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4 Strategies to Avoid Truck Driver Burnout

4 Strategies to Avoid Truck Driver Burnout Long haul driving is hard. Period. Truck drivers are said to work 70-hour work weeks, but we all know the reality is more like 90. Compared to a normal office worker, clocking in at 40 hours a week, this is already a recipe for exhaustion. Add in the fact that off-duty time, usually spent waiting between loads or at a truck stop, requires a certain amount of vigilance and maintenance of the rig- and isn’t really down time after all. Plus the fact that the human body prefers to sleep at night, in the dark, when the body’s natural rhythm calls for it. And that, to be healthy, one needs better access to healthier food than can be found at truck stops or fast food eateries- and you’ve got a whole lot of drivers barreling down the highway towards depression, exhaustion, poor-health, and the dreaded burn out.Here are four strategies to make sure this doesn’t happen to you, whatever stage you might be at in your trucking career:1. Take vacationsYou might think yo u can’t afford the time off, even if you’ve been allotted it. But really, it’s the other way around; you can’t afford not to take the time off to rest and recharge. It will make you a safer, happier, and healthier driver. Take holidays as well! Family time is important. The normal rhythms of civilian life are too.2. Take breaksYou may get bonus points with your boss, and perhaps an extra couple of bucks, for getting there an hour sooner. But at what cost? Breaks, especially when you’re feeling even slightly fatigued, can be a game changer and a serious morale booster.3. Get regularIf at all possible, try and get on a regular route. You’ll be able to stop in the same places, build yourself a routine, and get on a more regular sleep pattern. If this isn’t possible, put yourself on the spare board on a regular, rotating basis. Falling asleep at the wheel is never worth the risk.4. Embrace the electronicNobody is particularly thrilled wit h these new electronic logs, but they may actually help level the playing field. They’ll take everyone off the road after 70 or so hours, and enforce breaks and rests. You’ll never have to worry that someone else is putting in double hours to make bank. And you can take your much-deserved break in peace.

Humanities Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Humanities - Assignment Example Despite the strong image factor, the West still makes and sells this kind of music successfully across the globe. Thus, music is a Western construct because the West â€Å"makes† music according to its own definitions and classifications of it. Music and/or dance can do things that are different from visual art by using properties that the latter does not contain and by involving couple, group, or community performance. Barnett (2012) provided five propositions of what music is, which does not only set it apart from other forms of noise, but from visual art as well. Music is organized sound, which is different from the organized hues of visual art (Barnett, 2012, p.7). The audience consumes music through their ears, and sometimes through their ears and eyes, while visual art is entirely for the eyes. Moreover, dance is a performance that sometimes requires two or more people participating in its production. The social aspect of its production sets it apart from visual art that can be very single-artist-driven in construction. Dance can also serve several social functions. Dance and its accompanying music act as a â€Å"lens† through which people can find social celebration and community solidarity (Barnett, 2012, p. 23). Dance can refer to rituals and other dances that serve diverse individual and social functions. Individually, people can dance to express themselves or to heal or curse others. Dance and music are common staples in social events too, such as weddings, birthdays, and funerals. Thus, dance and music operate at a different level than visual arts and can also be very social in its production and outcomes. Tango is an important music and dance in Argentina culture, precisely because it originated from Buenos Aires, Argentina. The urban poor developed tango during the 1890s and because of the socioeconomic conditions of its makers, tango was danced more frequently in brothels during this time (Morales, 2003,

