Communication climate supportive defensive Essay

Communication climate supportive defensive - Essay Example We therefore adopted a supportive communication through focusing on what/how concerns in the topic, being focused on the task, upholding openness in the discussions, holding each as an equal person in the presentation and being very flexible. The proposal presentation adopted a supportive climate through high level of collaboration among the members present for the proposal presentation. The whole process was well prepared for by all members which therefore enabled everyone to n active role in defining as well as solving the problems at hand as against having to assign any person what he/she was expected to do. There was mutual understanding which espoused on empathy as n important element in supportive environment of communication. Besides, the investment committee with whom we worked were very supportive identified with us, respected our propositions and acted in a lot of care towards us which made the communication climate and environment very conducive for our presentation. In spite of our team being well structured in organizational structure, equality was well safeguarded in the presentation and discussions because the team acknowledged the quality of individual contribution towards the success of all. We however acknowledged that every person would be well placed to contribute towards any query raised from the discussions and this led to the open contribution policy while presenting as this would illustrate high levels of support to each other. The success of our presentation and discussions was much dependent on the capacity of us to work as a team and this meant that the hierarchy in responsibility s either being the chair or just a member had no place in the communication. Supportive climate of communication requires high degree of flexibility, open mindedness and general willingness to buy from new ideas presented while conversing and this was highly exhibited while presenting the business proposal to the

The Compact Theory Essay Example for Free

The Compact Theory Essay Compact theory Regarding the Constitution of the United States of America, the compact theory holds that the nation was formed through a compact agreed upon by all the states, and that the federal government is consequently a creation of the states. Consequently, states should be the final arbiters over whether the federal government had overstepped the limits of its authority as set forth in the compact. Contract theory studies how economic actors can and do construct contractual arrangements, generally in the presence of asymmetric information Kansas–Nebraska Act 1854 created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opened new lands, repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and allowed settlers in those territories to determine if they would allow slavery within their boundaries. Stephen Arnold Douglas was an American politician from the western state of Illinois, and was the Northern Democratic Party nominee for President in 1860. Free Soil Party was a short-lived political party in the United States active in the 1848 and 1852 presidential elections, and in some state elections. Bleeding Kansas was a series of violent events, involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery Border Ruffian elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U. S. state of Missouri roughly between 1854 and 1858. Trent Affair was an international diplomatic incident that occurred during the American Civil War Battle of Antietam 1862 fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek, as part of the Maryland Campaign, was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. Battle of Gettysburg 1863 on June 24, 1863, General Robert E. Lee led his Confederate Army across the Potomac River and headed towards Pennsylvania. Appomattox Court house is a courthouse in Appomattox, Virginia built in 1892. It is located in the middle of the state about three miles (5 km) northwest of the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, once known as Clover Hill home of the original Old Appomattox Court House. Robert Edward Lee (General Lee) was a career United States Army officer and combat engineer. Ulysses S. Grant (General Grant was the 18th President of the United States (1869–1877) as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. John Browns raid on Harpers Ferry -was an attempt by white abolitionist John Brown to start an armed slave evolt by seizing a United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia in 1859. Thirteenth Amendment – was to the United States Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. Homestead Act- is one of two United States federal laws that gave an applicant freehold title to up to 160 acres of undeveloped federal land outside the original Thirteen Colonies. Morrill Land-Grant Acts- was a United States statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges, including the Morrill Act of 1862 and the Morrill Act of 1890. Compromise of 1850 was an intricate package of five bills, passed in September 1850, defusing a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North that arose following the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). Uncle Toms Cabin is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868 as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. The Fifteenth Amendment (Amendment XV) to the United States Constitution prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote on that citizens race, color, or previous condition of servitude (i. e. , slavery). It was ratified on February 3, 1870. Reconstruction Era has two uses; the first covers the entire nation in the period 1865–1877 following the Civil War; the second one, used in this article, covers the transformation of the Southern United States from 1863 to 1877, with the reconstruction of state and society in the former Confederacy. The Black Codes were laws passed on the state and local level in the United States to limit the basic human rights and civil liberties of blacks. Jim Crow laws- were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. Ku Klux Klan is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically expressed through terrorism.

The Constrasting Characters Biddy and Estella from Great Expectations E

The Constrasting Characters Biddy and Estella from Great Expectations Dickens describes Biddy as an uncomplicated character He makes it seem that she is better suited to Pip. He uses phrases such as â€Å" a blessing† and â€Å" beautiful at heart.† Dickens uses almost pleasant words when describing Biddy, this makes the reader feel that she is the good character in this novel. On the other hand he describes Estella has â€Å"cruel and cold.† This makes her seem more and more patronising and inconsiderate. Obviously not the good character in this novel. Dickens creates these character under stereotypes of good and bad characters, as Biddy is said not to have a bad bone in her body whereas Estella is cruel but also described as â€Å"pretty and beautiful.† Victorian stereotypes follow that women with good looks can be manipulative, and Estella is a textbook fit into this stereotype. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Estella and Biddy’s relationship to Pip is key, Dickens makes Pip more driven towards Estella and away from Biddy. This is clever as h... The Constrasting Characters Biddy and Estella from Great Expectations E The Constrasting Characters Biddy and Estella from Great Expectations Dickens describes Biddy as an uncomplicated character He makes it seem that she is better suited to Pip. He uses phrases such as â€Å" a blessing† and â€Å" beautiful at heart.† Dickens uses almost pleasant words when describing Biddy, this makes the reader feel that she is the good character in this novel. On the other hand he describes Estella has â€Å"cruel and cold.† This makes her seem more and more patronising and inconsiderate. Obviously not the good character in this novel. Dickens creates these character under stereotypes of good and bad characters, as Biddy is said not to have a bad bone in her body whereas Estella is cruel but also described as â€Å"pretty and beautiful.† Victorian stereotypes follow that women with good looks can be manipulative, and Estella is a textbook fit into this stereotype. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Estella and Biddy’s relationship to Pip is key, Dickens makes Pip more driven towards Estella and away from Biddy. This is clever as h...

Research Paper Mark Twain

Isabella Thomaz Donna Hunter – Period 2 Research Paper – Mark Twain October 26, 2012 MARK TWAIN: A REMARKABLE MAN WHO PAINTED THE WORLD â€Å"Classic' – a book which people praise and don't read. † When Samuel L. Clemens (more often referred to as Mark Twain) said this, he meant it in a humorous sense, but he also wanted people to understand it’s meaning. People call books like Huck Finn and Gatsby classics, yet the idea that these books are actually read by everyone isn’t so. Twain isn’t just a classical writer because we deem him so, he is given that title for the political influence he managed to present to his readers.He wanted to show that the idea of romanticism was healthy for young children unless used excessively. He expressed this point by creating Tom Sawyer, a boy who idolized romanticism; a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy o f the individual. And to have a balancing opposite, Huckleberry Finn was added into the equation – a boy who had no education but grew up both mentally and physically quickly because of his poverty.Twain’s idea of this political influence was a major impact on the people in his time because of the segregation of the whites and blacks – which was such a very big issue in that time with protests and such – and so his views were very democratic. We still value his influence today, not just because of the slavery issue but because of the controversy between romantic dominance and peaceful intelligence, romanticism having a more imaginative effect and intelligence striking your knowledge and building it on facts.That is why The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are meant for different aged readers – to impact a certain influence at a younger age when you read Tom’s story which is widely more imaginative, and to see t he change of Twain’s attempt to get his point across of romanticism being unhealthy for people like Tom in Huck’s story. At the beginning of Huck’s story, there is a robber’s scene where the two boys and their friends try and create an environment such as in a wild west book and it is told in both boys’ perspectives, however they are viewed or seen entirely differently.William F. Byrne descbribes it as a change in Huck and Tom’s characters from the Adventures of Tom Sawyer to the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because where Tom describes them, â€Å"We ain’t burglars. That ain’t no sort of style. We are highwaymen. We stop stages and carriages on the road, with masks on, and kill the people and take their watches and money. † (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: 26-28) Huck chooses to call themselves robbers, and eliminate the imagination by saying that they don’t kill people and that he was only in it for the profit, to which he found none.And then as Byrne points out, â€Å" In the earlier book Huck was the odd man out on issues of the imagination; the other boys welcomed the opportunity to share Tom’s dreams. In this case, however, we are told that all the boys resigned; it is Tom who is the odd man out. The other boys are perhaps getting too old for this kind of imaginative play, but not Tom. He alone remains determined to re-enact the kinds of dramatic events he has read about in fiction. † (Byrne, William F. Things have changed in the boys life and this is how Twain begins to reveal his controversial conflicts with romantic imagination in both Tom and Huck’s stories. A further demonstration of Twain’s political implications is Huck’s response to both Tom’s and the ‘duke’ and ‘dauphin’s’ (two men who happen to hop onto Huck’s raft with Jim, an escaped slave) dominance of being in charge. Huck, in order to prev ent quarrels and maintain peace. He allows them to take charge and does whatever they say.The only difference between Tom’s dominance and the two men who hop on Jim and Huck’s raft is that Huck only follows Tom because he offered the poverty-stricken boy friendship. Also Tom’s fascination with romantic imaginations entertains Huck because it is the only bit of boyish quality he can attain to. The ‘duke’ and ‘dauphin’ have a sense of charge to the point that Huck actually has no say in the matter because even though he has grown up and craves more to the understanding of real-world problems, he is but a boy and Jim is an escaped slave.But there is something more Twain included to Huck’s behavior, and this is that because of his father’s physical dominance, he has shriveled into a sheep. He naturally allows himself to be put below someone else. â€Å"The silent assertion that nothing is going on which fair and intelligent m en are aware of and are engaged by their duty to try to stop. † (Mark Twain) Twain’s words describe Huck’s form of character simply and this is a fascinating idea that Twain uses to distinguish Huck’s realism to Tom’s romanticism cognitive thinking.Twain shows how people have become so much more involved in romanticism imagination without even knowing it. The technological advances in society drive man to a more dominant state of mind and that men value their strive for dominant success over things like a family member’s death. He uses the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons, two families and neighbors with an ongoing feud that causes conflicts with the family members who want nothing to do with it, feud to express this for example when one from each family secretly gets married and this causes a battle that inevitably kills Huck’s friend, Buck.This is an influential topic more to present day society than from his time because everywhere you look, mankind is fighting with each other and we relentlessly regard what should be valued over money and political problems – our family’s well being and to look around our crumbling society that can only be reconstructed by everyone dropping their arms and helping one another out to become one with peace without having to give in to a dominant force as Huck Finn has allowed to be done to him.There is definitely a classical sense about Mark Twain, but it is not because someone just says ‘Oh hey this guy is a really good writer,’ it is a remarkable sense because he has a very powerful and political influence that was seen both in his time and ours, specifically with his books Tom Saywer and Huck Finn. Even if they are different. I believe his influence will continue to strive forward because if it’s one thing he made distinct, a part of mankind will always strive for dominance and those who see it and want to solve real-world problems will likely b e the sheep created by physically dominated men like Huckleberry Finn.But they won’t be alone. Because as Twain influence reaches more and more sheep, they will become the lions and end the dominant strive and will maintain peace through equality. Works Cited: – Marshall, Donald G. â€Å"Twain, Mark. † World Book Student. World Book, 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2012. – Foner, Eric, and John A. Garraty. â€Å"Twain, Mark. † The Reader's Companion to American History. Dec. 1 1991: n. p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 28 Oct 2012. – â€Å"Mark Twain. † Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Oct. 012. Web. 28 Oct. 2012. . – â€Å"Twain, Mark (1835-1910). † The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide. Abington: Helicon, 2010. Credo Reference. Web. 28 October 2012. – Byrne, William F,. â€Å"Realism, Romanticism, and Politics in Mark Twain. † Realism, Romanticism, and Politics in Mark Twain. National Hu manities Institute, 1 Nov. 1999. Web. 28 Oct. 2012. . – Twain, Mark. â€Å"Chapter 4. † Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Random House, 1996. 26-28. Print.

