Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 35

Chapter 35 Sculptures Sunset cast a warm orange across the great Pyramid, while below, the Emperor enjoyed a cappuccino on a concrete bench and Bummer and Lazarus battled for the remains of a three-pound porterhouse. â€Å"Men, would that I could let you, like Cincinnatus, retire like gentlemen soldiers to the country, but the City is still in need. The fiend is vanquished, but not the despair of my people. Our responsibility is legion.† A family of tourists passed the Emperor, hurrying to get to the cable-car stop at California Street before dark, and the Emperor tipped his cup in salute. The father, a balding fat man in an Alcatraz sweatshirt, took the Emperor's gesture as a request for spare change and said, â€Å"Why don't you get a job?† The Emperor smiled. â€Å"Good sir, I have a job. I am Emperor of San Francisco and Protector of Mexico.† The tourist scrunched his face in disgust. â€Å"Look at you. Look at your clothes. You stink. You need a bath. You're nothing but a bum.† The Emperor looked down at the fraying cuffs of his dirty wool overcoat, his rib-worn gray corduroys, stained with splatters of vampire blood, the holes in his filthy sneakers. He raised an arm and took a sniff, then hung his head. The tourists walked away. Cavuto and Rivera sat in leather wingback chairs in front of the fireplace in Cavuto's Cow Hollow apartment. The fireplace was burning, the fire crackling and dancing as it fought off the damp chill of the bay. The room was furnished with rugged oak antiques, the bookshelves filled with detective novels, the walls hung with guns and posters from Bogart movies. Rivera drank cognac; Cavuto, Scotch. On the coffee table between them stood a three-foot-high bronze statue of a ballerina. â€Å"So what do we do with it?† Cavuto asked. â€Å"It's probably stolen.† â€Å"Maybe not,† Rivera said. â€Å"He might have bought it from Degas himself.† â€Å"The black kid says it's worth millions. You think he's right?† Rivera lit a cigarette. â€Å"If it's authentic, yeah. So what do we do with it?† â€Å"I've only got a couple of years before I retire. I've always wanted to own a rare-book shop.† Rivera smiled at the thought. â€Å"The wife wants to see Europe. I wouldn't mind having a little business of my own. Maybe learn to play golf.† â€Å"We could turn it in and just finish our time. They're going to move us out of homicide after this, you know that? We're too old for narcotics. Probably vice – night after night of screaming hookers.† Rivera sighed. â€Å"I'll miss homicide.† â€Å"Yeah, it was quiet.† â€Å"I've always wanted to learn about rare books,† Rivera said. â€Å"No golf,† Cavuto said. â€Å"Golf is for pussies.† Tommy moved the futon so he could sit facing the two statues, then sat down to admire his handiwork. He'd worked all day in the foundry below, covering Jody and the vampire with the thin coat of conductive paint and putting them into the bronzing vats. The two biker sculptors had been more than happy to help, especialy when Tommy pulled a handful of cash out of the grocery bag that the Emperor had delivered. The statues looked very lifelike. They should, they were still alive under the bronze coating, except for Zelda, who stood next to the two vampires. Tommy had put Jody in a leotard before he applied the paint. He'd dressed the vampire in a pair of his own jockey shorts. It was amazing how fast the vampire had healed after drinking Jody's blood. The worst part had been waiting – waiting outside the bedroom where Jody had carried the vampire, waiting for them to go out at sunrise, listening to the soft murmur of their voices. What had they been talking about? Overall, the vampire looked pretty good. Almost all the damage to his body had healed by morning. Jody, even bronzed, looked beautiful. The finishing touch had been to drill ear holes through the thick bronze coating so he could talk to her. â€Å"Jody, I know that you're probably really, really mad. I don't blame you. But I didn't have a choice. It's not forever, it's just until I can figure out what to do. I didn't want to lose you. I know you wanted to just go away and I think you would have, but he wouldn't have. He would never have let me live.† Tommy waited, as if he would get some response from the statue. He picked up the grocery bag of money from the floor and held it up. â€Å"By the way, we're rich! Cool, huh? I'll never make fun of Lash for studying business again. In less than a day he fenced the art from the yacht and got us ten cents on the dollar. Our cut's over a hundred thousand. The guys flew to Vegas. We tried to give a share to the Emperor, but he would only take enough to buy a meal for Bummer and Lazarus. He said that money would distract him from his responsibilities. Great, huh?