Sunshine Chapter 17 Free Essays

I nodded. â€Å"I know they’re the good guys and everything, but†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I know. Once I found out they were watching me I changed the way I do some stuff. We will write a custom essay sample on Sunshine Chapter 17 or any similar topic only for you Order Now They are good guys and I do work for them and I don’t mind – much. But it’s all a little nomad for me. And I still have this silly idea that my life belongs to me.† There were good reasons Aimil and I were friends. I went home that night and stood on the balcony again and said to the darkness, â€Å"Con, Constantine, are you all right? If you need me, call me to you.† For a moment I felt†¦something. Like a twitch against your line when you’re half asleep or thinking about something else. It may be a fish and it may be the current†¦but it may be a fish. (I’d learned to fish because Mel taught me, not because I longed to impale small invertebrates on barbed hooks and rip hell out of piscine oral cavities and smother fellow oxygen breathers in an alien medium.) The flicker itself made me think I was half asleep or thinking about something else, because I was straining after any sign whatsoever. And it was gone again at once. Thursday afternoon wasn’t flash ideal but I managed. Paulie was a little too not-sorry to change his single weekly four-thirty-in-the-morning shift for another afternoon that Thursday, and he hadn’t made up the one he’d missed our last thirteen-day week yet either. I’d worry about just how not-sorry he was later. Meanwhile I got up at three a.m. to do a little extra baking like I had a point to make. As I drank the necessary pint-mug of blacker-than-the-pit-of-doom tea to get me going I stood on the balcony again, testing for quivers in the current. All I got was a stronger sense that there was something wrong; but I was good at feeling there was something wrong even when there wasn’t – something I’d inherited from my mother – and there was nothing in this case but my own glangy unease to look at. There are advantages to driving an old wreck instead of a modern car; wrecks bounce around and jerk at your hands on the wheel and help keep you awake. The charms in the glove compartment were more restless than usual too: I think they were objecting to the driving. By the time I got off work at noon I felt it had been several years since I’d had any sleep, and I had a nap instead of lunch. I brought sandwiches in a bag, and Aimil had a pot of tea waiting for me. It was another gray day, but Aimil had pulled the combox table around so that the chair backed up against the window, which she had opened. What daylight there was fell on me as I sat there, and there was a little wind that stroked my hair. â€Å"Where do you want to start?† said Aimil. â€Å"With the bingo! one from the other day, or do you want to start fresh?† I hadn’t thought about it. Good beginning. It was so hard to screw myself to do anything, the details got a bit lost†¦ Who – or what – was I looking for? Con? Or Bo? Since I was doing it alone with Aimil I wasn’t trying to make Pat and Jesse happy. So what was going to make me happy? Define happy. But if I found something on the other side of the real globe that Pat and Jesse would get all tangled up in negotiations with their local SOF equivalents over, it might get them out of my hair. Finding Bo wasn’t going to make me happy, but I didn’t want to look for Con with anyone else around, even Aimil. Which left Bo or the Unknown. The Unknown, at the moment, was unknown. Bo, on the other hand, was after me. Bo, then. â€Å"Let’s start with bingo.† Aimil brought up the file, highlighted the cosmail I wanted, and stepped back. I squinted at the screen. I could see the winking bar of highlighting, and the button was under my finger. I pressed. It was like hands around my throat, a crushing, splintering weight on my breast; there was also a horrible, horrible pressure against my eyes, my poor dark-dazzled eyes†¦I was lost in the dark, I no longer knew which way was up and which down, I was vertiginous, I was going to be sick†¦ No. I steadied myself. I found an†¦alignment. Somewhere. Somewhere, reaching in the dark†¦I was†¦no, I wasn’t standing. There didn’t seem to be anything to stand on, and I wasn’t sure there was any of me to stand with. If my feet had disappeared, then perhaps it wasn’t surprising that my eyes – no, my sight – had disappeared too. This wasn’t just darkness: this was what came after. This was the beyond-dark. And I could only see in the dark. My eyes were still there – or perhaps they were now my non-eyes – I couldn’t see with them and blinking no longer seemed relevant, but the pressure was there. And why was it so difficult to breathe? Especially since at the same time breathing seemed as irrelevant as blinking. Why did I want to breathe? Where was I? I was – stretched – along some intangible line; a compass needle. Compass needles don’t mind the dark. Although I doubted I was pointing toward anything like a north that I’d recognize back in the real world. Maybe I’d found where Aimil’s cosmail had come from. But where was here? And was there some clue I could take back with me to the world I knew? If I could get back there. I experimented with moving. Moving didn’t seem to be an option. I was too much like nothing, here, in this nonplace, in the beyond-dark. Right, okay, next time I come I’ll organize my question better going in†¦ Next time, presupposing I get out of this time alive. I was grateful for the pressure against my eyes, the difficulty breathing; it made me feel I still existed†¦somehow. Somewhere. I