Anxiety and Victor Frankenstein Essay

Anxiety Disorder is a condition that is diagnosed as the disability to cope with any form of stress. Since it is one of the most common disorders in the U. S. , there are a large amount of people that have and will need to control this illness. As one of the many people in the world, Victor, the main character in Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, had such a severe case of anxiety that he was almost driven to insanity. During the story, you follow his battle with this disorder. He had a constant obsession with trying to get away from the creature, and was overly stressed about this monster that he had created that ultimately he couldn’t deal with his actual problem at hand. Anxiety disorder is extremely difficult to deal with, but if the proper steps are taken, it is treatable. This illness was first recognized by Sigmund Freud in the early 1900’s but was only diagnosed as a diagnostic entity in 1980 (Overview of Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Snow). Freud found the illness while he was working with a companion, Wilhelm Fliess, at the very start of his psychoanalytic work, which is discovering repressed conflict inside the head (enotes. com). This discovery the two made has explained the feelings that many people feel on a daily basis. There are an abundance of symptoms associated with Anxiety Disorder. Though the most common effects are insomnia, appetite changes, depression, and a feeling of being unsettled or disconnected. Insomnia is a disorder that makes it difficult to fall asleep or to stay asleep after falling asleep (Medical-Dictionary. com). One appetite change issue can include overeating, also known as bingeing. Since those diagnosed with this disorder can get easily stressed, many just eat to hide their pain or nervousness. This also applies when people under-eat. Their fears can get in their way of their appetite. Depression and Anxiety often go hand in hand (ADAA. org). Many people who suffer from anxiety disorder tend to regularly feel overwhelmed (anxietycentre. com). This means that the slightest problem can become a huge deal for them. They often become stressed and can lead to other feelings of unsettledness or being disconnected. It is possible for these victims to visit a doctor more often and also feel uncomfortable in many social situations (anxietycentre. com). Anxiety Disorder is listed as the most common disorder in the United States (ADAA. org). It affects over 40 million adults in the U. S. (18% present of the population), but only 1/3 of those people are actually being treated (ADAA. org). Out of those even being treated, only 400,000 will be treated properly (ADAA. org). 22. 8% of those diagnosed are said to have a â€Å"severe† case (NIMH. NIH. gov). People who are diagnosed with Anxiety Disorder have a higher chance of drug abuse or using alcohol as coping method (anxietycentre. com). It was tested and results showed that women are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with Anxiety over men (NIMH. NIH. gov). Those who are diagnosed have a number of possible treatments. They range from different prescription drugs, antidepressants, anti-anxiety medication and beta-blockers are the most common listed (NIMH. NIH. gov). Antidepressants have some side effects, for example, blurred vision, headaches or nausea. Psychotherapy is also used to help treat Anxiety Disorder. A lot of people diagnosed could be hospitalized or go to regular counseling for help with coping with the stress. But the success of treatment may vary; some people might take weeks while others take months or years. For this reason, treatment must be tailored to the specific patient. There are a couple of risk factors that also come with Anxiety Disorder. The affected person might develop extremely low self-esteem which later could lead to depression. As humans, we rely on the thoughts of other people to determine how we feel about ourselves. Since it is not necessarily â€Å"social acceptable† to have an Anxiety disorder, many people feel left out or alone in the case that they do have the disorder. Those who are higher accepted with people generally have a higher self-esteem (gad. about. com). Extremely low self image problems can often lead to depression (psycologytoday. com). Also, since many people use alcohol to cope, alcoholism is also a common result of anxiety. A study was formed in South Carolina with people who suffer from severe anxiety. They were all tested to see when they mostly drank alcohol. The study found that a significant amount of people used the alcohol to cope in larger social situations. Also, they found out that drinking lowers the rate of anxiety and relieved many of those tested from their discomfort (nih. gov). As stated by the National Library of Medicine, panic attacks are when you have common attacks with the fear that something bad will happen. These are commonly found in those who suffer from Anxiety Disorder. All of these factors could be treated and controlled with the proper care. In the book Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein created a creature that he himself was too terrified of. This creature had caused Victor to show symptoms of Anxiety Disorder. He experiences fevers and severe illness because is stressing out about the creature and the things it has been doing. â€Å"With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs. (Frankenstein, chapter 5) Victor is clearly in a great amount of pain from the stress and fear that he is feeling at that moment. He also states that it is one in the morning, showing that he could possibly have one of the symptoms of Anxiety Disorder, insomnia. The story also says, â€Å"I trembled excessively; I could not endure to think of, and f ar less to allude to, the occurrences of the preceding night. I walked with a quick pace, and we soon arrived at my college. I then reflected, and the thought made me shiver, that the creature whom I had left in my apartment might still be there, alive, and walking about. I dreaded to behold this monster; but I feared still more that Henry should see him. Entreating him, therefore, to remain a few minutes at the bottom of the stairs, I darted up towards my own room. My hand was already on the lock of the door before I recollected myself I then paused; and a cold shivering came over me. I threw the door forcibly open, as children are accustomed to do when they expect a spectre o stand in waiting for them on the other side; but nothing appeared. † (Frankenstein, chapter five) It is showing that Victor become so nervous that the creature would be in his room that he began to shiver and make Henry Clerval wait downstairs, just incase. He shows a great fear in seeing the monster in his home, where he had even left it. This disorder is easily recognized by his constant obsession and worry about the creatur e. He had run away from the monster, ignored it when it had killed most of his family and then ended up hunting it down until his death. Thus, Anxiety is a very common illness around the United Stated and it might be difficult to deal with at the time, but it can be treated easily with the correct forms of therapy or medications. Anxiety often causes many other disorders if not properly treated and can affect your daily life. This disorder was even expressed in Frankenstein with Victor’s constant fear of his self-created creature. If you or anyone you know could be suffering from this terrible disorder, I suggest you find help relatively soon before it begins to spiral into other harder to treat disorders.