† He dropped the money and sighed. â€Å"Those two cops believed you. They're going to leave us alone. They reported that the killer was on board the yacht when it went up. Lash gave the gate guard some money to back up their story. I couldn't believe they were going along with it. I think the big cop kind of likes me. â€Å"I'm going to write a book about this. I came here to find adventure and being with you sure has been that. And I don't want to give it up. I know we're not the same. And we shouldn't feel lonely when we have each other. I love you. I'm going to figure I something out. I've got to sleep now. It's been days.† He got up and went to Jody. â€Å"I'm sorry,† he said. He kissed the cold bronze lips and was turning to go into the bedroom when the phone rang. â€Å"It's probably the Animals calling from some casino,† he said as he picked up the phone. â€Å"Hello.† â€Å"Uh, hi,† a man's voice said. â€Å"Could I speak to Jody, please?† Tommy pulled the phone away and looked at it, then put it to his ear and said, â€Å"Jody's†¦ well†¦ she's deceased.† â€Å"I know. Can I speak to her?† â€Å"You sick fuck.† â€Å"Is this C. Thomas Flood? The guy from the paper?† Who was this guy? â€Å"Look, buddy, that was a mistake. They got the guy who did those murders.† â€Å"Look, my name is Steve. I can't tell you my last name. Not until I'm sure it's safe. I'm a med student at Berkeley. I spoke to Jody the other night. We were supposed to meet the other night at Enrico's, but she never showed up. I'm kind of glad, I met a nice girl who works at the Safeway with you. Anyway, when I saw Jody's name in the paper I took a chance and looked up the number.† â€Å"If you saw the paper, you know what happened to Jody,† Tommy said. â€Å"This isn't very funny.† The line was silent for a moment, then Steve said, â€Å"Do you know what she is?† Tommy was shocked. â€Å"Do you?† â€Å"So you do know?† â€Å"She is, I mean was, my girlfriend.† â€Å"Look, I'm not trying to blackmail you or anything. I don't want to turn you in. I talked to Jody about reversing her condition. Well, I think I've found a way to do it.† â€Å"You're kidding.† â€Å"No. Tell her. I'll call you back tomorrow night. I know she's not up during the day.† â€Å"Wait,† Tommy said. â€Å"Are you serious about this? I mean, you can make her human again?† â€Å"I think so. It will probably take a few months. But I've been able to do it with cloned cells in the lab.† Tommy covered the mouthpiece and turned to the statue of Jody. â€Å"There's a guy here that says he can help you. We can be†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Vapor was streaming out of the ear holes in the brass and swirling into a cloud in the middle of the room. Tommy dropped the phone and backed away from the cloud. He could hear Steve's voice calling for him on the phone. Tommy backed against the counter in the kitchen. â€Å"Jody, is that you?† The cloud was pulsating, sending out tendrils, or were they limbs? It was as if it was condensing into a solid shape. Jody thought, Oh Tommy, you can't believe what I learned last night. You're going to have the adventure of your life, lover. And it's going to be such a long life. The things you'll see – I can't wait to show them to you. She became solid, stood before him, naked, smiling. Tommy held the phone to his chest. â€Å"You're pissed, aren't you?† â€Å"I was never going to leave you, Tommy. I love you.† â€Å"But what about him?† Tommy pointed to the bronzed vampire. â€Å"I had to make him think that I was going to go with him so I could find out what I needed to know. I've learned a lot, Tommy. I'm going to teach you.† She started moving toward him. â€Å"He taught you the mist thing, huh?† â€Å"That, and how a vampire is made.† â€Å"No kidding. That could come in handy.† â€Å"And soon,† she said. She looked back at the old vampire. â€Å"The bronzing was a pretty good trick. I didn't exactly know what I was going to do with him after I found out what I needed to know. Maybe later we can figure out a way to let him out and still be safe.† â€Å"So, you're not mad? You're really not leaving?† â€Å"No. I thought I would have to leave, but I never wanted to. You and I are going to be together for a very long time.† Tommy smiled. â€Å"Great, this guy on the phone says†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Hang up, Tommy. And come here.† â€Å"But he says†¦ he can change you back.† â€Å"Hang up.† She took the phone from him and set it down on the counter, then moved into his arms and kissed him.