was a magic handler, a stuff changer, a Blaise by blood, and lately, by practice. Not much practice but growing all the time. I remembered another sense of alignment, when I had changed my little knife to a key. I reached for that sense. No, I reached for my knife. It shouldn’t have been there, and I had no fingers to feel for it, but I was suddenly aware of it. I couldn’t see it, but I knew that it was a light even in this darkness. And by its invisible light I could†¦see. See. Feel. Hear. Smell. Live†¦ I heard a rustle, like leaves in a breeze. And for a moment I stood on four slender furred legs and I could feel and hear and smell as no human could. And then I was back again, sitting in Aimil’s living room, and her hand was reaching through my powerless fingers and pressing the button. The screen went dark. â€Å"That was not good,† she said. â€Å"What – happened?† I was amazed at the sense of my body sitting in the chair, of gravity, of sight (light; twinkly shadows), of fingers on a keyboard, feet against a floor. Vampire senses are different from human in a number of ways. Had I – ? What had I – ? The leaves laid sun-dapples on my brown back as I stood at the edge of the woods with the golden field before me. I raised my black nose to the wind, cupped my big ears forward and back to listen. Yeek. My human fingers closed on my knife. I was still in Aimil’s living room. â€Å"You were gone,† said Aimil. â€Å"Not long – ten seconds or so – just long enough for me to take two steps and reach for the button. But your body didn’t have you in it.† She sat down, suddenly, on the floor. â€Å"Do you know where you went?† She bowed her head between her knees, and then tipped her face back and looked up at me. â€Å"Do you know?† I shook my head. Experimenting with motion. I remembered the void, the alignment, the other senses – my little knife. My tree. My†¦doe. I wondered, when she had accepted the death she knew she could not escape, if she knew what her death was for, if that could have made any difference, if that was why she†¦I touched the knife-bulge in my pocket. It felt no different than it ever had. We sat in daylight; if I took it out it would look like any other pocketknife. The second blade, which I rarely used, would be covered with pocket lint; the first blade, which I used all the time, would need sharpening. Folded up it was about the length of my middle finger, and a little wider and deeper; it was scraped and gouged by years in a series of pockets, sharing cramped quarters with things like loose change and car keys. And it glowed in the dark, even in the beyond-dark of the void. Glowed like a beacon that said, â€Å"Hold on. I’ve got you. Here.† I felt – carefully – after my experience of nowhere, of beyond-dark. Had I brought anything back after all, anything I could use? Yes. But I didn’t know what it was. It wasn’t anything so straightforward as a direction. â€Å"Not caffeine after that,† said Aimil, still on the floor. â€Å"Scotch.† She got up on all fours and reached to the little cabinet next to her sofa. â€Å"And don’t even ask me if you want to try again, because the answer is no.† I looked at her when she gave me a small heavy glass with a finger’s width of dark amber liquid in it, about the color of the thin wooden plates set into the sides of my little knife. â€Å"We won’t try it again today,† I said. â€Å"But we have to try again.† â€Å"No, we don’t,† she said. â€Å"Let SOF figure it out. It’s what they’re for.† â€Å"If they could figure it out they wouldn’t be asking us.† â€Å"The Wars are over,† she said. â€Å"Not exactly,† I said, after a pause. â€Å"Didn’t Pat tell you – â€Å" â€Å"Yes, he told me we’ll all be under the dark in a hundred years!† she said angrily. â€Å"I know!† I slid down to join her on the floor. I felt like a collection of old creaking hinges. I leaned over and put an arm around her. â€Å"I don’t want to know either.† After a moment she said, â€Å"There have been two more dry guys in Old Town this last week. Have you heard about them?† â€Å"Yes.† It had been on the news a few days ago – great stuff to hear when you’re driving alone in the dark – and Charlie and Liz had been talking about it when I brought the first tray of cinnamon rolls out front. They had fallen silent. I pretended I hadn’t heard anything and toppled the first burning-hot roll onto a plate for Mrs. Bialosky. She patted my hand and said, â€Å"Don’t you worry, sweetie, it’s not your fault.† Because she was Mrs. Bialosky I almost believed her, but I made the mistake of looking up, into her face, when I smiled at her, and saw the expression in her eyes. Oh. I almost patted her hand back and told her it wasn’t her fault either, but it wouldn’t have done any good. I guess I wasn’t surprised to find out that Mrs. Bialosky wasn’t only about litter and rats and flower beds. â€Å"I wouldn’t have joined SOF just because Pat can turn blue † Aimil said. â€Å"Working in a proofglassed room gives me asthma. Even part-time. Or maybe it’s just all the guys in khaki.† I went back to Charlie’s for the dinner shift, but Charlie took one look at me and said, â€Å"I’ll find someone to cover for you. Go home.