John Donne Critical Quotes Essays

John Donne Critical Quotes Essays John Donne Critical Quotes Paper John Donne Critical Quotes Paper Essay Topic: Poetry Achsah Guibbory on inevitability of contradiction For Donne, For Donne, the process of examining emotional expereince inevitably produces poetry of contradicitons Achsah Guibbory on influences on love poetry he turns he turns to the Roman Ovid, rather than imitating the Petrarchan love poetry Achsah Guibbory on Narrative Voice Unlike his Unlike his contemporary Ben JonsonDonne adopts different roles and postures Barbara Lewalski on Holy Sonnets Finding the Finding the whole of salvation traced in ones own soul (Non-Ignatian) C.S Lewis on puzzles There are There are puzzles in his work, but we can solve them all if we are clever enough C.S Lewis on love poetry His love His love poetry is Hamlet without the prince C.S Lewis on love and hate The love The love of hatred and the hatred of love C.S Lewis on Metaphysical The very The very qualities which make him unsatisfying poetic food make it a valuable ingredient C.S Lewis on Love Love is Love is a god and lovers his clergy Izaak Walton on Narrative Voice There are There are two Donnes: Jack Donne; and Dr John Donne John Wall on Holy Sonnets His despair His despair is never without a move towards hope; his hope, never without a move towards despair Louis Martz on Holy Sonnets A continually A continually shifting series of dramatic momentstemporary conclusionsbut all only for a moment final' Michel Montaigne on Contradiction I find I find nothing more difficult to believe than mans consistency, and nothing more easy than his inconsistency Ovid on Love Love is Love is a kind of warfare Peterson on Holy Sonnets The First The First Sonnet poses the problem that the sequence attemtps to resolve Samuel Jonson on Conceits dicordia concorsi dicordia concorsi the discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently unlike Samuel Jonson on Wit Those writers Those writers who on the watch for novelty could have little hope of greatness Samuel Jonson on buried wit Genuine wit Genuine wit and useful knowledge may be sometimes found, buried in the grossness of expression Samuel Jonson on Metaphysicals as not being poets Instead of Instead of writing poetry they only write verse Samuel Jonson on Wit Wit which Wit which is at once natural and newthe metaphysicals have seldom risen Samuel Jonson on Hyperbole Confused magnificence Confused magnificence thatcould not be imagined T.S Eliot on Complexity A development A development by rapid succession of thought which requires considerable agility on the part of the reader T.S Eliot on Metaphysical Poets more Poets more often named than read T.S Eliot on goal of the Metaphysicals Trying to Trying to find the verbal equivalent for states of mind and feeling T.S Eliot on Wit Donne elaborates Donne elaborates a figure of speech to the furthest stage to which ingenuity can carry it T.S Eliot response to Johnson All poetry All poetry is heterogeneous Thomas Carew on Metaphysical Donne purgd Donne purgd The Muses garden, threw awaythe lazie seeds / Of Servile imitationAnd fresh invention planted William Kerrigan on power and love Donnes love Donnes love poetry stems from a frustrated sense of power Helen Gardner on Openings The brilliant The brilliant abrupt openingsare like the lump of gold flung down on the table John Carey on Biography The first The first thingto remember about Donne is that he was a Catholic; the second, that he betrayed his faith. John Carey on Complexity The complexities The complexities are not riddles to be solved, but natural and unresolvable, like living. John Carey on argument He treats He treats argument not as an instrument for discovering truth but as a flexible poetic accessory John Carey on Conceits Angels, mummy, Angels, mummy, mandrakes, maps, coins, and shadows, they are meeting places for opposites. Dennis Flynn on Religion and apostasy I propose I propose that we describe Donne not as an apostate or as a blasphemer but simply as a survivor of the Elizabethan persecution. Roger B. Rollin on Biography Carey is Carey is a psychobiological critic for his reading of, the Holy Sonnets as if each poem were a versified treatment of an actual event in Donnes psychological life Ben Johnson on Narrative Voice Don[n]e for Don[n]e for not keeping accent deserved hanging. Samuel Coleridge on Wit With Donne, With Donne, whose muse on dromedary trots, / Wreathe iron pokers into true-love knots; / Rhymes sturdy cripple, fancys maze and clue. / Wits forge and fire-blast, meanings press and screw. T.S Eliot on Biography Donne found Donne found no substitute for sense, / To seize and clutch and penetrate; / Expert beyond experience, // He knew the anguish of the marrow / The ague of the skeleton; / No contact possible to flesh / Allayed the fever of the bone. Pope on Wit that which that which has been often thought, but was never before so well expressed Douglas Bush on Liminality wandering between wandering between two worlds Wilbur Sanders on Dependence Donne felt Donne felt his dependence on God to resemble his dependence on secular patronage Samuel Johnson on Unrealism imitating imitating neither nature nor life William Hazlitt on Complexity Some quaint Some quaint riddles in verse, which the Sphinx could not unravel Thomas De Quincey on Rhetoric A rhetorician, A rhetorician, not a poet Leigh Hunt on Intellectualism To look To look at nothing as it really is but only as to what may be thought of it Thomas Arnold on Donne being too intellectual A poet A poet of feeling could never stop to elaborate T.S Eliot on Intellectualism Devour any Devour any kind of experience into the cerebral cortex, the nervous system, and the digestive tract Virginia Woolf on Opposites His poetry His poetry admits contrasts and psychological intricacy Peter Conrad on Separation Donnes dramatic Donnes dramatic situations are analytic divorces Achsah Guibbory on Politics Love itself Love itself is political involving power transactions between men and women Al Alvarez on Confidence Spenser seeks Spenser seeks erudition, and Donne sprezzatura T.S Eliot on Dramatic devices telescoping of telescoping of images Grierson on Donne as a Catholic Donne would Donne would not have become a Protestant in a Catholic country J.B. Leishman on argument An argumentative poet John Carey on Opposites Imagined Corners, Imagined Corners, they are meeting places as opposites Stevie Davies on Sexism He attacks He attacks convention as castrated and saplesshe presents naked priapism and brags thereby his dangerous integrity

Womens Anti-Pass Law Campaigns in South Africa

Women's Anti-Pass Law Campaigns in South Africa The first attempt to make black women in South Africa carry passes was in 1913 when the Orange Free State introduced a new requirement that women, in addition to existing regulations for black men, must carry reference documents. The resulting protest, by a multi-racial group of women, many of whom were professionals (a large number of teachers, for example) took the form of passive resistance - a refusal to carry the new passes. Many of these women were supporters of the recently formed South African Native National Congress (which became the African National Congress in 1923, although women were not allowed to become full members until 1943). The protest against passes spread through the Orange Free State, to the extent that when World War I broke out, the authorities agreed to relax the rule. At the end of World War I, the authorities in the Orange Free State tried to re-instate the requirement, and again opposition built up. The Bantu Womens League (which became the ANC Womans League in 1948 - a few years after membership of the ANC was opened to women), organized by its first president Charlotte Maxeke, coordinated further passive resistance during late 1918 and early 1919. By 1922 they had achieved success - the South African government agreed that women should not be obliged to carry passes. However, the government still managed to introduce legislation which curtailed the rights of women and the Native (Black) Urban Areas Act No 21 of 1923 extended the existing pass system such that the only black women allowed to live in urban areas were domestic workers. In 1930 local municipal attempts in Potchefstroom to regulate womens movement led to further resistance - this was the same year that white women obtained voting rights in South Africa. White women now had a public face and a political voice, of which activists such as Helen Joseph and Helen Suzman took full advantage. Introduction of Passes for All Blacks With the Blacks (Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents) Act No 67 of 1952 the South African government amended the pass laws, requiring all black persons over the age of 16 in all provinces to carry a reference book at all times - thereby inforcing influx control of blacks from the homelands. The new reference book, which would now have to be carried by women, required an employers signature to be renewed each month, authorization to be within particular areas, and certification of tax payments. During the 1950s women within the Congress Alliance came together to combat the inherent sexism that existed within various anti-Aparthied groups, such as the ANC. Lilian Ngoyi (a trade unionist and political activist), Helen Joseph, Albertina Sisulu, Sophia Williams-De Bruyn, and others formed the Federation of South African Women. The prime focus of the FSAW soon changed, and in 1956, with the cooperation of the ANCs Womens League, they organized a mass demonstration against the new pass laws. Womens Anti-Pass March on the Union Buildings, Pretoria On 9 August 1956 over 20,000 women, of all races, marched through the streets of Pretoria to the Union Buildings to hand over a petition to JG Strijdom, South Africas prime minister, over the introduction of the new pass laws and the Group Areas Act No 41 of 1950. This act enforced different residential areas for different races and led to forced removals of people living in wrong areas. Strijdom had arranged to be elsewhere, and the petition was eventually accepted by his Secretary. During the march the women sang a freedom song: Wathint abafazi, Strijdom! wathint abafazi,wathint imbokodo,uza kufa! [When] you strike the women,you strike a rock,you will be crushed [you will die]! Although the 1950s proved to be the height of passive resistance against Apartheid in South Africa, it was largely ignored by the Apartheid government. Further protests against passes (for both men and women) culminated in the Sharpeville Massacre. Pass laws were finally repealed in 1986. The phrase wathint abafazi, wathint imbokodo has come to represent womens courage and strength in South Africa.

