought in by change. In addition, since approach to time and priorities is moderate and typical in Chinese culture, there may be some flexibility towards strict adherence to schedules and deadlines. Nonetheless, the expectations regarding global trade and intercultural expansion are causing Chinese to adopt stringent principles of adhering to schedules. The process of decision making in Chinese organizations is bureaucratic. E ven though China is changing, the engrained bureaucracy within government offices and in the most entrepreneurial companies is still evident. Different departments apt to work separately and quite independently and only share specified and selected information (Branine, 2011:269). This shows that, rivalry often exist amongst these departments under the same company. These cultural

Penetrating testing techniques Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Penetrating testing techniques - Research Paper Example This article will analyze some of these modern computer attacks, how they happen and ways of mitigating them. A DDoS attack is an ill attempt to make a network or server resource unavailable to users, often through disrupting or suspending the services of a connected host from the internet. The DDoS attack can be achieved by two main ways. First, the attacker, using malware or Trojan can take over several computers on the internet, creating a botnet in the process. Secondly, the attacker then controls the affected computers and makes them attack simultaneously the target thus achieving their initial goal (Gu & Liu, 2007). The DDoS attacks can be resolved, mainly through the incorporation of blocking and detection mechanisms, that apply even during the spoofed attacks, when attacker profiles and identities are constantly changing. Others include, giving more complete capabilities of verification than either IDS signatures or static routers filters can provide. Prevent dependence on configuration changes or network device resources. In-built intelligence processes being infused with only contaminated traffic packets that would guarantee minimum scaling costs and maximum reliance. Implement procedures for communication standards to help guarantee maximum reliability and interoperability. Blocking and identifying individual spoofed packages to guard genuine business transactions (Patel & Patel, 2014). TCP session, or session hijacking, is generally a means of taking over a session of a web user by obtaining surreptitiously the session Id and pretending to be the official session user. Once accessed, the invader can pretend to be the official user and freely access and manipulate data as they please. Hackers popularly use routed IP packets from the original source to hijack a session. Through re-routing the communication to go through his computer, he can communicate with the different machines simultaneously. An effective example of such

Two-Way Bilingualism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Two-Way Bilingualism - Essay Example Emerging results of studies of two-way bilingual programs point to their effectiveness in educating nonnative-English-speaking students, their promise of expanding our nations language resources by conserving the native language skills of minority students and developing second language skills in English-speaking students, and their hope of improving relationships between majority and minority groups by enhancing cross-cultural understanding and appreciation†. (Donna Christian, 1994) Most Two-way bilingual programs do not segregate language minority and language majority students. They also provide instructions in, and through, the two chosen languages. One of it is obviously the native language of the student from the minority community, and the other one is inevitably English. The former is also called as the target language. The programs attempt to teach students regular subjects while also developing their understanding of languages. To reap full rewards from this system of education, â€Å"students from the two language backgrounds are in each class, and they are integrated for most or all of their content instruction†. These programs are also beneficial in that they create an atmosphere that promotes favorable attitudes toward both languages and their respective cultures. The program is framed in such a way that the students achieve expertise in both their native language and English. There are other merits to two-way bilingual programs. Firstly, they help address several serious issues facing the present state of education. They also help in creating an intuitive and easy-to-learn approach to educate the increasing number of nonnative-English-speaking students registering in American schools. This is done in an â€Å"additive bilingual environment† that not only encourages development of native language and English, but also ensures general academic progress. Furthermore, â€Å"They promise to expand

What it means to be a professional in the military (army) Essay

What it means to be a professional in the military (army) - Essay Example It is practically impossible to uphold the acceptable standards in any professional without understanding the underlying principles. Professional militants keep themselves updated with changes in rules and regulations. Professionalism particularly in the military always calls for focus on work objectives. Doing anything outside the given instructions qualifies as unprofessionalism. Military professionalism is not all about war and fights. It is about restoring peace and harmony in the society by use of means that are humanely acceptable. This demands good ethical standards. Indeed, military professionalism and ethics are inseparable. For instance, it is unethical and therefore unprofessional for a military professional to torture an innocent civilian for pleasure or fun. Technical expertise is always essential for military professionalism but it is fruitless if not guided by the realms of good morals and ethical standards. Professionalism in the military means demonstrating sound judgment even in difficult and demanding situations. Prudence and careful thought makes a good military professional. This is because military professionals often face challenging situations that demand prompt decision-making. Quality of their decisions determines the discourse in a war. A bad decision by a military leader may mean death to many of his military men or a continuation of a fight. Arguably, most wars in history were escalated by bad decision making as opposed to technical expertise. Discipline plays a very important role in success of any professional career. Military professionals are given more rights, freedom, and power of authority as compared to ordinary citizens. They can be termed as â€Å"special citizens.† These rights and privileges are prone to abuse if discipline is not maintained. Professionalism in the military therefore means upholding the highest level of discipline to the authority, oneself and