† â€Å"I’ll go when you find someone,† I said, and lasted two hours, by which time poor Paulie had agreed to give up the rest of his night off after being there all afternoon. Teach him to be glad to escape the four-thirty-in-the-morning shift. I was home by eight-thirty; it was just full dark. Charlie had sent me home with a bottle of champagne that had a glass and a half left in it: perfect. I stood on my balcony and drank it and looked into the darkness. The darkness danced. I had had an idea. I didn’t like it much, but I had to try it. I went back indoors and unplugged my combox. It’s never quite dark under the sky, and I didn’t have curtains for the balcony windows. I tucked the box under my arm, ducked into my closet, and closed the door. This was real darkness. There wasn’t a lot of room in there, but I swept a few shoes aside and sat down. Turned the box on, listened to the resentful hum of the battery; it was an old box, and preferred to run off a wire. The screen came up and asked me if I wanted to enter the globenet. I sat there, staring at the glowing lettering. In the darkness, it didn’t flicker at all, it didn’t run away into millions of tiny skittish dwindling dimensions, like looking into a mirror with another one over your shoulder. I read it easily. I liked it even less that my idea had worked. At least I didn’t have to use a combox at Charlie’s. It would have been difficult to explain why I needed a closet. I brought the box back out of the closet and plugged it in on my desk. Not that I invited people home very often but I was touchy about looking normal even to myself now that I was behaving more like Onyx Blaise’s daughter. Your combox on a desk is much more normal than your combox in a closet. Could my dad see in the dark? Could any of my dad’s family? I couldn’t remember any of them except my gran: the rest were tall blurry shapes from my earliest childhood. Aimil was right: the Blaises had disappeared during the Wars. But I hadn’t noticed. I had been busy being my mother’s daughter. Even if I wanted to contact them I had no idea how. I could ask Pat or Jesse. Right after I told them I had a brand-new hotline to Vampire World the new horror theme park. It would blow the Ghoul Attack simulation at the Other Museum clean out of the water. It would make the Dragon Roller Coaster Ride at Monsterworld look like a merry-go-round. Just as soon as we get a few little details worked out, like how you get there. And how you get away again. Meanwhile I still hadn’t told them that I could see in the dark. Would I have told them a few days ago, if Aimil hadn’t been there? It was what I’d gone in to tell them. I went back to the balcony. I felt for an alignment. I stood at the edge of the void, but I stood in my world, on my ordinary feet, looking at ordinary darkness with my†¦not quite ordinary eyes. Constantine. Con, are you there? This time I was sure I felt that tug on the line streaming in the dark ether – a coherent pinprick of something in the incoherent nothing. But I lost it again. I was so tired I was having to prop myself against the railing to stay standing up. So I went indoors and went to bed. Meanwhile on other fronts I was adapting. I usually hit it right the first time when I reached for the spoon or the flour sack or the oven control. I hadn’t walked into a door in several days. After the vision had risen like a tide and floated me off my grounding in Oldroy Park, after I’d seen what I’d seen in Maud’s face – whether it was there or not, since I could hardly ask her – when the vision subsided and left me standing on solid earth again, some of the dizziness had subsided too. It was as if the dark was a kind of road map I’d been folding up wrong, and this time I’d got it right, and it would lie flat at last. Although road maps didn’t generally keep unfolding themselves and flapping at you saying Here! Here! Pay attention, you blanker! I thought: it is a road map of sorts. But it was about a country I didn’t know, labeled in a language I didn’t understand. And it didn’t unfold so much as erupt. I didn’t know if I’d seen what I’d seen in Mrs. Bialosky’s face either, the morning she’d told me not to worry. So, which did I like better: that my affinity was growing stronger, that it could pull me out of the human world into some dark alien space, or that I was merely going mad and/or had an inoperable brain tumor after all? Did I have a third choice? I worked pretty well straight through that day and got home in time to have a cup of tea in the garden. Yolande’s niece and her daughters had left after a two-week visit and it was none of my business but I was secretly delighted to have our garden to ourselves again. Yolande came out and joined me. I watched a few late roses do a kind of waltz with their shadows as a mild evening breeze played with them. Then I watched Yolande. I’d always liked watching her: I wished she could bottle that self-possession so I could have some. It was a little like Mel’s, I thought, only without the tattoos. I was feeling tired and mellow and was enjoying this so much it took me a while to realize something strange. The shadows lay quietly across Yolande’s face. I snapped out of being mellow and stared at her. She saw me looking and smiled. I jerked my eyes away hastily. What? How? Why? What could I ask her? Nothing. I looked at her again. The shadows on her face were quiet, but they went†¦down a long way. Like looking into the sky. What did I know about her? She had inherited this house from some distant relative who had also been childless and felt the spinsters of the world needed to stick together. She’d moved here from Cold Harbor when she retired. I didn’t recall she’d ever told me what she retired from. She had that calm strong centeredness I thought of as ex-teacher, ex-clergy, ex-healersister or midwife; I couldn’t imagine her as someone in a power suit navigating a desk with a combox screen the size of a tennis court and a swarm of hot young assistants in an outer office whose haircuts were specially designed to look chic wearing globenet headsets ten hours a day. I couldn’t ask. If she’d wanted to tell me it would have come