Of all of the job opportunities discussed throughout this course so far, website design has appealed the most to me because I am interested in computers. Obviously, computers are an important part of website design. With only a few key strokes you can access the internet and search engines, play games, and browse photos. This allows the user to “travel” anywhere. Using a computer, you can retrieve and acquire limitless knowledge and follow tutorials to help you with just about anything. All of your documents can be stored on the computer and then accessed practically anywhere. I especially like the fact that I can also learn computer languages to program. There are nearly endless possibilities with computers and website design because this job is similar to a puzzle with infinite solutions.

Companies can be based  on the sales of two things, products and/or services. My personal favorite product based company is Nintendo. The company was founded in 1889 and  began making video games in the mid ’70s. At this time, Nintendo crated the first handheld gaming console, the Game and Watch series. Nintendo continued to release many new consoles after that, including the NES, Game Boy, SNES, Nintendo 64, and Game Boy Advance. Many of these introduced new and amazing ideas to the gaming industry, such as portability, the ability to switch game cartridges, and the D-pad. Many of the games that were featured on these consoles are still treasured today. In fact, three of the most popular video game franchises, Mario, Pokemon, and The Legend of Zelda, originated from these gaming systems. However, not everything that Nintendo produced was a success. The Virtual Boy, an attempt at an affordable virtual reality console, failed due to poor sales. In spite of this defeat, Nintendo continued to probe the limit with new gaming consoles. One of the next Nintendo consoles, the Wii system was able to use motion detection in its games. The DS was released at the same time, with the 3DS arriving only a few years behind. The Wii U was also released, providing a somewhat lopsided element to some games. Unfortunately, few games were created for this gaming system, as many developers could not grasp the idea of an unbalanced game. However, the half a dozen people who bought the Wii U were able to play some very unique games. The newest console that Nintendo has released is the Switch, which combines both handheld games and bigger gaming systems.

In Harry Browne’s book, The Secret of Selling Anything, the author explains an amazing five stepped process to sell virtually anything. The first step in this process is to grab the attention of potential buyers. This is best done with a headline or catch phrase, like in a newspaper article or radio commercial. The headline is the most important part of any ad and should be eye catching because without one, everybody might simply pass over the advertisement. For example, who does not remember “Got Milk?” or “Be Prepared”? The second step in the selling process is to identify the need, want, or problem. This can be done inside of the headline by making the eye catcher the actual identifying question. Without determining the “why” of the buyer, you will not sell anything. The third part of the process is to present your product or service as a solution to the aforementioned issue. What you are selling solves the buyer’s problem, the one that you just drew attention to. For instance, in the “Got Milk?” campaign, milk not only quenches the buyer’s thirst, but is also good for their bones. And the Boy Scout’s motto, “Be Prepared,” attracts people who want adventure while promising to keep them safe. The next step in this selling process is to provide proof that your product or service is worth purchasing. A common way to do this is to provide some sort of a rating system. Five stars means that your product or service is excellent, while no stars indicates that you need to give up and provide something else. Another way to prove the value of whatever you are selling is to provide a form for product reviews. Anybody can write down how well your product or service worked (or did not work). One last way to show your product or service’s superiority is to employ a celebrity spokesperson. The fifth and final step in the selling process is to ask for the sale. This is simple, merely provide a price, location, and/or form of contact and wait for people to purchase.

Two different ways of owning a business are buying a franchise and starting your own from scratch. A franchise is a grant from a business to use their ideas and business style for a fee, of course. An independently started business is self explanatory. The owner creates a business that sells whatever products or services he wants. With a franchise, the owner may only sell the products or services that the overarching company allows. However, in exchange for rigidness and a distinct lack of creativity, the mother company provides a proven recipe for success, quite literally in some cases. In contrast, the independent start-up can be as creative and flexible as the owner wants, but there is no recipe for success. To own a franchise, there are a lot of different people to pay; the land owner, the supplier, the mother company, and the employees. For a start up, there might be none, or there might be only two. Of the two forms of owning a business, both have their own pros and cons.

This is what I have so far.

During the 16th century, optimism meant a belief that good trumps evil. Since then, it has changed, and means a tendency to look on the bright side. Optimism has four unique definitions, the tendency to look on the bright side, the belief that good trumps evil, the belief that good pervades the world, and the belief that this is the best of all possible worlds. In the 16th century, most people could in fact read and write due to the Gutenberg Press about a century earlier. The writing style in this time was scientific and theoretical ideas and ideals.
The biggest event in this era was the birth of Protestantism, so therefore the 95 Theses are the first literary work.