Olympic rent-a-car company Essay

SUMMARY Olympic is a US rent-a-car company facing some changes in the market it operates. A competitor company (Enterprise) is changing its loyalty program. Olympic managers have to evaluate the impact of those changes and to take actions in order to respond correctly to those changes without losing market share and if possible taking advantage of the situation. The aim of this study is to evaluate those changes and to propose a recommendation to respond to these market changes. MARKET SUMMARY The car renting industry in US is a $24 billion industry dominated by 4 big players, Enterprise, Hertz, AVIS and Olympic with the following market revenue shares: Enterprise is the dominant player with 50% share ($12 billion) followed by Hertz with 24%, AVIS with 14%, Olympic with 7% and the other 5% are shared by smaller players. This business is heavily dependent of the overall state of the economy and since the global crisis of 2008 were there was a 6,5% break in total revenues, the revenues are recovering since 2009 growing between 2 and 3% every year. This revenue growth is due to the growth of prices rather to the growth in the number of clients. There are 2 big markets for the rent-a-car business, the Airport rentals and the Local rentals. The airport rentals contribute with 50% of the total revenue ($12 billion) and are divided into leisure and business clients. Costs are higher due to fees paid to the airports that consist in 10% of the revenue plus the fixed fees for counters. The local renting contributes with the other 50% ($12 billion) and the main clients are insurance companies. The counters are located at car dealerships and repair shops. Enterprise and Hertz are the main players in this market and Enterprise has more than 50% share. This industry is heavily influenced by the adaptation of the car fleet to demand and between 2008 and 2012 in response to the global crisis the total number of rent-a-car cars was diminished by 0,5%. CUSTOMER ANALYSIS In 2012, 27% of US adults (proximately 59.400.000 people) rented a car and the main renters were the business travelers. In 2012 airport market, 20% of the travelers were business travelers and gave origin to 80% of the revenue and the other 80% of travelers were leisure travelers and represent 20% of the revenues. Usually business travellers pay more than leisure travellers. This is mainly because leisure travelers pay smaller per day charges as they travel in lower revenue days, do preplanned trips and to loyalty program redemptions. Business travelers tend to earn points in business travelling and to spend those points in leisure travelling. Across this industry, Rent-A-Car companies tend to use loyalty programs to develop relationship between costumers. Each company has it’s own program but they are all very similar. The customer earns points depending of the number of days they rent the car and they also receive free upgrades. The earned points can be claimed and exchanged for rental days. In 2013 Enterprise changed the way their customers gain the loyalty program points. Customers that received points based in the number of days of usage now receive points based on the money they spend. This means that they earn more points faster. Usually clients don’t have any kind of restriction to participate in loyalty programs. Anyone that rents a car can be a member depending on the number of days they rent, as consequence people are members of several loyalty programs as they rent in different companies. The rental loyalty programs are not really differentiating rental companies they are a perk for customers. In 2012 10% of Olympic customers were members of Olympic medalist program and these customers provided 21% of the revenues. They paid for 3.996.000 days and claimed 375.000 free days. This means $323.400.000 of revenue come from members of Olympic medalist program, to this revenue we have to subtract the fixed costs, the free days cost and the program advertising costs ($28.000.000). The fixed cost is 20% of $21 ($4,2) multiplied by the total rental days and equal $1.575.000 and the free days cost is equal to $7.629.552. This gives an economic value of $233 per Olympic medalist program customer. The regular customers represent 79% of revenues that translate into $1.216.600.000. The total rental days for these customers are 24.681.000 and these days represent a cost of $103.660.200 (24.681.000 x $4,2). There are also the advertising costs of ($108.000.000 – $28.000.000 = $80.000.000). Subtracting to $1.216.600.000 the variable costs and the advertising costs we end with $1.032.939.800. Dividing this value by the total number of regular customers (11.052.000) the economic value of the regular customer is obtained and equals to $93. The conclusion is that loyalty program clients  still have a big economic influence in the revenue structure. COMPANY ANALYSIS Olympic is one of the four biggest rent-a-car companies in the US with a share of 7% of revenues witch is the smallest share of this group. The company as chosen to be a follower and has always priced lower than Hertz. It has 464 rental locations