Feline Friendly Friday Final Post

     Feline Friendly Fridays were a huge success and were so much fun. I went three times in the semester with Jack and Jill to visit the manor. Everyone there was very happy to have the company of the cats. I observed the moods of all those who participated when I went. I think that the research saying the animal-human contact is beneficial is correct. All three times that I went, the longer a person had contact with the cats, the happier they seemed to be. I will not be continuing my project over the summer, only because its slightly time consuming and hard to organize. However, I decided that I would start volunteering at the animal shelter after being there a couple of times now to pick up the cats.

Stocks

My stocks are crashing and burning. I decided to sell my Vulcan Material Company stock because it is showing a trend of going down and I am losing money. I bought it at $65.25, and it is now $60.45. I have wasted enough money on it and so I am selling my 20 shares of it. My Wells Fargo stock is almost back up to the price I bought it at, which it hasn't been for a while. Its current price is $49.52. My Walgreens stock is also up! It is at $69.50 and I bought it for $66.11, I may sell that soon if it continues to go up. YUM! Brands is down at $74.64 and I bought it at $76.89. I am predicting that it will get back up to my buying price soon. Skyworks Solutions Inc. is skyrocketing. I bought 20 shares at $35.00 and it is now up to $41.14. I am hoping that it will continue to climb. If it hits $42.00 I am going to sell it.

Feline Friendly Fridays

I have done one more FFF at the Manor. I did the same thing as last time, taking Jack and Jill in for roughly an hour. Everyone loved it and the cats seemed to lift their moods. There were more people involved this time than before. Everyone seemed to love socializing with the cats and eachother. My project is looking like a success at the moment.

Feline Friendly Friday

Last Friday I went to the Manor again with cats. Everyone really loved it again. I was there for an hour. I brought the same two cats as before. There was about the same amount of people as before that participated.

I am going to call and schedule another Friday to go in soon. Hopefully I will go in next week.

Kutcher Speech

       I admire the fact that Ashton was as smarter than I thought, but he didn't say anything that was extremely valuable. Everything he said was things that I was told growing up by my parents. His statements were just basic common knowledge to me. I acknowledge that he is trying to be a good role model at a teen awards show. Yes, what he said is valuable, but its not something new. Media has blown this up in my opinion.

Feline Friendly Fridays

On April 11th I went to the Manner and started my project. I took two cats from the shelter that were declawed and older. They well behaved and tolerant of all of the new people. When we got to the manner no one was really there at first, then people started showing up. At first the cats were shy, but then they started sitting in people's laps, and socializing. It seemed to make the older people happy and the cats. I was there for an hour, then, when it was time to leave, they were all asking when I would come back. So far I think my project is successful. The next FFF is this Friday, April 25th.

End of March Feline Friendly Fridays.

This month I did not accomplish as much as I hoped I would. I did, however, get some things done for Feline Friendly Fridays. I made my survey that I will be giving to the participants to measure the effectiveness of my project. I also finished setting up the project with the Manner and the shelter. We will be starting Friday the 11th of April. I will post the survey on here later. 

Stock Journal

         I have 40 shares of Wells Fargo stock, WFC. I bought it yesterday at $49.65. Today it is up to $49.93. WFC stock has been continually going up since 2011. My dad, who is the president of the Powell branch of Big Horn Federal and a stock specialist, told me that WFC is going to either keep going up by how it has been doing, or it will split. He thinks that it may split soon because they have not had a split since 2006, and their stock is high right now so they are likely to split soon. WFC also decided recently that they are going to raise their dividend 16% in the next quarter. I expect WFC to hit $53.00 by the end of semester.

        I also bought YUM! Brands stock. YUM is a growing company in competition with Starbucks and Dunkin' Brands Inc. It's current stock price is $76.31. I bought 15 shares of it at $76.69. By the pattern from the chart on its prices it should be going up. I expect it to hit $79.00  by the end of the semester. 

Black Jack

"21" vs. investing
       After listening to Mr. Kapptie talk today, I realized that I made a big mistake yesterday while playing Black Jack. I didn't let the odds work in my favor. I didn't always bet the same, sometimes I bet low, and sometimes high. It was a very random way of doing things. This applies to the market because when investing, the odds should always be in your favor. You can not just go in and by a stock and know nothing about the market or that stock. That will make the odds work against you. Yes, there had to be risk in the stock market to make a large gain, but not without knowing what your odds are.

Letter to me.

Dear Me,

     Within the next couple years you will be entering the work force in your chosen career path. After spending 3-4 years in college, hopefully you will have your Associates in business and culinary. Since your ultimate goal is opening a bakery, you will need three very important skills. The first skill will be working hard. Opening a bakery will be hard, but keeping it open and successful will be even harder. No matter what, you have to work as hard as possible to make sure that you are completely successful. The other skill that you will need is money smarts. Running a bakery will cost a lot of money. If I spend my money right and make sure that I do everything as far as my economic standing right I will be able to keep my bakery. I will have to bring in a lot of revenue to keep my bakery. The last skill I will need is leadership skills. To be a good employer and to make it in the food industry I have to have good leadership skills. So, future me, be hardworking, smart with your money, and a good leader. 