And my outline…

Intro
Background info—what people think at that time is reflected in the written worksDef of optimism (4 defs)What’s the current worldviewWho can read and writeWhat’s the main type of writingDef of optimism may be different for all eras

16th C
Luther, 95 Theses (1 week)More, Utopia (2 weeks)Foxe, Martyrs: Selections (1 week)Montaigne, Essays (1 week)Marlowe, Dr. Faustus (1 week)Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (1 week)
Major event was the birth of protestantismCatholicism was injured and brokenWorldview changed from middle agesIncrease in literacy and printing pressWriting develops—montaigne and shakespeareWriting for entertainmentLegends become enhancedDef #4 for middle agesDef #2 for this era
95 Theses 1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite, willed that thewhole life of believers should be repentance. 2. This word cannot be understood to mean sacramental penance, i.e., confession andsatisfaction, which is administered by the priests. 3. Yet it means not inward repentance only; nay, there is no inward repentance whichdoes not outwardly work divers mortifications of the flesh. 4. The penalty [of sin], therefore, continues so long as hatred of self continues; for this isthe true inward repentance, and continues until our entrance into the kingdom of heaven. 7. God remits guilt to no one whom He does not, at the same time, humble in all things and bring into     subjection to His vicar, the priest. 62. The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace ofGod. 94. Christians are to be exhorted that they be diligent in following Christ, their Head,through penalties, deaths, and hell; 95. And thus be confident of entering into heaven rather through many tribulations, thanthrough the assurance of peace.
Foxe’s Martyrs BY THE GRACE AND SPEED OF CHRIST OUR LORD, WE WOULD DISCOURSE, IN PARTICULAR SORT, THE ACTS AND DOINGS OF EVERY AGE BY ITSELF, IN THE FOLLOWING ORDER:O DECLARE, first, the suffering time of the church,which containeth about the space of three hundred years after Christ.Secondly, The flourishing and growing time of the same, containing other three hundred years.Thirdly, The declining time of the church, and of true religion, other three hundred years.Fourthly, Of the time of antichrist, reigning and raging in the church since the loosing of Satan.Lastly, of the reforming time of Christ’s church, in these latter three hundred years.Neither is it here any need to speak of these our lower and later times, which have been in king Henry’s and king Edward’s days, seeing the memory thereof is yet fresh and cannot be forgotten. But let this pass; of this I am sure, that God yet once again is come on visitation to this church of England, yea, and that more lovingly and beneficially than ever he did before. For in this visitation he hath redressed many abuses, and cleansed his church of much ungodliness and superstition, and made it a glorious church, if it be compared to the old form and state. And now how grateful receivers we be, with what heart, study, and reverence we embrace that which he hath given, that I refer either to them that see our fruits, or to the sequel, which peradventure will declare it.
Faustus Therefore we shall blame neither his parents nor his patrons, who desired only the best (asdo all pious parents), nor shall we mix them into this Historia. For they neither witnessednor experienced the abominations of their godless child. As was reported above, Doctor Faustus’ complexion was such that he loved what oughtnot be loved, and to the which his spirit did devote itself day and night, taking on eagle’swings and seeking out the very foundations of Heaven and Earth. For his prurience,insolence and folly so     pricked and incited him that he at last resolved to utilize and to prove certain magical vocabula, figuræ,     characteres and coniurationes in the hope of compelling the Devil to appear before him. When these two wicked parties contracted with one another, Doctor Faustus took apenknife, pricked open a vein in his left hand (and it is the veritable truth that upon thishand were seen graven and bloody the words: o homo fuge–id est: o mortal fly from himand do what is right), drained his blood into a crucible, set it on some hot coals and wrote… Upon hearing these words, and understanding that the Devil would surely dispatchFaustus this night, the students urged him to call upon God, begging Him for forgivenessfor Jesus Christ’s sake, saying:O God, be merciful unto me poor sinner, and enter not into judgement with me, for I cannot stand before Thee. Although I must forfeit my body unto the Devil, wilt Thoupreserve my soul!Faustus agreed to do this. He tried to pray, but he could not. As it was with Cain, whosaid his sins were greater than could be forgiven him, so was it with Faustus also, whowas convinced that in making his written contract with the Devil he had gone too far. When it was day the students, who had not slept this entire night, went into the chamberwhere Doctor Faustus had lain, but they found no Faustus there. The parlor was full ofblood. Brain clave unto the walls where the Fiend had dashed him from one to the other.Here lay his eyes, here a few teeth. O it was a hideous spectaculum. Then began thestudents to bewail and beweep him, seeking him in many places. When they came out tothe dung heap, here they found his corpse. It was monstrous to behold, for head and limbswere still twitching. From it the students and clerks in particular should learn to fear God, to flee sorcery, conjuration of spirits, and other works of the Devil, not to invite             the Devil into their houses, nor to yield unto him in any other way, as Doctor Faustus did, for we have before us here the frightful and horrible example of his pact             and death to help us shun such acts and pray to God alone in all matters, love Him with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength defying the Devil             with all his following, that we may through Christ be eternally blessed