up long ago. It probably had nothing to do with what she’d done for a living anyway. It was probably like having freckles or curly hair or transmuting ability: you’re born with it. But things like transmuting ability tend to lead to other choices†¦Ã¢â‚¬ I don’t think you’ve ever told me what you retired from,† I blurted out. â€Å"I was a wardskeeper,† she said easily, as if she was commenting on the pleasantness of the evening, as if my question wasn’t entirely rude. Wardskeeper. I wanted to laugh. No wonder her house wards were so good. You didn’t earn that title easily. There were hundreds of licensed wardcrafters, first, second, and third class, for every wardskeeper. The rank of wardskeeper granted an unrestricted authority to design and create any protection against any Others that any client wished to hire you for. Even wardskeepers had specialties: large business, small business, home, personal bodyguard, and the whole murky business of watchering, which ranged from honest protective surveillance to downright spying. But you didn’t get your wardskeeper insignia unless you could make a more than competent stab at all of it. Wardskeeper. She must then†¦her own house†¦but Con†¦I realized I’d said the first word aloud – I hoped only the first word – because she was answering me. â€Å"No, I’m not your idea of a wardskeeper, am I?† she said. â€Å"I was never anyone’s idea. But once I was established, new business came to me by word of mouth, and my prior clients usually had the good sense to warn future clients that they were going to meet a drab little old lady – I have been old and drab since my teens, by the way – who gave the impression of being hardly able to cross the road by herself.† She looked at me, smiling. â€Å"I admit that crossing the road alone has never been one of my greater gifts. Cars move much too quickly to suit me, and frequently from unexpected directions. I was always a much better maker of wards.† I couldn’t think how to ask my next question. I couldn’t even summon up the spare attention to hoot at the idea of Yolande being drab. â€Å"But then,† she went on, almost as if she was reading my mind, â€Å"people often are not what one might expect them to be. I would not expect a young, likable, sensible – and sun-worshipping – human woman who works in her family’s restaurant to have a friend who is a vampire.† Then I could say nothing at all. â€Å"My dear,† Yolande said, â€Å"I have now told you almost as much as I know about your private affairs. Yes, there are more wards about this house and garden than you are aware of, and the fact that you haven’t been aware of them is perhaps an indication to me that I have not yet lost my skill. I knew, of course, that a vampire had been visiting, but I also knew that you had not merely invited him in, but that you were under no coercion to do so. A good ward, my dear, will also prevent a forced invitation from achieving its object. And my wards are good ones. â€Å"It took no great effort of intellect to puzzle out some of what happened to you during the two days you were missing last spring, especially not with the reek of vampire on you. Sherlock Holmes – do young people still read him, I wonder? – made the famous statement that once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. This is a very useful precept for a maker of wards, and I am not, perhaps, wholly retired. Vampires, as vampires will, caused you harm; but in this case, very unusually, not terminal harm. This one particular vampire therefore can be assumed to have done you some service, and that service created some kind of bond between you. This wild theory, suggestive of someone farther into her dotage than she wishes to believe, has been lately fortified when he returned, not once, but twice. â€Å"I know that your unlikely friend is a vampire, a male vampire, and that there is only the one of him whom you invite across your threshold. This I have found very reassuring, by the way. Had there been more than one, I think my determination to assume the best rather than the worst might have failed. Although I admit I have doubled the wards around my own part of the house†¦I have nothing to indicate that he is my friend too, you understand, and the human revulsion toward vampires generally is well justified.† Yolande leaned forward to look into my face. â€Å"In the roundabout way of an old lady who perhaps spends too much of her time alone, I am offering you my support, in this impossibly difficult task you have taken on. The natural antipathy between vampires and humans means, I feel, that it is some task; I doubt either you or your friend is enjoying the situation. I don’t suppose your new SOF colleagues know about either the task or the friend, do they?† I managed to shake my head. â€Å"I am not surprised. I doubt SOF is very†¦adaptable. Lack of adaptability is the root cause of much trouble in large organizations.† I thought of Pat turning blue and smiled a little. But only a little. She was right about their attitude toward vampires. She was right about the universal human attitude toward vampires. â€Å"I had not planned to say anything to you. I had at first assumed that whatever happened four months ago was over. But the vampire taint on you remained: that wound in your breast was some vampire’s handiwork, wasn’t it?† So much for the camouflage provided by high-necked shirts. I nodded. â€Å"And then your friend came, and now there is no wound. The two events are related, are they not?