Project Procurement Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Project Procurement Management - Essay Example A signed Charter authorizes the Project Team to begin work on the project. Project Schedule gives planned dates for starting and completing activities and milestones. Project schedule could be an addendum to the project charter or be part of the charter document itself to provide a high-level timeline of the project to the management and the stakeholders. The Project charter should contain rough estimates for the management to budget for the project or choose to approve this project over other projects that are in contention for the funding. This could also be included in the charter document itself or be a separate supporting document as an enclosure. Expense item Costs$ Capital costs Hardware $25,000.00 Software $106,000.00 Infrastructure $83,000.00 Installation $12,000.00 Professional Services - implementation and training $200,000.00 Others $53,000.00 Total Capital Costs $479,000.00 First Year Operating Costs Salaries $300,000.00 Computer Operational costs $85,000.00 Contracted Services $200,000.00 Professional services $150,000.00 Others $75,000.00 Total first year operational costs $810,000.00 Total budget cost estimate $1,289,000.00 References: 1. Project Charter defined Authority Documentation Comparing Prince2 with PMBOK http://www.maxwideman.com/papers/comparing/authority.htm 2. What should a project charter contain A Project Charter template http://www.vita.virginia.gov/projects/

Earth is my mother Essay Example for Free

Earth is my mother Essay The author’s purpose in writing was to understand for herself and to be able to present Navajo sandpaintings as â€Å"dynamically sacred living entities whose meanings lie in the process of their creation and use† (page xix). Sandpaintings, created from different colored sands and sacred objects, are not art. They are representations of mythical beings and legends created for the purpose of reestablishing someone’s health and harmony. The study of sandpaintings and their various meanings permits the reader considerable insight into Navajo land-tied religious beliefs, world view, creation myths, society, history, and even concepts of time. The author, Trudy Griffin-Pierce, provides little autobiographical information in the book. She mentions her rootless Air Force upbringing and how her early readings were devoted to books about Native American culture, especially the Navajo. Although she is distantly related to the Catawba Indians of South Carolina, she always felt a kinship with the Navajo and lived for a time with a Navajo family, learning their traditions, history, and language. This bond drew her to Arizona after she completed her undergraduate degree in art at Florida State University. N. Scott Momaday, in his â€Å"Forward†, adds that Ms. Griffin-Pierce is a very creative artist, capable of understanding and discussing the artistic dimension of the Navajo world. She makes the inventive and imaginative Navajo system of belief without our understanding. Ms. Griffin-Pierce received her doctorate in anthropology from the University of Arizona in 1987, where she is currently Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department and teaches three courses. The information on her website at the University of Arizona reveals that this was her first published book. She has written four newer books, The Encyclopedia of Native America (1995), Native Americans: Enduring Cultures and Traditions (1996), Native Peoples of the Southwest (2000), and Paridigms of Power: The Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War and Naiche’s Hide Paintings (in press); and two articles, â€Å"When I am Lonely the Mountains Call Me: The Impact of Sacred Geography on Navajo Psychological Well Being†, and â€Å"Navajo Religion†. All of her writings center on the history of Indians in the United States’ Southwest. She is currently studying aging and dementia among Arizona’s Native Americans. In Earth is my Mother; Sky is my Father, Ms. Griffin-Pierce details Navajo religious beliefs, world views, historical myths, societal structure, and astronomical concepts before she discusses the use and structure of Navajo sandpaintings. Basic Navajo religious beliefs are still followed by many Navajos who chose not to assimilate the tenets of Christianity presented to them in the 1800’s. There is no word for â€Å"religion† in the Navajo language. Spirituality, health, harmony, and beauty are inseparable. The universe is an all-inclusive whole where everything has a unique place and beneficial relationship to all other living things. God is the â€Å"Unknown Power† worshipped through His Creation. The Navajo also have a close relationship with the Holy People, with whom they interact daily. (page 34) Navajo religious beliefs are closely tied to their intense longing for and their love of their homeland, which they consider the â€Å"point in space from which all conceptions of the cosmos proceed†. (page xv) The land and the earth is their foundation of all belief, wonder, and meaning in human existence, and the four sacred mountains are the center. There are no permanent religious centers. The Native American Church is a local peyote visionary religion.    The Navajo have a circular concept of time that permits their mythic, spiritual world to coexist with their physical world. The author suggests that the Navajo sacred sandpaintings cannot be understood unless we accept the Navajo’s â€Å"mythopoetic context of layered time, space, and meaning†. (page 7) Navajo spirituality affirms humanity’s place in nature as a whole. Their ceremonies restore the interconnectedness of all life. They believe sickness results from failure to maintain reciprocal responsibilities with the environment, infringement of ceremonial rules, and transgressions against one’s own mind and bodies. Her purpose in writing this book is to share a more humane, more connected view of the world and its contributions in reestablishing humanity’s alignment with the universe. (page 9) Navajos still worship gods and goddesses of specific purposes. Their deities include the Sun; Changing Woman, who brings the earthly seasons; and their children, Hero Twins, Monster Slayer, Born-for Water, First Man and First Woman, First Boy and First Girl, the trickster Coyote, and the Speechless Ones, who cannot utter words. (page 34) These are often depicted in the sandpaintings. Navajos