17th C
Shakespeare, Macbeth (1 week)Cervantes, Don Quixote: selections (1 week)King James Bible: History, Introduction (1 week)Bacon, Essays (2 weeks)Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress: selections (1 week)Milton, Paradise Lost: Books I, II (1 week)

2nd def of optimism for centuryShakespeareLived religiously persecuted eraUnderground CatholicIncorporated views of societyHad old and new ideasCervantesHappy go lucky fictional funUsed imagination and crazy namesPeople learned how to use lit as entertainmentKJVWhy was project undertakenPuritans did not like old BiblesGot King James II to authorize new version2nd and 3rd def of optimismBaconScientific methodNot everything b/c God said soImprove man’s stateA New AtlantisEmphasis careful experimentation + analysis to increase knowledge + better lifePoint show utopia because of knowledge + scientific methodBunyanAllegory for Christianity and moralityGood wins in endEvil pervades realityMiltonGood triumphsQuixote tung + cheek + laughs at self
Pilgrim’s Progress This book it chalketh out before thine eyes The man that seeks the everlasting prize; It shows you whence he comes, whither he goes, What he leaves undone; also what he does: It also shows you how he runs, and runs, Till he unto the gate of glory comes. It shows, too, who set out for life amain, As if the lasting crown they would obtain; Here also you may see the reason why They lose their labor, and like fools do die. This book will make a traveller of thee, If by its counsel thou wilt ruled be; It will direct thee to the Holy Land, If thou wilt its directions understand Yea, it will make the slothful active be; The blind also delightful things to see.

18 century
Mandeville, Fable of the Bees: poem, selections (1 week)Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (2 weeks)Swift, A Modest Proposal; Gulliver’s Travels: Lilliput (1 week)Voltaire, Candide (1 week)Verbal rhetoric: Wesley, Pitt, Wilberforce (2 weeks)
Industrial rev and less religious persecutionMandevilleSocial order theoriesHuman design or divine design firstNow proposed originate spontaneouslyPursuit self interest causes prosperity othersAssumed bees act like humans + seek self interestCreates human like society in bees without knowingDefoeThemes include pride and humility, survival, and struggles with conscienceShows author’s puritanGod = everything

Fable of the Bees Vast numbers thronged the fruitful hive,Yet those vast numbers made them thrive;Millions endeavouring to supplyEach other’s lust and vanity;While other millions were employedTo see their handiworks destroyed.They furnished half the universe,Yet had more work than labourers.Some with vast stocks and little painsJumped into business of great gains;And some were damned to scythes and spades,And all those hard laborious tradesWhere willing wretches daily sweatAnd wear out strength and limbs to eat;While others followed mysteriesTo which few folks bind ‘prentices,That want no stock but that of brassAnd may set up without a cross,As sharpers, parasites, pimps, players,Pickpockets, coiners, quacks, soothsayers,And all those that in enmityWith downright working, cunninglyConvert to their own use the labourOf their good-natured heedless neighbour.These were called knaves, but bar the name,The grave industrious were the same:All trades and places knew some cheat;No calling was without deceit.
Thus every part was full of vice,Yet the whole mass a paradise;Flattered in peace and feared in wars,They were the esteem of foreigners,And lavish of their wealth and lives,The balance of all other hives.Such were the blessings of that state;Their crimes conspired to make them great:And virtue, who from politicsHad learned a thousand cunning tricks,Was, by their happy influence,Made friends with vice; and ever since,The worst of all the multitudeDid something for the common good.

The three main areas of any business are sales and marketing, operations, and administration and finance. Sales and marketing are the part of the business that get the product known to the public and sold. Operations does all of the behind the scenes manufacturing of the products to make it just like sales and marketing said it would. Administration and finance is for all of the managers who run the company, hand out paychecks, and pay the bills. My family business demonstrates how the three of these areas work in a successful business.