† I nodded again. â€Å"That is as good a definition of friendship as I need. But†¦I will no longer call it a taint†¦the fleck, the fingerprint of the vampire is still upon you. I am afraid the metaphor that occurs to me is of the eater of arsenic. If you eat a very, very little of it, over time you can develop a limited immunity to it. I do not know why you should choose to†¦immunize yourself like this. Or why he should†¦My dear, forgive me if I have been a hopeless busybody. But your inevitable and wholly justified dismay, confusion, and preoccupation of four months ago has changed, certainly, but it has not decreased. It has increased – alarmingly so.† She paused, as if she hoped for an answer, but I could say nothing. â€Å"My dear, there is something else my wards have told me: that your nickname is more than an affectionate joke. I can believe no evil of someone who draws her strength from the light of day. If I can help you, I will.† The sense of a burden unexpectedly lifted was so profound it made me dizzy, not least that by its lifting I realized how heavy it was. I had assumed – I had known – that there was no one I would be able to tell about my unlikely friend – there was certainly no one I would have risked telling. And now Yolande had told me. There were two of us who knew. Maybe that meant the task was not impossible after all. Whatever the task was. Well, wiping Bo out would be a service to all humankind, certainly, whether Con and I survived or not. But offhand I couldn’t see how even having a wardskeeper on our side was going to be useful. Besides, I had a selfish desire to stay alive myself. Bag the future of humanity. And Con was failing to show up to help me make plans. He was the one who had told me that time was short. The new dry guys in Old Town bore something of the same message. But there was now another human who knew about Con and me – and hadn’t freaked out. I felt better even if I shouldn’t’ve. â€Å"Thank you,† I said. â€Å"Don’t thank me yet,† said Yolande. â€Å"I haven’t done anything yet, except pry into your private affairs. I would not have done so if I had felt I could risk not enquiring into them.† Well, thank the gods and the angels for nosy landladies. This nosy landlady. â€Å"Is there such a thing as a – an – antiward? Something that attracts?† I said. Yolande raised her eyebrows. How to cite Sunshine Chapter 17, Essay examples

The Mysteries Of Holden Caulfield Essay Example For Students

The Mysteries Of Holden Caulfield Essay In The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger there are many insights about Holden Caulfield revealed by symbols, which would otherwise remain unclear. School, the checkerboard, the museum, and cigarettes and alcohol are all symbolic of Holden. These symbols tell us things about Holden that he doesn’t tell us straight out. This essay will discuss many symbols in the book and what they tell us about Holden. The checkerboard is referred to a lot when Holden is thinking of his old friend Jane Gallagher. The checkerboard is symbolic of Holden’s obsessiveness with Jane. Holden is always asking people and wondering if Jane still keeps her kings in the back row. In checkers, if you keep your kings in the back row, it’s like a security. You can’t lose if you play that way. This is why Holden is so curious about Jane and if she still keeps her kings in the back row. What he really wants to know is if Jane has lost her security and let someone besides Holden in. This is why when Stradlater returns from a date with Jane, Holden repeatedly asks Stradlater, â€Å"Did you ask her if she still keeps all her kings in the back row? Holden is actually asking if Jane let down her guard and let go of her innocence to Stradlater. Holden ponders a lot about if Jane keeps her kings in the back row over the period of the book. This just shows that Holden is totally obsessed with Jane’s innocence and if she still has any innocence left. School is also a symbol that tells us about Holden. It actually tells us about what will probably happen to Holden in his life. School is a structured system with many steps that must be completed in order to pass. It is a lot like life where there are many obstacles and challenges one must overcome in order to succeed. Holden had already failed a number of schools before he failed Pencey. Holden doesn’t even care if he fails school because his parents don’t care. Holden tells people about how he failed so many schools like it’s something to be proud of. He tells us about how he failed Whooton School, Elkton Hills, and Pencey like it’s no big deal and he’s proud to talk about it. It’s obvious he even care about his future. When Mr. Spencer asked Holden, â€Å"Do you feel absolutely no concern for your future, boy†, Holden responded, â€Å"Oh, I feel some concern for my future, all right. Sure. Sure, I do. I thought about it for a minute. But not too much, I guess. Not too much, I guess. † This shows that Holden hasn’t really thought about his future and what failing school will do to it. If Holden fails school it basically means that he will fail life, which is pretty much what happens to him at the end of the book. Holden also likes to drink liquor and smoke cigarettes. He does this because he feels it makes him look older and more mature. Most of the time he smokes or drinks when he is outside so people can see him. Holden even tells us, â€Å"I must a smoked a couple packs today. † He is simply saying this to brag about how â€Å"cool† he is. The cigarettes and alcohol are of a symbol of age and maturity, but Holden tells us a few times, â€Å"I ordered a Scotch and soda†, and then says that the waiter wouldn’t bring it because Holden looked too young. This is like Holden is trying to fit in with the more mature people but they keep denying him because he is so immature and not ready to be an adult. Holden needs to stop and think about what’s going on right now instead of trying to grow up so fast. .