have a concept of the â€Å"Holy Wind†, reminiscent of the Christian Holy Spirit, as a being that exists everywhere and is in all living beings. For them this means that all living beings are related and that humanity has a responsibility to care for other living beings. Curiously, in Navajo Creation stories, the Holy People spoke, sang, and prayed the world into existence with their sacred words. Since everyone has an inner form and is part of the Holy Wind, each has a Holy Person located within. Oneness with the universe creates a responsibility to treat one’s fellow creatures with the same respect one has towards oneself. (page 73). The Navajos were among the last American Indians to migrate from Asia to North America and were late in arriving in the Southwest. They settled in the geographical area bounded by the four Sacred Mountains in the Four Corners area of the Southwest. Their geographical isolation protected them from diseases brought by the Spaniards and provided them with access to stealing their horses, sheep, and goats. They learned weaving from the Pueblos. The Navajo societal structure was and is matriarchal, clan, and family based, and they dwell in isolated family groups structured by the nuclear family, the matrilocal extended family, close relatives, and other relatives. Many Navajo live in frame houses today, but some still choose well-constructed hogans. (page 21) Navajo ceremonial healings involving sandpaintings are conducted by highly trained practitioners called â€Å"chanters† who have learned to sing the elaborate Navajo rituals. The Navajo chanter can cure witchcraft, exorcise ghosts, and establish immunity to illness.   A chanter is a priest, not a shaman, and never enters the shaman’s characteristic trance state. Most chanters are men. Women become diagnosticians, or shamans who acquire knowledge in a trance state. (page 39) Navajo ceremonials are rites (rattle is not used) or chants (rattle accompanies singing. The major rites (Blessingway and Enemyway) use drypaintings with pigments made from plants, including corn, pollens, cornmeal, flower petals, and charcoal. The author explains that Enemyway is a form of exorcism against the ghosts of aliens, violence, and ugliness. The chanting ceremonies (Holyway, Evilway, or Lifeway) use sandpaintings of different colors of sand, ocher and charcoal. Other sacred objects, vegetation, and bowls of water are incorporated into both types of ceremonies. (pages 40-41) There are hundreds, if not thousands, of different sandpainting designs. A sandpainting is a place of entry where supernaturals enter and leave, attracted by their likenesses in the painting. The establishment of this pathway lets the evil or illness in the patient be replaced by the good, or healing power of the supernatural being. (page 43) The healing ceremonies last for several days. It takes four to six people three to five hours to complete a sandpainting six feed in diameter. The workers begin in the center and work outwards. (page 45. The Navajos’ basic concept is that the powers of the heavens and earth are drawn into the sandpainting for the purpose of healing. Time is compressed so that powerful mythic events of the past coexist with the present and restore harmony and well being to the person being healed. (page 58) The sandpainted image is intended to let the sick person project his or her mind through time and space, rising above present earthly limitations.   The Navajo layered worldview becomes meaningless during a ceremony as all layers of heavens and underground become one. The Navajos study the constellations and star arrangements primarily for determination of seasons, and they are not part of the ceremonial core of sandpaintings, even though depictions of mythical gods of creation in the form of constellations may be used. (page 103) One of the more interesting myths is how Younger Brother went to the sky country and met an inner circle of hostile beings whom he left to stay with the friendly Star People in the outer dwellings. These friendly Star People, whom the Navajo call â€Å"The People†, and the hostile beings are still incorporated into sandpaintings. The author concentrated on the â€Å"Mother Earth, Father Sky† sandpainting because it is the most familiar to outsiders and presents the most detailed depiction of the Navajo heavens of sandpaintings in use today. (page 175) She describes the intricate, careful, detailed process involved in making a sandpainting. Mother Earth and Father Sky must be identical in shape and size. The act of creating a sandpainting is healing because it focuses everyone’s thoughts on the principles of balance and order. (page 177) The painting becomes â€Å"alive† to serve its transcendent purpose when the chanter strews sacred pollen on it and blesses those attending. (page 183). The sacred and blessed sandpainting forces the patient to reconnect in time and space to past and present sacred forces and reminds the patient of her connectedness to humans present physically or spiritually. (page 194) This book accomplishes the author’s stated purposes and does discuss the themes in detail. However, the information is disorganized and scattered, making the book itself hard to read. The author’s purpose was to teach the reader how to understand and appreciate the making, content, and purpose of Navajo sandpainting, which she accomplishes. Some of the information presented about Navajo religious beliefs is curiously similar to Christianity, and the author does not sufficiently discuss whether or not these were original to the Navajo who migrated to the Americas or picked up and changed a bit from what Christian missionaries tried to teach them. The Navajo ties to the religious symbolism of their land is remarkably similar to early Hebrew thought, but no mention is made of that. The textual sources used by the author are all documented research papers or books that are fairly recent in date. One would wish earlier sources had been consulted on some issues, but their availability is not known. The author combines quite boring detailed information with her myths and more lively text, making the book itself a challenge to complete. BIBLIOGRAPHY Southwest Studies Program. Biography of Trudy Griffin-Pierce. University of Arizona. http://web. arizona. edu/~swst/faculty/tgpierce. htm. Griffin-Pierce, Trudy. Earth is my Mother; Sky is my Father. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992.