and a fleet of 108000 cars that remain in the company for 8 to 18 months. The income per car is slightly below de industry average and the reason for this maybe the dominance of airport counters that bring more costs to the company than a local counter. Olympic has seen an improvement on its revenues for the last 4 years and in table 1 we can see an increase of the net profit from a loss of $15 million in 2008 to a profit of $32 million in 2012. The main reason for these results is the company flexibility to adapt its car fleet to demand (table 2) as well as the adaptation of the number of counters the company has (table 3). RECOMMENDATION The recommendation is that Olympic rent-a-car doesn’t follow the Enterprise strategy. About 1,45% of the total rental days of 2012 involved free days and a free day reward costs about $21 to cover the fixed costs and the payment to the franchisee. Of the 108000 cars fleet each car was rented about 232 days per year. With this data we can calculate the total rental days. Total rental days are equal to 108.000 x 232; this means 25.056.000 rental days per year.  The 1,45% of the total rental days give us the total free days per year in 2012 this percentage represents 363.312 free days that multiplied by the cost of a free day ($21) will give us the cost of all the free days in 2012. The total cost for the free days is equal to $7.629.552. If Olympic decides to match the Enterprise offer, the number of free days will increase to a value between 1,65% and 1,95% of total rental days this means a number of free days between 413424 and 488592 and an increase of free days per year between 50.112 and 125.280 days, this means an increase in cost of the programs free days of $1.052.352 to $2.630.880 (1 million to 2,5 millions increase of free days cost per year). Considering that the demand will not increase a lot this means a net decrease of 3 to 8% of total profits. This decrease is significant for a company that has a small operating margin of 15,8%. The way Olympic responds to the enterprise initiative will be decisive in the profitability of the company. Matching the enterprise offer will lead to an increase in the costs and no increase in market share is guaranteed. Since no great increase in demand is predicted, following the Enterprise strategy would simply represent a 3 to 8% reduction in profits, Olympic cannot afford this reduction due to the narrow operating margin. Beside this, the fleet of Olympic rent-a-car is very well adapted to de demand and implementing no blackout days would probably let some Olympic medalist clients unsatisfied. Enterprise has a huge fleet and available cars this means that it can afford not having blackout days. The increasing usage of the Internet to compare prices and to book services will diminish the loyalty programs importance and effectiveness. Third party consolidators the online price comparisons and bookings bring a greater relevance to prices the rent-a-car companies practice. This will affect the companies’ loyalty programs effectiveness. By focusing on price, customers will chose a rent-a-car company by the price of the service taking to a second plan the loyalty programs benefits. This means that Olympic should focus on global cost reduction in order to keep lowering the prices and therefore gain advantage over the competitors. In the future the company  that has the lower prices will dominate the market. One other market tendency is the reduction of business travelling and the growth of internet based communications. This means that in future rent-a-car companies will have less business travellers, at this moment these clients are the heavy users of loyalty programs, and the leisure clients will gain weight on the revenue share. Olympic should maintain their loyalty program essentially due to the economic value of the loyalty programs customers ($233) much greater them the regular clients ($93) and improve the program by offering other kind of benefits that could improve the market penetration of the program. Some of these benefits could be faster pick up and drop off time for the program customers. Along the way the company could evaluate their loyalty program customers economic value and adapt to the expected decrease of loyalty program importance by reducing free rental days and using the savings of this reduction on rental price reduction. Since loyalty programs don’t benefit business companies Olympic offer the chance to this kind of customer to choose between the loyalty program benefits or a decrease in price. This should attract more large companies business maintaining the small and individual share. To reduce the cost structure Olympic should also try to gain market in the local business dominated by Enterprise and Hertz, this would help to avoid the large costs associated to the operation in airports. This way Olympic could gain market share of a market dominated by 2 companies, maintain their business market share threatened by the teleconferencing trends (shift to insurance) and to improve the global cost structure by taking advantage of the lower costs associated to this kind of counters.