An Introduction to the Cold War in Europe

An Introduction to the Cold War in Europe The Cold War was a twentieth-century conflict between the United States of America (U.S.), the Soviet Union (USSR), and their respective allies over political, economic, and military issues, often described as a struggle between capitalism and communism- but the issues were actually far grayer than that. In Europe, this meant the US-led West and NATO on one side and Soviet-led East and the Warsaw Pact on the other. The Cold War lasted from 1945 to the collapse of the USSR in 1991. Why Cold War? The war was cold because there was never a direct military engagement between the two leaders, the U.S. and the USSR, although shots were exchanged in the air during the Korean War. There were plenty of proxy wars around the world as states supported by either side fought, but in terms of the two leaders, and in terms of Europe, the two never fought a regular war. Origins of the Cold War in Europe The aftermath of World War II left the United States and Russia as the dominant military powers in the world, but they had very different forms of government and economy- the former a capitalist democracy, the latter a communist dictatorship. The two nations were rivals that feared each other, each ideologically opposed. The war also left Russia in control of large areas of Eastern Europe, and the US-led Allies in control of the West. While the Allies restored democracy in their regions, Russia began making Soviet satellites out of its liberated lands; the split between the two was dubbed the Iron Curtain. In reality, there had been no liberation, just a new conquest by the USSR. The West feared a communist invasion, physical and ideological, that would turn them into communist states with a Stalin-style leader- the worst possible option- and for many, it caused a fear over mainstream socialism, too. The U.S. countered with the Truman Doctrine, with its policy of containment to stop communism spreading- it also turned the world into a giant map of allies and enemies, with the US pledging to prevent the communists from extending their power, a process that led to the West supporting some terrible regimes- and the Marshall Plan, massive aid aimed at supporting collapsing economies that were letting communist sympathizers gain power. Military alliances were formed as the West grouped together as NATO, and the East banded together as the Warsaw Pact. By 1951, Europe was divided into two power blocs, American-led and Soviet-led, each with atomic weapons. A cold war followed, spreading globally and leading to a nuclear standoff. The Berlin Blockade The first time the former allies acted as certain enemies was the Berlin Blockade. Postwar Germany was divided into four parts and occupied by the former Allies; Berlin, situated in the Soviet zone, was also divided. In 1948, Stalin enforced a blockade of Berlin aimed at bluffing the Allies into renegotiating the division of Germany in his favor rather than invading. Supplies could not get through to a city, which relied on them, and the winter was a serious problem. The Allies responded with neither of the options Stalin thought he was giving them, but started the Berlin Airlift: for 11 months, supplies were flown into Berlin via Allied aircraft, bluffing that Stalin wouldn’t shoot them down and cause a hot war. He didn’t. The blockade was ended in May 1949 when Stalin gave up. Budapest Rising Stalin died in 1953, and hopes of a thaw were raised when new leader Nikita Khrushchev began a process of de-Stalinization. In May 1955, as well as forming the Warsaw Pact, he signed an agreement with the Allies to leave Austria and make it neutral. The thaw only lasted until the Budapest Rising in 1956: the communist government of Hungary, faced with internal calls for reform, collapsed and an uprising forced troops to leave Budapest. The Russian response was to have the Red Army occupy the city and put a new government in charge. The West was highly critical but, partly distracted by the Suez Crisis, did nothing to help except get frostier toward the Soviets. The Berlin Crisis and the V-2 Incident Fearing a reborn West Germany allied with  the U.S., Khrushchev offered concessions in return for a united, neutral Germany in 1958. A Paris summit for talks was derailed when Russia shot down a U.S. U-2 spy plane flying over its territory. Khrushchev pulled out of the summit and disarmament talks. The incident was a useful out for Khrushchev, who was under pressure from hardliners within Russia for giving away too much. Under pressure from the East German leader to stop refugees fleeing to the West, and with no progress on making Germany neutral, the Berlin Wall was built, a complete barrier between East and West Berlin. It became the physical representation of the Cold War. Cold War in Europe in the 60s and 70s Despite the tensions and fear of nuclear war, the Cold War division between East and West proved surprisingly stable after 1961, despite French anti-Americanism and Russia crushing the Prague Spring. There was instead conflict on the global stage, with the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam. For much of the  60s and 70s, a program of dà ©tente was followed: a long series of talks that made some success in stabilizing the war and equalizing arms numbers. Germany negotiated with the East under a policy of Ostpolitik. The fear of mutually assured destruction helped prevent direct conflict- the belief that if you launched your missiles, you would be destroyed by your enemies, and it was better to not fire at all than to destroy everything. The 80s and the New Cold War By the 1980s, Russia appeared to be winning, with a more productive economy, better missiles, and a growing navy, even though the system was corrupt and built on propaganda. America, once again fearing Russian domination, moved to rearm and build up forces, including placing many new missiles in Europe (not without local opposition). US President Ronald Reagan increased defense spending vastly, starting the Strategic Defense Initiative to defend against nuclear attacks, an end to Mutually Assured Destruction. At the same time, Russian forces entered Afghanistan, a war they would ultimately lose. End of the Cold War in Europe Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died in 1982, and his successor, realizing change was needed in a crumbling Russia and its strained satellites, which they felt were losing a renewed arms race, promoted several reformers. One, Mikhail Gorbachev, rose to power in 1985 with policies of Glasnost and Perestroika and decided to end the cold war and give away the satellite empire to save Russia itself. After agreeing with the U.S. to reduce nuclear weapons, in 1988 he addressed the UN, explaining the end of the Cold War by renouncing the Brezhnev Doctrine, allowing political choice in the previously dictated-to satellite states of Eastern Europe, and pulling Russia out of the arms race. The speed of Gorbachev’s actions unsettled the West, and there were fears of violence, especially in East Germany where the leaders talked of their own Tiananmen Square type uprising. However, Poland negotiated free elections, Hungary opened its borders, and East German leader Honecker resigned when it became apparent the Soviets would not support him. The East German leadership withered away and the Berlin Wall fell ten days later. Romania overthrew its dictator and the Soviet satellites emerged from behind the Iron Curtain. The Soviet Union itself was the next to fall. In 1991, communist hardliners attempted a coup against Gorbachev; they were defeated, and Boris Yeltsin became leader. He dissolved the USSR, instead creating the Russian Federation. The communist era, begun in 1917, was now over, and so was the Cold War. Conclusion Some books, although stressing the nuclear confrontation that came perilously close to destroying vast areas of the world, point out that this nuclear threat was most closely triggered in areas outside Europe, and that the continent, in fact, enjoyed 50 years of peace and stability, which were sorely lacking in the first half of the twentieth century. This view is probably best balanced by the fact that much of Eastern Europe was, in effect, subjugated for the whole period by Soviet Russia. The D-Day  landings, while often overstated in their importance to the downhill of Nazi Germany, were in many ways the key battle of the Cold War in Europe, enabling Allied forces to liberate much of Western Europe before Soviet forces got there instead. The conflict has often been described as a substitute for a final post–Second World War peace settlement that never came, and the Cold War deeply permeated life in the East and West, affecting culture and society as well as politics and the military. The Cold War has also often been described as a contest between democracy and communism while, in reality, the situation was more complicated, with the democratic side, led by the U.S., supporting some distinctly nondemocratic, brutally authoritarian regimes in order to keep countries from coming under the Soviet sphere of influence.

Global Popularity of Brand Playboy Research Paper

Global Popularity of Brand Playboy - Research Paper Example The beginning of Playboy was seen in 1953 by owner Hugh Heffner, at that time known as ‘Stag.† The approach was to offer a magazine for men that included nude female models, journal articles and fiction. The first issue was focused on pictures of the celebrity, Marilyn Monroe and sold an average of 53,991 copies within a few weeks. From here, Hefner began to work with Eldon Sellers in Chicago for enhancing the trend of the magazine. To enhance this, the models were combined with the different components which added to the brand of Playboy, including the Playboy bunny, which was known for being placed in the magazine in a discreet area for men to find. The height of the magazine circulated into the 1970s as the main magazine with the specific content. After this time, pornographic videos, â€Å"Penthouse† and other magazines focused on specific audiences began to compete with the magazine. However, it continues to sell an average of 2.6 million magazines per month.T he intimacy of the magazine led to the development of merchandise, specifically because the magazine wasn’t able to produce the images outside of the magazine. The development of the playboy bunny was able to add into this image in the 1970s to lead to the popularity of the magazine. The merchandise includes t-shirts, caps, household items, cards, cosmetics, jewelry, mobile phone accessories, mugs and posters. However, the merchandise continued to be sold because it worked as a way of advertising the magazine and the overall ideology of the brand. Most of the merchandise grew in the 1980s and 1990s and was introduced globally, specifically to make a defined understanding of the brand name in relation to the magazines which were sold2. Current Condition of Playboy The merchandise which grew into an international brand not only went through a rising popularity. The Playboy brand was known for a continuous rise and fall in the amount of merchandise available to those interested in the brand. After the 1970s, the brand declined because of the other competitors which began to offer the same type of magazine and which combined other options for sales with the Playboy brand. This pushed Playboy into building the brand identity through the merchandise and allowed them to move back into popular rankings at a global level. Today, the concept of adult entertainment has been reinvented through the concept of Playboy, specifically because of the decline which occurred in the 1970s. The Playboy brand has built a stronger reputation with the use of technology and the Internet. At the same time, the merchandise which is available is growing in popularity. It is noted that this is linked specifically to the economic turns. When the economy was booming in the 1980s and 1990s, the magazine was popular and the merchandise worked as a brand identity. However, the downturn in the economy has led more to finding the merchandise and alternative Internet sources for the Playboy magazine. This exchange was combined with the understanding of the Playboy identity as well as what the cultural values and norms are in terms of the entertainment3. The current trends as well as the changes in the economy have

Reattach paper bout (( The different spelling for different Essay - 1

Reattach paper bout (( The different spelling for different pronunciation between British and American english.)) - Essay Example This explains the different pronunciations of the word military. In American English, the word is pronounced as /mÉ ªlÉ™tÉ›ri/, whereas in British English the word is pronounced as /mÉ ªlÉ ªtri/ (Goldstein & Best, 2006). 6 In French loan words, for example, in the RP the first syllable is stressed while in GAE the second syllable is stressed. Words such as buffet, pr ´ecis are examples. In American English word stress there is less application of stress on syllables that end in letters such as /o/u/r/. On the other hand, British English applies a lot of stress on words ending in the same letters (/o/u/r/). This difference contributes to the difference in spellings in both American and British English. A good example of such words includes, color and behavior. In American English, the words are spelt as ‘color’ and ‘behavior’. In British English, the same words are spelt as ‘Colour and behaviour’. This is as a result of the different word stress applied on syllables that end in /o/u/r/ (Trudgill, 1972,). 6 The English language is spoken in a vast area with over 300 million people using it as their first language. English is different in various ways from one region to another and one such a variation is the American English that carries its own identity (Schachtebeck , 2011). The differences in the language are identified in many ways and particularly in the pronunciation, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. The common recognized differences are the accent used in the two languages: the British and the American. Accent refers to the pronunciation features of different people from different geographical regions, social class, age sex or even the level of education. There are many accents and differences in the spoken English among people from different regions but most common are the differences in the American and British English (Werckmeister, 2012).