Fashion media communication

Fashion media communication â€Å"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didnt do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.†- Mark Twain All my life I have dared to go that extra mile to achieve whatever I have wanted. Now that I have become a part of this industry I am living my dream. Fashion and Style are not mere words but an intrinsic part of todays life. Fashion according to me has limitless possibilities and infinite opportunities for the creativity in an individual. It has a wide spectrum, and still a wider scope for experimentation to express that creative urge. Today fashion has acquired global standing. Its language imbibes in itself a blend of cultures. Fashion is the great leveler, the harmonizer. Fashion is the fusion of artistic tastes, its eloquence may be simply elegant or classic. Whether one feels identified to fashion or not, being indifferent to its massive attack is inevitable. Having had the opportunity to study in one of the most prestigious fashion institutes in the country I have been able to imbibe in me the intricate nuances and skills of the fashion world. But I believe in maintaining an explorative attitude as life is a learning process hence I am keen on exploring other dimensions in this field. The various Industry visits which were a part of my curriculum during my graduation and the internship at one of the leading export houses of India aided me to interface between design and technicalities of production and understand the different arenas of the fashion industry. I also had the opportunity to promote the arts and crafts of India by undertaking projects in the cluster developments of the country. I have a flair for designing and the ability to maximize the resources in hand and the confidence and desire to make a name for myself in the field of Fashion Media and communication. The Fashion Design degree from the National Institute of Fashion Technology has instilled in me high levels of creative awareness. An accentuated penchant for excellence gives me the required patience, which is a prerequisite in the field. I do not get bogged down by deadlines; rather I keenly look forward to meet them. Designing and production are certainly not the end of the design process, with promotion of the fashion products being an equally important part which depends mainly upon the creative use of the diverse media involving communication techniques. My bachelors education in Design has endowed me with lasting inputs in areas like Design Process, Fashion forecasting, Product development, Graphic Design, Styling, Fashion management and branding which I believe will help me to further strengthen my abilities and develop in me the art and acumen to carve a niche for my self in the field of Fashion Media and use the appropriate tools to market fashion as the product of artistic creativity. I desire to become a student at your highly acclaimed institute to polish my skills which I inculcated during my graduation through perseverance and dedication and   focus on the core concept of fashion as an inherent part of our society with the objective of making people aware of the importance of fashion as a way of life. I see HE Diploma (Fashion Media and Communication) offered at the London College of Fashion as a means for enabling me the high expertise and skills required in this field. But most importantly, I see it as a means of evolving my own personality and outlook about the fashion world and directing my energy and knowledge towards the efficient and meaningful culmination of my career objectives.Through this course I would want to focus and develop in me the ability to be part of Fashion Media, and use the appropriate tools to project and market fashion as the right mix of artistic creativity and business. I believe in expression and I have chosen fashion as my medium of self expression and would like to use fashion media and communication as a platform to realize my dreams. I strive to be the best, trained by none other than the best. As Archimedes once said â€Å"Give me a firm place to stand, and I will move the earth†.