Impact of Christianity on Philosophy Essay

Introduction Christianity’s doctrines and tenets draw from a rich heritage of long historical development. And since it is a religion shaped by history, it follows only that its teachings are influenced by the prevailing philosophies within it. But there are also good reasons to think that, conversely, Christianity is a religion that did not only draw from existing philosophies in history but also generated a significant impact on them. Three reasons may be cited to support this contention. First, philosophy was made popular by the rise of Christianity; second, key Christian thinkers have endeavored to incorporate philosophy within their belief-systems; and third, many of their teachings are actually philosophical issues Christianized in the process. Christianity and Philosophy   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   First, the rise of Christianity seems to be a factor responsible for the great interest many people have shown towards philosophy during the ancient times. It must be noted that even before Christianity as a religious movement was to be commenced (following the death of Jesus, and the rapid conversion to a belief in him), prevailing philosophies such as Epicureanism, Neo-Platonism, Stoicism, and Skepticism were already in place (Moore & Bruder, 2005, p. 77). But since the Romans – the political power of that time – showed little or no interest to these philosophies, they remained largely an undercurrent phenomenon. In many ways, the rise of Christianity paved the way for such philosophies to become widespread, as they are (specifically, Neo-Platonism and Aristotleanism) employed in many â€Å"religious ideas and practices† (p. 78).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Second, key thinkers such as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas also contributed a lot in employing philosophy as a way to explicate Christian beliefs. With Augustine, â€Å"Christianity became so permanently interwoven with elements of Platonic thought† (Moore & Bruder, 2005, 79). Augustine’s theology was chiefly concerned with arguing truths about the eternality of Christian God and the capacity of the mind to grasp the eternal truths; and these teachings are importations of the Platonic metaphysics and cosmology. Aquinas meanwhile was responsible conceiving the â€Å"underlying accord between Christian principles and Aristotle’s philosophy† from the ashes of the dark ages (p. 88). As with Plato, Aquinas’ teachings about God, nature and existence, knowledge and the world conveniently employed the methods used by philosophy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Third, many teachings forwarded by key Christian thinkers are actually philosophies which underwent a process of Christian adaptation. In other words, the manner by which these thinkers employed philosophy in explicating their theologies â€Å"in effect† may be regarded as a process of â€Å"grafting the principles and distinction† of Greek philosophy to â€Å"Christian revealed truth† (p. 88) The doctrine of the human soul and the Trinity are glaring examples to this. If only to argue, the Christian teaching that human persons have both body and souls is very reminiscent of the Platonic dualistic cosmology, i.e., that reality is composed of matter and form. The doctrine of the Trinity meanwhile is heavily employing the concepts of universals – a teaching that enables one to infer the conceptual similarities defining of two otherwise distinct entities. The result of this adaptation process is very significant to philosophy. What this process achieved was to ultimately create a â€Å"complete Christian philosophy† (p. 89). Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This paper concludes that indeed, Christianity is a religious movement that had a significant impact in the development of philosophy. While there are many reasons that could be cited to substantiate such a claim, three factors were deemed to be of paramount importance: namely, the rapid rise of Christianity during the ancient era, the use of prevailing philosophies to explain Christian tenets by key Christian thinkers, and the creation of a complete Christian philosophy which capitalized on adapting philosophical issues within the context of Christianity. Work Cited Moore, B. & Bruder, K. (2005). Philosophy: The Power of Ideas with PowerWeb. Sixth Edition.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   New York, Mc-Graw Hill

Customer service problem solving and alcohol management Essay

Customer service problem solving and alcohol management - Essay Example In this context, it is significant to develop a cohesive and strong staff. We train the employees in reference to the ways that we feel best for them to deal with the customers. Despite the fact that we realize that the staff has some prior experience before coming to work for us, we prefer to give them additional training so as to bring them up to par with the standards of restaurant management. We equip the staffs with the necessary information and skills that are critical in their line of work in the restaurant (Pattie 89). We are aware that customers are of different characteristics. In this sense, it is important to prepare for instances where one has to deal with customers of all types. There are customers who are stubborn while others are angry and in some cases there are violent ones. These are some of the worst customers that one has to deal with, but there are others who are sick or injured and these are calmer ones. Therefore, we also train the staff so as to aid them in dealing with these people. We advise the staff to make sure that they pay keen attention to the concerns of the customers and this means listening to the customers. Listening is an important step in the quest to find a resolution to the problems that affect the customers. We advise the staff that it is imperative to listen to the customers in order to understand their problem. After establishing the problem, it is also important to acknowledge the severity or fatality of the matter. Thus, the most applicable negotiating skills are listening and acknowledging the root of the problem (Pattie 127). The restaurant has several facilities that offer spots for relaxation for the clients. There is a bar that is fully stocked with all brands of alcohol ranging from wines, whiskey, vodka, gins among others. The bar is mostly for the middle age individuals who are looking for a place to relax as they