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b , .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b .postImageUrl , .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b , .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b:hover , .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b:visited , .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b:active { border:0!important; } .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b:active , .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uae4e2f33ebc7adb0831cbc6fd78f666b:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Unemployment EssayOne of the most important symbols about Holden is the Museum in Central Park. Everything in the museum hasn’t changed at all, while Holden has changed a great deal since his childhood. Holden walks all the way through Central Park to the museum, then decides not to go in. â€Å"All of a sudden, I wouldn’t have gone inside for a million bucks. If Phoebe had been there, I probably would have, but she wasn’t. † (Page 122). He doesn’t want to face his past alone. He wants someone to be there to help, but doesn’t share his past with anyone, except for one occasion. This was when, while Holden was attending Pencey, he wrote about Allie’s baseball mitt. The mitt brought back a lot of emotions because Allie had died. When Stradlater read the paper about the mitt, he criticized Holden and the paper. Holden got uncomfortable and tore up the paper. This event made him very cautious about going into his past again. The museum shows us about Holden’s cautious side. He always does whatever he feels like. He fails school, drinks, smokes, and gets in fights, but he just can’t relive his past. It is one of his largest obstacles.

Diversity and Cultural Competence

Question: Describe about the Diversity and Cultural Competence? Answer: Introduction This essay explains the relation between culture and diversity and how the cultural diversity affects the community. Its very important to understand the impact of culture and diversity in the community. A deep understanding of the culture is very important for explaining this issue. Culture can be understood as the identity of a group of people, city, state or country. The first thing in the discussion of any country or community is the culture. Culture describes the behaviour and nature of the community(Brown, 2013). Understanding the value of culture is really important for better and strong community. For a community to be successful, a large number of people from different cultures have to work together. Thus, a good relation among the people is very important for a community or country. Diversity is the differences in the cultures of the people working together in the community or country. The diversity can be of various types, like language, thought and values etc. It is really important to manage those diversities for any community (Lavins, 2002).. These diversities can become a boon or a curse for any community or country that depends on the community and the way it manages its diversities. The diversity really helps in deciding the base of any community. It depends on the utilization of the people from different culture. It is obvious in modern world to have people from different culture residing in one community. Whether we consider a country, an organization or a small residential building the differences in culture in single community is called the cultural diversity(Wax, 1995). Understanding culture in more depth Importance of culture Importance of understanding culture in building community What is cultural diversity? Diversity in language How cultural diversity affect community building? Diversity of culture in community boon or curse? Conclusion: A community can consist of people from various cultures and due to different cultures, the diversity in the community is really common that depends on the people, how they manage the diversity in community. If the diversity will not be managed properly, it can make the whole community a curse otherwise it may become the reason of rapid growth of society or community(Lewis, 1995). Thus, this essay basically focuses on the understanding of culture in depth, importance of culture in building any community, overall importance of culture for a community or country, understanding diversity in the culture, diversity in language, impact of diversity on the strength of community and how the management of diversity in the community can decide the strength of community. If we see the current trend, in most of the countries people from different culture live in a single country. Diversity can help the community with their positive experience and can even destroy the community by making divisions in the name of culture. Culture is what makes a community or country. It is the culture which can help the country to become idle for other countries or may ruin the image of the country. Thus, it is really important to understand both the culture and the diversities in the culture to create a strong base for the community. Bibliography Brown, C. (2013). Diversity and cultural Competence. Retrieved March 17th, 2015, from National Association of social workers: https://www.socialworkers.org/pressroom/features/issue/diversity.asp Lavins, L. (2002). Culture Poverty. insurance : The Latino Healthcare maze, 22-23. Tamu. (2012). Culture. Retrieved March 17th, 2015, from Tamu Education: https://www.tamu.edu/faculty/choudhury/culture.html Wax, T. (1995). Deaf Community. 679-684.