Recruitment, selection and deployment of human resources Case Study - 1

Recruitment, selection and deployment of human resources - Case Study Example ndards for each factor in order to determine the status of performance of employee; establish and identify the misconducts at work; include all possible performance dimensions and all possible rating criteria to judge employees critically; and add an additional column that addresses the performance improvements criteria and factors among employees. Yes, it is adequate and acceptable to modify current rating form in stores as per stores requirements and emerging needs. Many stores may experience higher absenteeism rate, turnover rate, or expenses higher than average. Therefore, it becomes necessary for the betterment of these stores to modify evaluation system and change ratings to motivate employees to perform better and meet organization needs. A store coping with adverse situations might have to implement stringent rating system to identify the true status of employees’ performance and where the company lacks. The applicable performance dimensions in this particular case may include performance; attitude; cooperation; absents; overtime; initiative; customer service; communication skills; knowledge about work; teamwork; time management; ability to cope with pressure and stress; and dedication at work (Grace, 2012). The adequate performance measurement criteria include quantitative and qualitative measurement techniques to appraise employees’ performance. In this regard, customers’ feedback for a particular employee should also be taken as a positive remark in measuring the employees’

The topic can be proposed by the writer Assignment - 15

The topic can be proposed by the writer - Assignment Example Therefore, does the incorporation of the 10 corporation amount to breaking of the law, which would necessitate the piercing of the corporate veil? The rule of law provides that the piercing of the corporate veil can occur when the corporation is created as a mere alter-ego of its owner, where the corporation does not observe the right formalities, or where the corporation is undercapitalized (Mallor et al., 2013). Further, a court can lift the corporate veil to hold the owners of the corporation personally responsible, if the corporation is created to promote fraud, illegality or injustice (Mallor et al., 2013). The creation of 10 taxi-cab corporations by Carlton is legal, owing to the fact that the law provides for incorporation of enterprises, for the sake of limiting personal liability (Mallor et al., 2013). Further, there has not been provided any limitation as to the number of taxi-cabs that should constitute a tax-cab corporation. In addition, Carlton has provided the required $10,000 of accident liability insurance for each cab. The court should not lift the corporate veil to find Carlton personally liable. This is because; the incorporation of the 10 tax-cab corporations is not an illegality, while the purpose of such incorporation is merely to limit personal liability, and not to commit fraud, illegality or injustice, which could be reasonable ground for lifting the corporate veil (Mallor et al., 2013). Therefore, the court should find that Walkovszky should only hold liable the corporation with two taxi-cabs, from which one knocked him

Fortress Ltd Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Fortress Ltd - Coursework Example A promoter of a company is an individual who â€Å"undertakes to form a company with reference to a given project and to see it going, and who takes the necessary steps to accomplish that purpose (Twycross v Grant 1877, 469). On the facts, Adam undertook to form Fortress Ltd. for the express purpose of securing a security services project for the Olympic games. All indications are that Adam intends to supervise the project and to ensure that it is accomplished. The mere fact that he is securing the loan for the proposed company’s project substantiates his supervision of the project. Moreover, since the term promoter is essentially a business term, whether or not a person is a promoter is question of fact (Whaley Bridge Calico Printing Co. v Green 1880, 109). On the facts of the case for discussion and pursuant to common law, Adam is for all intents a purposes a promoter. In general a company cannot be held liable for the breach of a contract that was concluded prior to the co mpany’s incorporation (Kelner v Baxter1886 174). In cases where the contract was formed prior to the formation of the company, the person or promoters acting for the proposed company prior to its incorporation are generally liable in a personal capacity (Kelner v Baxter1886 174). ... This was particularly so when Section 36 (C) of the Companies Act 1985 overruled the decision in Kelner v Baxter and essentially codified the decision in Phonogram Ltd. v Lane (1982). Section 36(C) which was further amended by Section 51 of the Companies Act 2006 provided that pre-incorporation contracts would have effect provided there were no agreements otherwise. In the absence of an agreement excluding liability, both the company and the promoter acting as agent would be liable for breach of the contract in a personal capacity (Companies Act 1985, Section 36(C)(1)). Section 36(C) (1) however, did not clear up the confusion as there was some confusion as to whether or not it was necessary for the wronged party to know that the company had not yet been incorporated (Bourne 2011, p. 48). For instance it was decided in (Cotronic (UK) Ltd. v Dexonie 1991,721) that it must be shown that the defendant was purporting to act on behalf of a proposed company. In another case it held that li ability as mutually exclusive in that both the third party acting on behalf of the proposed company and the other contracting party were equally liable for breach of the contract (Braymist Ltd. v Wise Finance Co. Ltd. 2002, 273). In other words, there was no definitive rule of law determining when and if a promoter could be liable for a breach of a pre-incorporation contract. There were instances where a promoter could be liable only if it was clear that the other contracting party did not know that the company was incorporated at the time of entering an agreement. In other instances, liability was assigned to the promoter automatically (Savirimuthu 2003, 203). As the law currently stands, Section 51(1) of the Companies Act 2006 will apply to determine

The topic can be proposed by the writer Assignment - 15

The topic can be proposed by the writer - Assignment Example Therefore, does the incorporation of the 10 corporation amount to breaking of the law, which would necessitate the piercing of the corporate veil? The rule of law provides that the piercing of the corporate veil can occur when the corporation is created as a mere alter-ego of its owner, where the corporation does not observe the right formalities, or where the corporation is undercapitalized (Mallor et al., 2013). Further, a court can lift the corporate veil to hold the owners of the corporation personally responsible, if the corporation is created to promote fraud, illegality or injustice (Mallor et al., 2013). The creation of 10 taxi-cab corporations by Carlton is legal, owing to the fact that the law provides for incorporation of enterprises, for the sake of limiting personal liability (Mallor et al., 2013). Further, there has not been provided any limitation as to the number of taxi-cabs that should constitute a tax-cab corporation. In addition, Carlton has provided the required $10,000 of accident liability insurance for each cab. The court should not lift the corporate veil to find Carlton personally liable. This is because; the incorporation of the 10 tax-cab corporations is not an illegality, while the purpose of such incorporation is merely to limit personal liability, and not to commit fraud, illegality or injustice, which could be reasonable ground for lifting the corporate veil (Mallor et al., 2013). Therefore, the court should find that Walkovszky should only hold liable the corporation with two taxi-cabs, from which one knocked him

Self Assessment Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Self Assessment Paper - Essay Example 1). Therefore, the implication of this score on one’s future employer where managers believe in theory Y is that they could design motivational strategies that would empower employees like me to work with proper recognition and acknowledgement. Personal Values The top three personal values were identified in these areas with the following scores: family (200), social (200) and intellectual (200). The lowest personal value is spiritual (70). These indicates how I regard these values are paramount in one’s life. The implication of this is crucial in the organization where I would be part of to balance time spent for work and family life, as well as in social and intellectual endeavors. Intolerance for Ambiguity My score for this assessment is 52. The mean that was noted in the interpretation was actually 49; therefore, the score that I generated was actually a little bit higher than the mean. This could indicate a higher tolerance for ambiguity or a slightly high preponde rance for risky endeavors or delving into the unknown. The implication of this is that future organizations could tap my willingness and ability to adapt and adjust to turbulent situations; as such, I am not easily swayed or detracted from facing challenges and adversities. Two-Factor Profile My MF score is 40; while my HF score is 30. This means that I regard greater importance on motivating or satisfying factors than in hygiene or dissatisfying factors according to Herzberg’s two-factor theory (Schermerhorn, Osborn, Uhl-Bien, & Hunt, 2012). This also means job content is more important to me than job context. The implication of this result is that managers should focus on motivators through job content if they want to influence or motivate employees like me. Your Personality Type The score that was generated for this assessment is 35. This is indicative of a Type A personality which was described to be hurried and competitive. The implication of this as one is a member of a n organization is that my personality type should complement that of others; otherwise, if all members of the organization are all competitive, there could be increased pressure to exhibit a stipulated level of performance that could be stressful and extremely challenging. Time Management Profile My score for this assessment is 4. As indicated, the higher the score, the closer one’s behavior matches the recommended time management guidelines. In this regard, one strongly believes that my score is an indication of the need to improve on time management to coincide with those prescribed by the organization or institution that one would eventually serve. Week 2: Are You Cosmopolitan? My score in this assessment is 23. This means that that I am within the mixed orientation (between being manifesting a cosmopolitan orientation and a local orientation) or one exhibiting and identifying a career profession and that of an employing organization. Thus, the implication is that being at mid-point, I could assume both preferences and orientation that the two extremes apparently exhibit.