The Role of Fate in Oedipus the King – Essay Sample

Oedipus the King was written by Sophocles and was is titled Oedipus Rex in Latin. It is one of the most well-known Greek tragedies. As is the case with Greek tragedies—or roughly most tragedies that make their way to stage—fate plays a key role in the events in Oedipus the King. The play is also the origin of the term â€Å"Oedipus complex. † Fate as Antagonist The primary antagonist in this tale is fate. Most tragedies where fate is the driving theme the characters in its web all attempt to escape it.Unfortunately fate can’t be avoided and if it is tempted fate will usually render a far worse conclusion for attempting to deprive it of its will. Laius’ Fate Apollo tells Laius that he and Jocasta would have a son that would kill him. When Oedipus is born, Jocasta sends Oedipus to his own fate and leaves him on a mountainside to die. Jocasta attempts to cheat fate by doing away with her son to save her husband, but Oedipus is found by a shepherd who s aw the whole thing and raised by King Polybus.Laius’ fate comes when he kidnaps the son of King Pelops and basically showed little respect for Pelops’ hospitality by doing so. The Fate of Thebes Oedipus sends Creon to the temple of Apollo to figure out what will become of Thebes and how to do away with the plague. Fate is tempted here by the Oedipus attempting to end the plague when it is not his place to do so. Apollo tells Oedipus that he will end up killing his father and taking his mother. Oedipus believes he will end up killing King Polybus. Oedipus’ Fate Teiresias—Apollo’s blind prophet—tells Creon of Oedipus’ fate.Oedipus is busy trying to find the murderer of Laius. Teiresias cryptically tells Oedipus the nature of his marriage, but Oedipus doesn’t interpret the meaning in Teiresias’ words. He tells Oedipus that the shame of his relationship will bring about ruin and that the insults Oedipus gives to him will be returned as a result of his deed. Oedipus sets himself up for downfall further when he forsakes Teiresias’ word and says he has no special ability.As prophets are basically the mouth of the gods and do their direct  will, Oedipus is in a way committing blasphemy. The provocation leads Teiresias to—again cryptically—tell Oedipus that he is actually on level footing with his children and that the truth with crush him. When Oedipus relays the events to his wife, she tells him to ignore the prophecy and that Apollo’s prophecy didn’t hold up as she believed that her husband was killed by a bandit. Strands of Fate Tied Up Oedipus finds out that Polybus doesn’t die at his hands, but of natural causes so it seems the prophecy didn’t come true.However, Laius is killed by Oedipus when the two argued over who had the right of way on a road. Neither man recognized the other. Oedipus marries Jocasta, widow of Laius making his both wife and son t o her and father and brother to his children. Oedipus finds out about the true nature from a shepherd, finds his wife Jocasta who had hung herself, took her jewelry and smashed them into his eyes. Oedipus ends up blind and destitute and his children cursed by being the product of incest.