We own and operate a light industrial property ownership and management business. For sales and marketing, my dad posts a sign in the front flower bed when there is available space. Sometimes, we advertise on Craigslist too. Also, our business has existed for a long time, so many people know about our rentals. Additionally, there is a bar at the end of the building that attracts attention and the patrons have loose lips. As operations, we inspect the building weekly and maintain the site by picking up trash and fixing minor problems. This includes buying supplies that we might need. For anything too big to fix by ourselves, we call in a contractor. We have a list of handymen that my dad keeps handy and can call in case of an emergency or if we simply cannot get something done. On the administration and financing side of things, we collect rent from our tenants and keep track of who is late or has not paid; and we pay the bills. There is a lot of computer spreadsheet work to do and papers to file. In addition, sometimes we must physically travel to the building and speak with the tenants about rent increases and renewing and signing their leases and other paperwork. That is how it works for us.

According to Dictionary.com, individualism is the idea that the individual is endowed rights, liberties, and independent action. Collectivism is similar, but for groups: the collective is given rights, liberties, and independent action.

Group rights illustrate the individualist vs collectivist outlook. Some select minority groups, such as people with different sexual orientation than the majority, certain races, and certain genders, receive special treatment and protections under the law. This unfairness infringes upon the rights of the remaining people because ALL individuals should have the same liberties as long as they do not infringe upon the freedoms of others.Some people should not have the right to force other people to do what they do not want to do just because the group is illegally favored by the government.

Another example of collectivism vs individualism is taxes. Taxes are collected from only half of the population and distributed to everybody else through various welfare programs, including public schools. These schools are an excuse by the government to brainwash kids using tax money, required from people even if they do not have kids or send their children to private schools. These are not merely compulsory schools, they are government run compulsory schools. The teachers are government civil servants and the curriculum is chosen by the government.

It is unfortunate that we have all been forced into these collectivist policies, as every single one of them is stupid and unconstitutional. It is incredibly infuriating that the world keeps moving in this direction.

WWII had just ended and two great powers emerged out of the chaos, America and the USSR. The communists intended to unmercifully spread their ideas over the world while the US decided to be the policemen of the globe. An arms race developed in which nuclear weapons proliferated and mutual spying was unnaturally common. This combat without any battles was dubbed the Cold War. Many leaders and presidents were involved along with policies that helped direct the people of their respective nations, for better or for worse. In the aftermath of WWII, the continuation of the Cold War, rise of the Military Industrial Complex, assassination of Kennedy and the resultant expansion of the Welfare State all led to dangerous times in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

The US and the Soviets insisted upon continuing the Cold War and never ceased poking each other. In 1961, the US mounted a failed invasion of Cuba. As a result, Russia and Cuba set up a secret agreement that a nuclear missile launching facility would be constructed in Cuba. When US spy planes returned with photographic evidence of this missile complex, the Russians defended their actions by pointing out US missile arrays in Turkey and Italy trained on Russia. Tensions increased, almost to the point of nuclear war, until the two presidents discussed the situation. Russia would remove all nuclear missiles from Cuba and the US would honor Cuba’s independence and drastically decrease the number of missiles in Turkey and Italy. The world peace was kept during this period by the threat of mutually assured destruction. Should one country destroy the other, the second would still have time to retaliate by sending hundreds of missiles in the reverse direction.

Unfortunately, the continuation of the Cold War led to more war, killing, destruction of culture and land. For example, the Vietnam War, which took place from 1955 to1975, was a proxy war between the US and the Soviets and resulted in millions of deaths, countless displaced families, and exposure to Agent Orange. This toxic substance wiped out not only the jungle, as was intended, but also the people of Vietnam and the war veterans in their retirement many years after the war. Overall, the Vietnam War was the most traumatic for Americans in recent history.

The Kennedy assassination in ’63 undermined the people’s faith in the government. Soon, the Average Joe realized that the state’s investigation into the president’s untimely demise was phony. Lies abounded. Prior to this event, most US citizens would simply believe whatever the government told them. Kennedy’s assassination also energized the political left wing of government to push through massive socialist welfare legislation that they claimed Kennedy had been backing. Yet another lie. The new Welfare State trapped the poor in economic poverty. The state took from all and gave to the few. Any incentive to work and rise above the poverty level was entirely removed by these handouts. Ironically, the policies that resulted from the fight against homelessness actually increased the poverty level instead of lowering it. By declaring war on poverty, the US decreased the quality of services and spent four times the necessary amount of money.