Tang Song Dynasty Essay Example for Free

Tang Song Dynasty Essay After the fall of the Han Dynasty, China saw much chaos similar to what happened in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. Unlike Europe though, China was eventually reunited. The Tang Dynasty was the next Chinese Dynasty to unite China for an extended amount of time. Tang Culture The Tang dynasty is known as the golden age of Chinese culture. The capital of the Tang Dynasty, Chang-an, became incredibly wealthy and supported the flowering of Chinese culture. Due to the popularity of the Silk Road trade routes, Chang-an became a meeting place of many different cultures and religions: Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Islam all influenced Tang culture. Syrians, Jews, Arabs, Persians, Koreans, Tibetans, and Japanese all lived side by side with the Chinese of Chang-an. In 636, Christians from Syria were allowed to build a church and hold Christian services barely six hundred years after the founding of Christianity and less than three hundred years after Christianity had become the state religion of Rome. The foreigners not only brought in new religions, but new clothes, cuisine, literature, and music as well. The imperial court itself had several performing troupes of actors and musicians gathered from surrounding nations permanently performing at the court. Among their cultural achievements, the Tang craftsmen excelled in making porcelain and jade pottery, utensils and sculptures. Tang weavers advanced their silk-weaving, making clothes much softer and more extravagant than what Europeans were wearing in their scratchy wool. Porcelain and silk were in high demand, furthering increasing the trade between the world and China. Poetry became a popular subject for all these new readers. The poet Li Po  (701-762) became quite popular. His poetry focused on simple language that allowed the reader to immediately understand his emotions. He loved to celebrate the beauty of life and nature and wanted to share that love. Questions: Tang Dynasty 1. Describe how foreign cultures were viewed in China during this time? 2. During the Tang Dynasty, what goods were in high demand on the Silk Road? AFTER YOU READ BOTH ARTICLES!!!!! (ONE ON THE BACK) RANK THE TOP FIVE IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE TANG AND SONG DYNASTIES IN ORDER AND EXPLAIN WHY!!!!!!!!! The Song Dynasty, 960-1279 AD Eventually, the Tang Dynasty fell under pressure from outside invasions and domestic rebellions. The Song Dynasty soon took control over China after the fall of the Tang. The Song Economy Under the Song Dynasty, China experienced an agricultural and commercial revolution. Chinese farmers saw their production and wealth increase  dramatically. For hundreds of years Chinese dynasties had required peasants to do free manual labor for the government each year. This was how China built the Great Wall and roads. All the time they spent working for the government, was less time they worked on their fields. The Song Dynasty eliminated forced labor. Secondly, farmers were allowed to buy and sell land for the first time. You see, some people are just better at jobs than other people. By letting farmers buy and sell land, good farmers could buy land from bad farmers and produce more crops on that land. These two factors resulted in a phenomenal increase in agricultural production, and the wealth of the government and individual farmer increased significantly (though most farmers never became â€Å"wealthy.†) The most important economic innovation of the Song was the widespread use of money. China was the first country to use both paper and coin money. This helped China in 2 ways. First off, peasants used to have to pay their taxes in grain. The Song Dynasty now allowed farmers to pay their taxes in money. Since they no longer needed to grow grain, this freed up weak farmers to sell their farms and go get jobs they’d be better at in cities. Anytime you give people more freedom to choose their jobs, the economy will improve as they get jobs they’re better at. Secondly, before the widespread use of money, trade had to be done as bartering – people exchanged goods for other goods. If a farmer wanted to buy a goat, then he and the goat’s owner would have to come up with some sort of trade. â€Å"I’ll give you half a cow!† Obviously, that’s an awkward way to do things. So the use of money made trade MUCH easier, and the economy increased due to this! The booming economy led to the growth of cities. The city of Kaifeng eventually had a population of 250,000 households. The city of Hangchow had a population of 391,000 households. Compare that to Europe during the same period: Rome had an average population of about 35,000 households and London had a population of about 20,000 households. No civilization on earth was comparable to China during the Song Dynasty. Song Technology These Chinese cities were bursting at the seams with merchants and trade.  What were some of the goods and inventions that other cultures wanted? Merchants along the Silk Road obviously made most of their money off the trade in porcelain and silks. During this time period, China also invented a process to make steel and began producing gunpowder weapons. The demand for goods and services was so great that China began an unprecedented acceleration of foreign trade. Chinese goods were traded as far away as Africa and the Middle East. China also created junks – the largest ocean-going vessels in the world at the time that carried Chinese goods over the Indian Ocean all the way to Africa. China also built numerous canals. Canals are man-made rivers that allowed shipping and transportation to new areas. The largest canal, the Grand Canal, was built to link the Yellow and Yangtze rivers and make it easier to ship rice from the north to the south, helping to prevent starvation and improving the economy. Even though they were prosperous, the Song Dynasty also fell like every other Chinese dynasty before it. This time, they were overrun by a dangerous people to their north: the Mongols. The Song Dynasty also saw the invention of the movable-type printing press. Originally, if someone wanted to make a copy of a book, they would have to write it all out by hand, which took a long time. Using movable-type however, craftsmen created blocks of letters like the type your future children will play with. When they wanted to make a book, they would arrange the letters into a copy of a page. While this took a long time, the printer could then roll ink over the blocks and then use the blocks to make hundreds and hundreds of copies. This allowed a VAST amount of books to be printed much more cheaply, causing literacy to be more widespread. Questions: Song Dynasty 1. Explain the TWO reforms made during the Song Dynasty that improved agricultural production from farmers. 2. Explain how the use of paper and coin money gave peasants more freedom. 3. Explain how the use of paper and coin money increased trade. 4. What were two technological inventions made in China during this time? 5. What function did â€Å"junks† have? 6. What was the purpose of the Grand Canal? 7. Why was the invention of movable type so important in Song china?

Affordable Wallpaper In The Industry Design Essay

Affordable Wallpaper In The Industry Design Essay My aim for my final project is to have a professionally finished wallpaper design. Along with this idea I would like my wallpaper to be displayed in a house, perhaps in a show home, so people can see my work and see what it looks like in a room. This is because many aspects can affect the appearance of the wallpaper, for example, the lighting. If the light is very harsh and bright it can cause the colours to appear different and not look as effective. However if there is a soft glow it can appear warm and inviting. Within a show home everything is new and the home is developed to a high standard in order that it will appeal to prospective buyers, therefore presenting wallpaper within this environment would be and excellent promotion medium. I am also going to look into interior architecture and aim to master new skills within this subject so I can transfer them into my project. Once I have my wallpaper design and found a space in which to display it, I then plan to create the space using interior architectural programmes such as Auto CAD in order to create a virtual room. I will also introduce furniture, fabrics and colour alongside my wallpaper design. This virtual room will provide a prototype of how the finished room should look. In order to create a wallpaper design I need to look into the history of wallpaper; Where do they come from? How are they made? Do people still buy wallpaper? What are the consumer demands? Current styles and trends, are they cost effective? Is the economic climate affecting the wallpaper industry? I also need to find companies that will print out my design and at what cost? What is Wallpaper the History behind it? When looked up in the Oxford Dictionary the term wallpaper, means paper for covering the interior walls of rooms. Wallpaper is a kind of material used to cover and decorate the interior walls of either homes, offices or other buildings. It is not essential, however it has become a very popular method in which to style, create a mood or inject colour into a room. Wallpaper can be used for either residential or businesses purposes. These differ from each other for instance; they differ in weight, serviceability and quality standards. Residential wallpapers are commonly made from various materials and can be bought either pasted or pre-pasted. However when it comes to the commercial grade wallpapers they are divided into categories based on weight, backing composition and laminate thickness. All commercial wallpapers must have a vinyl surface and successfully undergo rigorous physical and visual tests as mandated by the Chemical Fabrics and Film Association. According to the Made How website, there are four popular methods used to print wallpapers and designers have chosen the printing technique based on the cost and aesthetics. This suggests that cost is a major issue when it comes to making wallpaper. The progression of wallpaper can be found going as far back into 200BC, in China where paper was originally invented. However the earliest wallpapers used within Europe was as early as the 13th century. Designs involved painted images of popular religious icons and were commonly used within the homes of those which were religious however they were also used to liven up the bleak, dull homes of the poor. Religious prints only remained popular with the poor over the following centuries. By the 16th century more expensive wall coverings such as depicting tapestries began to hang in the homes of the elite. Tapestries included repeated images which were block printed in various colours spread over multiple sheets of fabric. They added colour to the room as well as providing an insulating layer. Tapestries however were very expensive therefore implying only the rich could afford them. Due to the cost of these the less well off members of society turned to wallpaper in order to lighten up their homes. Wallpaper designs featured scenes which were similar to those in the tapestries, however printed onto large sheets of paper; these were either hung loose on the walls, or pasted instead of being framed. By the mid 18th century Britain was the leading wallpaper manufacturer in Europe, exporting large quantities to Europe but also selling within the middle class market, subsequently this trade was greatly interrupted due to the seven year war. Yet, slightly previously before the war, in 1748 the English Ambassador to Paris decorated his office with blue flock wallpaper, this in turn then became greatly fashionable. Within the 1760s designers began to work with silk and tapestry to produce subtle, luxurious wallpapers. Near the end of the century the fashion for scenic wallpaper revived in Britain once again and led to vast panoramic views of antique architecture, exotic landscapes and pastoral subjects as well as repeating patterns of stylized flowers, people and animals. During this period of time two problems arose, one problem was producing long sheets of paper for printing, the other was printing attractive wallpaper inexpensively. Until the mid 1700s their techniques included making rag-based paper which was individually printed in sheets, these were then applied to the walls. However in 1785, Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf invented a machine for printing coloured tints on sheets of wallpaper. Then in 1799 Louis-Nicolas Robert created a machine to produce long and continuous lengths of paper. This ability to produce long lengths of paper therefore allowed the wallpaper industry to flourish. By the 19th century printing costs had finally been reduced, this occurred by discarding manual block printing and replaced with cylinder printing. Wood block printing was a technique which involved applying a colour to each separate block by hand, then pressed down onto the paper, tapped in order to ensure the quality imprint, the block was then lifted up and re-inked and the process would be repeated, this was a very expensive and time consuming process. However with the cylinder printing the, technique involved the paper being mechanically fed between cylinders until the paper had been fully printed, therefore no hand printing being involved. This therefore led to the successful reduction of cost, consequently resulting in it being cheaper to wallpaper a house than it was to paint it. The development of the steam powered printing presses also had a great impact on the wallpaper industry as this allowed manufacturers to mass produce wallpaper, again cutting the costs and making it affordable to the working class. Wallpaper benefited from a high boom in popularity in 19th century and it had established itself as one of the most popular household items across the western world. Todays Styles Trends Wallpaper has changed greatly since it was first developed, in todays industry it comes in multiple patterns, designs and textures. Wallpaper manufacturers like Cole Son have realised the consumers needs for bold attractive wallpapers. As hubpages.com has pointed out, todays homeowners today want their walls to be more than simply covered they want them to make a statement. Arguably a wall covering is a piece of art and an expression of ones personality. By just browsing through the internet for popular wallpaper designs there are numerous different styles and textures available. However hubpages.com provides some of the industries offerings: Hubpages.com suggests that metallic wallpaper is one of the popular modern styles today. It is produced in a variety of colours and patterns. Due to its rich visual texture it instantly creates a focal point for a room therefore grabbing attention. Although this style of wallpaper is a modern technique, the patterns which are used are quite traditional, often with a floral repeat print. The colours used within todays market are bright and bold which have a modern feel to them. This therefore suggests to me that the current market trends are a mixture of traditional designs with modern bright colours. However it can be argued that in the 1970s bright orange was injected into the world of interiors. As Lesley Hoskins (1994 p.226) points out, The first few years of the 1970s were bright in every respect, Also according to hubpages.com, The most popular colour palettes in the seventies were based in nature dark woods, mossy greens, bright pumpkin orange, daffodil yellow and the ubiquito us harvest gold dominated the interiors of suburban seventies homes. Therefore questionably are bright colours a modern trend? Or have they just remained popular since the 1970s? Metallic wallpaper varies in price depending where you purchase it from it can range between  £10 a role in stores such as Focus and up to  £50 a role from Cole Son. Therefore showing that this type of wallpaper is affordable for everyone and it is also a popular style due to the wide range of stores selling it. Flock is a traditional style of wallpaper and has been around for countless years, it became very popular in the mid 17th century. It has a slightly raised textural pattern that has a soft velvety feel to it. This can be supported by hubpages.com as they state, it is rich in both visual and tactile texture. This style is elegant and luxurious. In the 1760s it was greatly respected within the industry as noted by Charles C. Oman and Jean Hamilton (1982 p.21) The flock papers of this period on the other hand, are, almost without exception, the work of very capable designers. Their decorative qualities were such that their suppression by other types of wallpaper later in the century was clearly due to a change in taste, rather than to the growth of greater artistic appreciation. Although Flock is a traditional wall covering it has remained to this day a fashionable choice of wallpaper, as it is sold by manufactures such as BQ, Cole Son, Osborne little and Zoffanny. Flock wallpaper is very expensive compared to other wall coverings. My research has identified that prices start from  £44.98 in lower end stores such as BQ and can range up to  £150 by Cole Son, increasing in price to  £253.95 by designers such as Antonina Vella. This style is very highly priced and therefore suggests only the greater cliental would be able to afford it. However it can be argued that a fashionable trend within the industry today is the feature wall, being the decoration of one wall only. This would subsequently cut costs and allow more homeowners to buy luxurious styles of wallpaper. As in a article published by the Guardian, Review of the Decade, Humi Qureshi makes the point that, with some designers saying feature walls offer recession-proof style (buying one roll of wallpaper or one pot of paint, to cover a single wall is more affordable than decorating a whole room), therefore supporting the feature wall current trend. An interesting design of wallpaper I have researched is glass bead wallpaper, after looking into this I have discovered that it is a moderately new product, it is very rich in texture as it is built up of thousands of miniature glass beads stuck onto the paper backing. The three dimensional surface makes this wallpaper strikingly unique. A positive to this wallpaper is that it can be developed in a variety of colours however when it comes to cost this product is very expensive compared to the others as it can be up to three times the price of regular wallpaper. This again makes me think this style of design would be more suited for the more affluent buyer. I love this technique I think its very eye catching and unusual, it would look great in a grand, luxurious bathroom. I can also see this design being used within upper class hotels and perhaps restaurants. However, although this is a very luxurious wallpaper, if too much was introduced into a room it would become tacky and unattractive therefore I would keep it to a minimum and use small amounts to add accents and create a unique look to the room. By adding only small sections of the beaded paper it would reduce costs therefore making it affordable to more people. Todays Economic Market According to keynote.co.uk in 2009 outgoings on wallpapers amounted to  £315 million. However total market value has dropped by 6.4% from the previous year. Is this due to the economic climate? Or is the consumer spending elsewhere? Keynote.co.uk states that wall coverings and ceramic tiles account for 10.3% of total expenditure on materials for maintenance and repair of dwellings in the UK, trailing other home dà ©cor and improvement products such as paint, this statement shows home owners are opting to use other methods for decorating instead of buying wallpaper. Arguably the cost cuts for the wallpaper industry may be due to the feature wall trend implying that the consumer is still buying wallpaper albeit not in large quantities as they did before, thus explaining the cost cuts. Although the market value has dropped keynote.co.uk also points out it remains popular with the C1 and E socio-demographic groups, as well as consumers based in particular regions such as the West Midlands, the North, the North West, Yorkshire and Humberside. This statement is interesting as to quote from Wikipedia, Socio groups C1 and E are; lower middle class and Those at lowest level of substance, suggesting, home owners of all classes are able to afford wallpaper and signifies, wallpaper is not just for the affluent buyer. According to keynote.co.uk Recovery within the UK retail market for wall coverings is not expected to start until 2011 By 2014 market value is expected to have risen by 7.3% Thus implying there is still going to be a demand for wallpaper in the UK for the fore coming years. marketresearch.com points out A key market influences, construction sector- historical trends and current performance of housing and commercial construction markets, house moving this statement shows the possibilities for wallpaper and its future. Through my own primary research, using surveys and asking a variety of consumers, their opinions based around wallpapers about their profession, thoughts on cost, design, colours and techniques, along with their outlook on the feature wall trend. Has allowed me to find out the current consumer demands; along with assisting me to answer the questions: do people still buy wallpaper in todays economic climate? Are they cost effective? What are the consumer demands/what do they look for in wallpaper? What styles do they like?