Love,

Bianca

Daylight Savings

     Daylight Savings should no longer be observed in the modern world. There is a lot of evidence that proves that it is not only ineffective for its original purpose, but harmful. The complexity, economic effects, and effects on health are all reasons that daylight savings isn't beneficial. Day lights savings is far too complex. The rules and dates have to be changed in it and makes everyone on farther apart time zones. Also, it makes African, Asian, Hawaiian, and Arizonan time zones more confusing so they don't follow it. The economic effects of DST is also a huge problem. The USA lost about $434,000,000 in 2010 because of cyber loafing and medical bills from the health effects from DST. That leads to the third reason that DST is not beneficial, health effects. Sleep deprivation, heart attacks, and increases in suicide rates are all negative health effects from DST. This is why I don't think that DST is effective or beneficial in the modern time. 

Day Two of Feline Friendly Fridays!

I didn't achieve a ton during February because I was usually gone at Speech and Debate tournaments. I did, however, research, and contact the Rocky Mountain Manner. I set up an appointment with the activities director there next Tuesday. She was very excited about the project. I tried to get ahold of the shelter, but they aren't open until 3:30. I am going to call after school.

I struggled with a couple of things this month. I didn't blog enough, only twice. I struggled finding information that had to do with cat-human interaction. I also didn't work enough on the project. I really wish I would have had it already going.

I have high hopes for this month with my project. I am going to my appointment at the Manner next week, so I will have everything figured out on that end of things. I am going to talk to the shelter ASAP, and see if I can get an appointment or something figured out on that end. I also am going to do lots of research and get everything compiled as far as a complete mission statement, a questionnaire for the participants, posters to put up in the Manner to advertise, and a packet of information on human-animal interaction. My biggest goal is to start Feline Friendly Fridays by the middle of the month.

My next post will be my complete Goals and Planning entry.

Day One of the Feline Friend Fridays project!

Research:
Benefits of animal-human contact in elderly
           -Bo is one of a growing number of "therapy dogs" visiting people in hospitals, nursing homes, mental health centers, and shelters, where they do everything from lift spirits to assist with physical therapy. Elderly patients tend to have fewer relatives and visitors, and are particularly charmed by Bo. While they may be too sick for lengthy visits, some are so happy to see him that it brings them to tears. Sturm said, "You'll hear them say, 'He likes me. He's my friend.'"  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0808_020808_therapydogs.html
         -http://www.pawssf.org/document.doc?id=15


Project: Feline Friend Fridays
My 20% project for this semester will benefit abandoned cats in the animal shelter and the elderly of our community. The plan for the project is to bring cats into the Rocky Mountain Manner or the Powell Valley nursing home every other Friday. Hopefully there will always be a designated area for this activity to take place, so that people know to stay away from that certain area or room if they are allergic to cats. The idea of the project is that the elderly will show an improvement, even if slight, in mental or physical health. The idea for the cats is that the increase in human contact will help them be lovable and perfect for a home in the future.

Minimum Wage

       I am against raising minimum wage to $9.00 in the United States. I negate the idea because of two simple reasons, small businesses and unemployment. A raise in minimum wage will cause even more of a determent to these two important topics.
      In America there are 23 million small businesses according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Raising minimum wage will put more economic strain on the American small business. "The timing for increasing labor costs is poor right now, particularly when so many small businesses are still struggling to recover, says Molly Brogan, spokeswoman for the National Small Business Association, which opposes the proposed legislation. “We’re particularly wary in a difficult economy. When you’re faced with 10 employees in a low-profit business such as a hardware store, what you’ll have to do is put your money into increasing wages and any new hiring will be suppressed,” she says." From Bloomberg Businessweek. The increase in pay would be too much of a cross to bear for these businesses. It will increase the payroll which in turn would cause lay offs, full time employees being reduces to part time employees, and even may cause the failure of a business completely. "Research published in the Southern Economic Journal from economists at Cornell and American Universities have estimated that a minimum wage hike proposed by the President “would eliminate at least 467,000 jobs,” the EPI notes. “The study also found that the higher minimum wage would not reduce poverty, as a majority of beneficiaries live in households with incomes about the poverty level.”" According to FOX news. 

       The unemployment rate in America is currently 7.3%. Raising minimum wage would make this percentage spike. Layoffs, cut backs in hours, and closing of businesses will cause loss of jobs and hours. This would also effect employees because of loss of benefits that employers may no longer be able to afford for them. 



http://www.minimum-wage.us/176/my-employer-is-mis-classifying-me-in-order-to-pay-me-lower-wages/
http://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/2013/02/13/higher-minimum-wage-higher-unemployment/

Super Bowl

I don't care who wins because I don't like either of the teams.