How to Write a Winning Grant Research Proposal

How to Write a Winning Grant Research Proposal How to Write a Winning Grant Research Proposal How to Contest Contemporary Thinking with Your Grant Research Proposal Grant, in other words funding, is given to individuals, non-profit organizations, charitable companies or educational facilities. A grant proposal is a formal request submitted by the individual willing to gain fund. Writing a good grant proposal is an interesting and a valuable skill. There are a lot of things that should be kept in mind while writing a grant proposal. These are as follows: It is always necessary to check the pros and cons of the proposal for which you are working. The foremost thing is to check the competition in the field. One should be aware of the various sources and ideas for which the grant is to be demanded. It is always good and safe to select a mentor for helping in the formulation of the grant proposal. However, the students who are a part of the proposal should be trained and experienced researchers. Make sure that the proposal should address a well formulated problem that is worth funding. A broad area of interest should be selected by discussing with colleagues, policy makers or community. Skills and knowledge is mandatory for the specific topic that has been selected. The interest and comfort with the topic should be evaluated in the beginning. Before finalizing the grant proposal, make a concept paper or an abstract that reflects your current thinking. This abstract should be shared with colleagues and policy makers to get feedback. After discussing the ideas, one will be able to revise or re-shape the ideas for further improvement. In this way a good and narrow research question can be built. A hypothesis is then made to give an elaboration and insight to the research question. Make sure that the hypothesis should be measurable and testable. The aims and objective of the grant proposal should be reliable, measurable and feasible. The goals must collaborate with the time and money that is being requested in the grant. It is preferable that the researchers, especially the new researchers should not work alone. A project team is preferred to perform the tasks of the proposed project. This will help the new researchers to team up with the collaborators and enhance their experiences and skills. A principle investigator (P.I) or a representative of the project team should be selected so that he/she will be responsible to the funding institute. A short description of the project (abstract) is then formed that represents the importance, need and feasibility of the project. It also contains a brief discussion of all the work including methodology, hypothesis and expected results (outcomes). The background discussion should always be focused on the issues and problems that the research will address. This discussion contains the entire theoretical basis and the explanation of why this study needs to be done. The proper handling of the background discussion will enhance the acceptability of the grant. The underlying methods behind the plan should be sound and feasible. As well, these methods should collaborate with the specific objectives of the grant proposal. If a person is just beginning as an independent investigator, he/she should not apply for a large grant at first hand but complete a good small project with relatively small amount of money and establish a good track record before applying for a larger research grant. If you need professional grant proposal help from academic experts, contact our custom writing company and we will help you immediately.