Farm Experience :: essays research papers

Hi! Today I wish to share my farm experience with you. Last month I visited farm fields several times. There I got an opportunity to get close with nature (once again!) Well this was a pleasant sight. Small children were playing ball around the grazing cattle. A group of birds was twittering and hovering on field, eager to feed on the crop. The sight is more beautiful when you see pet dogs running for balls with the boys. Wow! These all make a great sight. Hey! wait! If you have seen a sparrow & a Parrot sitting on a branch of tree and singing. Well I hope if you have seen something like this you will never forget it. Any way, when I moved across the field I saw the crops in full-fledged form. The green looking color of crop makes you pleasant. If you have planted some sunflower crop nothing needs to be said. All is beautiful! I was moving round the field in the evening. The leaves seemed busy in moving with wind as if they were agree with it and wanted to accept its invitation of a big party. The branches were steady and up right as if they were absolutely vigilant on the notorious act of the wind. And the birds on its branch made it a live sight! Hands off to nature! Suddenly I felt an odor. It was coming from the mint. I saw that while walking through fields I had reached the mint farming area. All the atmosphere was absolutely filled with mint aroma. What to say after that! I watched it for some while. This was a pleasant feeling. Then I moved forward. While crossing through road I met a huge banyan tree that had sent spiral roots to earth as if its branches wanted to be self-dependent. The tree had no objections with it because it was making it more stable for long term. We have a planning commission for work strategies but what about them! Hands off nature! I returned back as it was getting dark. The next morning I woke up early to see the sunrise from the field. I have seen the sunrise behind mountains, sea and rivers but it was a first opportunity to see it emerging from field! I was at field in time. Farmers were going to inspect their field. The birds had taken their flight.

Effective Communication in the Workplace

As a baby, you learn that if you cry and fuss, Mom and Dad will rush over to comfort you; however, as you mature, you realize that there are better ways of communicating. I will present my message here today on â€Å"Effective communication in the work place. † Communication in the work place is essential because first, communication skills prepare you to perform specific duties in the work place making you a better employee. Second, communication skills in the work place prepare you to exercise flexibility. Last, communication skills form better relationships and understanding amongst other employees and managers. Body I. Communication skills prepare you to perform specific duties in the workplace making you a better employee A. Good communication passes information along and if you can effectively communicate, then people understand you much better, and information you are trying to tell or receive will get across without being misunderstood. 1. Marsha Ludden states in a book he had written that, â€Å"if you can communicate effectively what you need or want, you are more likely to be successful in getting it. An example will be a bigger salary. 2. Effective communication also helps you to convince others to agree with you in a persuasive setting. B. Good communication helps you to think better which are essential to make you perform well when performing duties in the workplace. 1. In order to communicate effectively, you have to think ahead and organize your thoughts. 2. When performing job duties this teaches you not only how to learn how to organize, but how to plan ahead. II. Communication skills in the work place prepare you to exercise flexibility A. Communication in the workplace reflects key personality traits, as well as key competencies for success. Show yourself, your staff or your employer you have the necessary intellectual, creative and behavioral flexibility to handle what each work day brings. 1. Studies show to suggest positive aspects of a challenging situation. Examine how a change in a supplier, for instance, can improve a product you manufacture or a service your company provides. Resist insisting that a change cannot work, advises the University of Bradford, Career Development Services office. 2. Have a scheduled time with each department in your company. Add to your skills set to enable you to better understand new issues that may arise in each department. B. Find the secret of effective, easy performance to get more equip with difference task including other workers. 1. Implement team problem-solving measures. Meet with key staff members when changes arise. 2. Get brief insight and solutions from your team if, for example, a valued client decides not to interact in certain situations. III. Communication skills form better relationships and understanding amongst other employees and managers A. Good communication passes information along and if you can effectively communicate, then other employees understand you much better, and information you are trying to tell them will get across without being misunderstood. 1. This prevents arguments, especially between co-workers, explain your thoughts and feelings, and then you won't misunderstand each other. 2. If you can effectively communicate, then you can get along better with other employers. Most arguments are caused by people not communicating effectively and not being able to negotiate with each other. B. Being respectful and using manners in the work place sets a great tone in the environment and forms better relationships with managers 1. Good listening skills are part of good communication; you need to understand what you’re manager is saying to you as well as to say what you want. 2. Communication often includes non-verbal clues such as tone of voice, facial expression, gestures, and body posture. Good communicati on includes being observant and focusing on the other person. Conclusion I. There is always room for improvement when it comes to communication skills. The more you practice by interacting with others, the better you will be. In addition, you will be better able to tell when you are getting your ideas across effectively, and how to improve if you are not. The better you are at communicating, the easier it will be to do your job and work with others- making the workplace more enjoyable, and making you a more successful employee. II. In the words of Tony Robbins, â€Å"To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others. †