The ‘60s and ‘70s were characterized by spying, intrigue, and proxy wars of the US vs the Soviets. James Bond movies captured the public’s imagination, along with LSD, Hippies, and free sex. Welfare kept people down as the government played Helpful Big Brother. Perhaps the worst effects of World War II felt in the ‘60s and ‘70s were the spread of communism, sponsored by the Soviets, and the rise of the US progressive elite in their pursuit of world dominance with the help of the Military Industrial Complex.

Once WWII had ceased, Germany was occupied by all four of the Allies, the Soviet Union, US, UK, and France. Under their direction, Germany would be transformed into pasture lands. However, this did not work out as intended because the conditions in Germany more than two years after the end of the war remained the same. The Soviets still inflated the official currency into worthlessness, food continued to be evasive, and cigarettes were, as before, the best, and sometimes only, way to purchase goods or services. For far over 365 days, Germany lingered at a year zero state. After viewing the devastation of Germany, Lucius Clay, military governor of the American occupied zone, and three German Libertarian thinkers convinced the US and its allies to repeal Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) 1067, which was the law that the victors had instated to oppress the conquered, and helped jump start Germany.
Clay feared that if the Allies persisted in hindering the recovery of Germany, there would be a communist revolution to deal with. The three Germans who had aided Clay with persuading the US to avert a communist disaster and help the suffering country were Wilhelm Röpke, Ludwig Erhard, and Konrad Adenauer. Röpke, a professor of economics, decided that there must be some morally acceptable way of governing the people and enforcing laws. His advice, which was indeed followed, was in contrast to the Nazi regime, where the entire structure was utterly immoral. Wilhelm believed in liberty for the individual to interact with others without interference from the government. Erhard, who was deeply influenced by Röpke, created a solid currency, and together with the reopening of factories and the restarting of industry, called these actions the German Social Market Economy. This was the way in which the Germans could freely manufacture and exchange goods. Having been mayor of Cologne and vehemently resisting Hitler during the war, Adenauer proved himself a worthy politician to lead Germany as its first president under the new laws. He also shared beliefs about the German recovery with Erhard, as he was a student of Röpke, too.
On the other hand, the Soviets abhorred the economic reform, as it would encourage private property and the associated rights of the individual. Therefore, to prevent any monetary reform from reaching the Russian’s occupation zone, the Berlin Wall was erected. But the free Germans in West Berlin were still starving to death and stuck in year zero because the whole city of Berlin was smack dab in the middle of the Soviet’s zone. To aid the malnourished people on the independent side of the infamous barrier, the Allies dropped food from aircraft into the walled off portion of the city in the Berlin Air Lift.
In the end, there was no communist revolution in Germany because of Governor Clay, Röpke, Erhard, and Adenauer’s smart actions. By convincing the Allies to repeal JCS 1067, they saved Germany. The country was then able to fix itself with the three brilliant Germans at its head. This new Germany became a powerhouse of Europe by the 1950s and is still going strong today.

World War Two was a global game of domination over other nations. However, WWII did not begin as a global conflict. Spreading out from Eastern Europe, the war started with the invasion of Poland by Germany, and then by the Soviet Union. The two countries had agreed to the Molotov Ribbentrop non-aggression pact and divvied up and conquered many smaller East European states. Then, after several months of peace, Germany Blitzkrieged through Belgium and Luxembourg and into France. Britain had decided to aid France and was brutally defeated at the Battle of Dunkirk. Once France had been softened up by the Nazis, Mussolini moved in and claimed a chunk of France for himself. Germany decided that the only way to conquer Britain was a series of bombing raids. The next six months of the war took place above England in the battle of Britain with the UK’s RAF versus the Nazi Luftwaffe.  Meanwhile, FDR, the president of the US was busy provoking everyone so that he could get the US involved in WWII, hopefully with the Germans. He stationed the Pacific fleet headquarters in the Philippines, right on Japan’s doorstep, and the navy was posted in Hawaii. Eventually, the Japanese took the bait and bombed the crud out of Pearl Harbor. The US and Japan were now at war with each other. Due to FDR’s lack of intelligence, he had gotten the wrong country to initiate war. Luckily, Hitler came to his rescue by declaring war upon the US in an equally brainless move. Hitler’s plans did not stop with involving the US in WWII. In a move to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union, which would break their 1939 non-aggression pact, Germany conquered Yugoslavia. The massacre of innocents was truly atrocious. In a terrible game of worldwide conquest, many nations fought to subjugate their neighbors.