The Y2K Glitch and End of the Century Changes

The Y2K Glitch and End of the Century Changes While many were ready to party like it was 1999, many others predicted catastrophe at the end of the year from a small assumption made long ago when computers were first being programmed. The Y2K (Year 2000) problem came to exist culturally because of a fear that computers would fail when their clocks were meant to update to January 1, 2000. Because computers were programmed to automatically assume the date began with 19 as in 1977 and 1988, people feared that when the date turned from December 31, 1999, to January 1, 2000, computers would be so confused that they would shut down completely. The Age of Technology and Fear Considering how much of our everyday lives were run by computers by the end of 1999, the new year was expected to bring serious computer repercussions. Some doomsayers warned that the Y2K bug was going to end civilization as we know it. Other people worried more specifically about banks,  traffic lights, the power grid, and airports - all of which were run by computers by 1999. Even microwaves and televisions were predicted to be affected by the Y2K bug. As computer programmers madly dashed to update computers with new information, many in the public prepared themselves by storing extra cash and food supplies. Preparations for the Bug By 1997, a few years ahead of widespread panic over the Millennium problem, computer scientists were already working toward the solution. The British Standards Institute (BSI) developed a new computer standard to define conformity requirements for the Year 2000. Known as  DISC PD2000-1, the standard outlined four rules: Rule 1: No value for current date will cause any interruption in operation. Rule 2: Date-based functionality must behave consistently for dates prior to, during and after year 2000. Rule 3: In all interfaces and data storage, the century in any date must be specified either explicitly or by unambiguous algorithms or inferencing rules.   Rule 4: Year 200 must be recognized as a leap year.   Essentially, the standard understood the bug to rely on two key issues: the existing two-digit representation of dates was problematic in date processing and a misunderstanding of calculations for leap years in the Gregorian Calendar had caused the year 2000 to not be programmed as a leap year. The first problem was solved by creating new programming for dates to be entered as four-digit numbers (ex: 2000, 2001, 2002, etc.), where they were previously represented only as two (97, 98, 99, etc.). The second by amending the algorithm for calculating leap years to any year value divided by 100 is not a leap year, with the addition of excluding years which are divisible by 400, thereby making the year 2000 a leap year (as it was).   What Happened  on January 1, 2000? When the prophesied date came and computer clocks around the world updated to January 1, 2000, very little actually happened. With so much preparation and updated programming done before the change of date, the catastrophe was quelled and only a few, relatively minor millennium bug problems occurred - and even fewer were reported.

Spending a Single Day at the Beach Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Spending a Single Day at the Beach - Essay Example Located on Padre Island, Texas, the longest barrier island in the world, the beach area near Bob Hall Pier is unique in its ability to both relax and excite at the same time. This is because of its soft white sands, its range of surprising wildlife and an element of danger. The beach near Bob Hall Pier is first characterized by very fine white sand. This sand is generally very soft and very fine, almost like dust, thanks to the high winds the area often gets. This fine sand drifts across the roadways in beautiful, wave-like sheets that give the invisible breeze a face. Anything standing within this blowing dust receives a fine ash-toned coating. It brings with it the faint taste of salt from the nearby ocean and leaves a gritty feeling between the teeth. Because the sand is so fine, it causes no pain when it strikes, feeling instead like a soft brush of feathers against the skin. Only when the wind is particularly brisk does it feel any different. Taking a closer look at the scenery reveals all kinds of surprising wildlife in spite of the barren appearance. Seagulls are present everywhere, but the gulls here are called ‘laughing gulls’ because of the unreserved laughing sound that is their call. There are also sandpipers and other shorebirds stomping their orange stick-like legs like jackhammers against the wet sand trying to find the eerie white ghost shrimp hiding just below the surface. Sand crabs can be sung out of the ground and sit patiently listening like a human audience in an amphitheatre until someone makes a sudden move. Then these small, light-brown colored crabs scuttle quickly into their dark holes. The thick, green railroad vines make the reason for their name clear in the criss-crossing tracks they make on the sand and can add a splash of vibrant purple color to the beach atmosphere.

ABC Company Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

ABC Company - Assignment Example As a result, a proper management of the organizational activities leads to higher competitive advantage. This paper focuses on the management of ABC Company, which is currently in a state of turmoil and poor financial condition. Moreover, the activities have eventually deviated from the organizational vision and the managers have adopted a myopic approach to achieve the short term financial goals. The paper covers all the activities needed to recover ABC Company from its poor and ill managed conditions. The organizational structure of ABC Company is vertical in nature, where information flows across the hierarchy via intermediates. The organization has been so structured that one level of hierarchy can directly communicate with only its immediately next level in the hierarchical ladder. This system allows each level to focus only in their allocated tasks and is only answerable to their immediate supervisors. Thus, it helps to increase the efficiency of the each department. The figure shown above portrays the organizational structure of ABC Company. The structure consists of four prominent levels of hierarchy and each level is allocated with a particular task which encompasses overseeing the personnel who are immediately below that level. The hierarchy begins with the CEO, who oversees the board of directors and participates in the board meetings. The major decisions proposed by the board of directors are first approved by the CEO before its implementation in the organization. The board of directors constitutes of the individuals with major stock holdings. This allows the boards to be heterogeneous and helps to avoid any biasness in decision making. The board of directors oversees a series of managers allocated to different departments. The managers are answerable to the board of directors for the departmental performances. Each manager is allocated with different teams, like HR Team, Finance Team, Marketing Team