The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 29

My Movie's Montage Explaining how I learned Tiffany's routine and became an excellent dancer would be difficult – mostly because our rehearsals are long and grueling and extremely boring. We do the same little things over and over again endlessly. For example, if I had to lift a finger in the air for the routine, Tiffany would make me do it a thousand times every single day until I could do it to her liking on command. So I will spare you most of the boring details. To make things even more complicated, Tiffany has forbidden me to document our rehearsals in any thorough manner that would allow others to steal her training techniques. As she wants to open up a studio someday, she is very guarded about her methods – and her choreography too. Luckily, as I am starting to write this part, I remember that in every one of his films, whenever Rocky needs to become a better boxer, they show clips of him doing one-arm push-ups, running on the beach, punching slabs of meat, running the stairs of the art museum, gazing at Adrian lovingly, or being yelled at by Mickey or Apollo Creed or even Paulie – all while his theme song plays, which is perhaps the greatest song in the world, â€Å"Gonna Fly Now.† In the Rocky movies, it only takes a few minutes to cover weeks of training, and yet the audience still understands that a lot of preparation went into the actual development of Rocky's boxing skills, even though we only get to see a few clips of the Italian Stallion working hard. During a therapy session, I ask Cliff what this movie technique is called. He has to call his wife, Sonja, on his cell phone, but she knows the answer and tells us that what I am trying to describe is called a montage. So that is what I am now going to create below, my movie's montage. Maybe you'll want to play â€Å"Gonna Fly Now† on your CD player, if you have a copy handy – or you could put on any song you find inspiring – and read along to the music. Music is not required, however. Okay, here it is, my montage: In anticipation of our big performance, I'm running a little faster with Tiffany every day. We push ourselves, and when we get to the park, we sprint the last mile to her house and get really sweaty. I always beat Tiffany, because I am a man, yes, but also because I am an excellent runner. See me pumping iron: bench press, leg lifts, sit-ups on the Stomach Master 6000, bike riding, squats, knuckle push-ups, curls – the works. â€Å"Crawl!† Tiffany yells. So I crawl on the hardwood floor of her dance studio. â€Å"Crawl like you have no legs and you haven't eaten for two weeks and there's a single apple in the middle of the room and another man with no legs is also crawling toward the apple. You want to crawl faster, but you cannot, because you are maimed. Desperation flows out of your face like sweat! You are so afraid you will not get to the apple before the other legless man! He will not share the apple with – no, no, no. Stop! You're doing it all wrong! Jesus Christ, Pat! We only have four weeks left!† â€Å"Jeanie,† I hear my father say. He is in the kitchen eating his breakfast. I am on the basement stairs listening. â€Å"Why does Pat close his eyes and hum every time I mention the Eagles? Is he going crazy again? Should I be concerned?† â€Å"What's this I hear about you missing the Saints game?† Jake says through the telephone when I call him back sometime after 11:00 p.m. He has called two nights in a row, and the note my mother left for me on my pillow read Call your brother back no matter how late. IMPORTANT. â€Å"Don't you want to see what Baskett does this week? Why are you humming?† â€Å"When you are a dancer, you are allowed to put your hands anywhere on your partner's body, Pat. It's not sexual. So when you do this first lift, yes, your hands will be cradling my ass and crotch. Why are you pacing? Pat, it's not sexual – it's modern dance.† See me pumping iron: bench press, leg lifts, sit-ups on the Stomach Master 6000, bike riding, knuckle push-ups, curls – the works. â€Å"I'm Okay, Pat. I'm fucking fine. You're going to drop me a few times while we're learning the lifts, but it's not because you're not strong enough. You need to center your palm directly at the base of my crotch. If you need me to get more specific, I will. Here. I'll show you. Put out your hand.† â€Å"Your mother tells me you will not discuss Eagles football with your – why are you humming?† Cliff asks. â€Å"I did not mention that certain saxophonist's name. What's this all about?† â€Å"I never thought I would say this, but maybe you should consider taking a break from your dance training and watch the game with Jake and your dad,† my mother says. â€Å"You know I hate football, but you and your father seemed to be making a connection, and Jake and you are just getting back to being brotherly again. Pat, please stop humming.† â€Å"For the second lift you need to look up at me, Pat. Especially just before I go into the flip. You don't have to look at my crotch, but you have to be ready to push up so I'll get more height. If you don't give me a push when I bend my knees, I won't be able to complete the flip and will probably crack my head open on the floor.† â€Å"I know you can hear me through the humming, Pat. Look at you!† my father says. â€Å"Curled up in your bed, humming like a child. Birds lose by a field goal in New Orleans, and your boy Baskett had zero catches. Zilch. Don't think your dancing through the game didn't affect the outcome.† â€Å"You look like a retarded snake! You are supposed to crawl with your arms – not slither or wiggle or whatever the fuck you are doing down there. Here. Watch me.† In anticipation of our big performance, I'm running a little faster with Tiffany every day. We push ourselves, and when we get to the park, we sprint the last mile to her house and get really sweaty. I always beat Tiffany, because I am a man, yes, but also because I am an excellent runner. â€Å"What's Tiffany holding over you?† Ronnie says. We are in my parents' basement. I have already spotted him as he benched one wimpy sixty-pound rep, and now he is taking a break. This is a surprise visit disguised to look like a prework lifting session. â€Å"I told you to protect yourself. I'm telling you, Pat, you don't know what that woman is capable of. My sister-in-law is capable of anything. Anything!† â€Å"You're making the sun with your arms. In the center of the stage, you represent the sun. And when you make the huge circle with your arms, it has to be slow and deliberate – just like the sun. The dance is one day's worth of sun. You are going to rise and set all onstage – to the flow of our song. Understand?† â€Å"I want you to talk to Tiffany and tell her it's important for you to watch the Eagles game with your father,† Mom says. â€Å"Please stop humming, Pat. Please, just stop humming!† â€Å"The second lift is the hardest by far, as it requires you to go from a squatting position to a standing position with me standing on your hands, which will be just above your shoulders. Do you think you're strong enough to do this, because we can do something else if you are too weak, but let's try it now and we'll just see.† â€Å"Why is this dance competition so important to you?† Cliff asks me. I look up at the sun painted on the ceiling of his office and smile. â€Å"What?† he says. â€Å"The dancing lets me be that,† I say, and point up. Cliff's eyes follow my finger. â€Å"It lets you be the sun?† â€Å"Yes,† I say, and smile again at Cliff, because I really like being the sun, exactly what allows clouds to have a silver lining. Also, being the sun is what will provide me with the opportunity to write letters to Nikki. â€Å"Please stop humming into the phone, Pat. I'm on your side here. I understand wanting to learn an art for a woman. Don't you remember my playing the piano for you? But the difference is that Caitlin would never ask me to miss an Eagles game, because she knows it's more than just football to me. I can hear you fucking humming through the phone, Pat, but I'm just going to keep talking, all right? You're acting crazy, you know. And if the Eagles lose tomorrow against the Buccaneers, Dad is going to think you cursed the Birds.† â€Å"Okay, you know your routine – roughly, anyway. So now I want you to watch mine. I'll say ‘lift' when it's time for one of your lifts, just so you know when they're coming. But don't worry, because as long as you do your routine, I'll make sure we link up with the lifts. Okay?† Tiffany is in tights and a T-shirt like every other day, but she transforms her face just before she pushes play on the CD player. So solemn. Those sad piano notes and those two dueling voices fill the room, and Tiffany begins to dance beautifully but sadly. Her body moves so gracefully, and it is only now that I understand what she means by crying through movement. She jumps, she rolls, she spins, she runs, she slides. She yells â€Å"Lift!† and then falls to the floor dead, only to explode upward in resurrection when the music picks up again. And her dancing is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I could watch her dance for the rest of my life, and strangely, watching Tiffany soar around the dance floor makes me feel like I am floating over waves with baby Emily. Tiffany is that good. â€Å"Your father has stopped eating dinner with me, Pat. He's not taking walks with me either. Ever since the Eagles lost to the Buccaneers, he's back to his – Pat, please stop humming. Pat!† In anticipation of our big performance, I'm running a little faster with Tiffany every day. We push ourselves, and when we get to the park, we sprint the last mile to her house and get really sweaty. I always beat Tiffany, because I am a man, yes, but also because I am an excellent runner. â€Å"I don't think you understand how much this means to my sister,† Veronica says, and I am shocked to see her and baby Emily in my basement gym. â€Å"Do you know that since Tommy passed, she has never asked her family to see her dance? In fact, for two years she's banned us from attending any of her performances. But this year she thinks she is going to perform flawlessly enough to invite her family – she's convinced, in fact – and while I am glad to see her so happy, I'm afraid to even think about what she might do if you guys screw up the performance. She's not a stable person, Pat. You do understand that, right? You do understand that your performing poorly will result in months of serious depression? So I need to ask you how are the rehearsals really going? Do you truly think you can win? Do you?† Before I turn off the lights, I stare into framed-picture Nikki's eyes. I see her freckled nose, her strawberry blond hair, her full lips. I kiss her so many times. â€Å"Soon,† I say. â€Å"I'm doing everything I can. I won't let you down. Remember – ‘Forever's gonna start tonight.'† See me pumping iron: bench press, leg lifts, sit-ups on the Stomach Master 6000, bike riding, knuckle push-ups, curls – the works. â€Å"The Asian Invasion will pick you up at – † Cliff nods at me and smiles. â€Å"Ah, the humming again. Your mother tells me you won't talk to anyone about Eagles football, but you aren't seriously going to miss a home game, are you?† â€Å"The most important thing is to make the lifts look effortless, as if you are holding up air. I should appear to be floating. Understand? Good, because I need you to stop shaking during the routine, Pat. You look like you have fucking Parkinson's disease, for Christ's sake.† â€Å"How does a four-and-one team lose three games straight?† Dad yells down from the top of the basement steps. â€Å"A team that beat the Dallas Cowboys handily? A team with a first-ranked offense and more sacks than any other team in the league? You can hum all you want, Pat. But that don't change the fact that you took the good luck away from the Birds and are ruining our season!† See me pumping iron: bench press, leg lifts, sit-ups on the Stomach Master 6000, bike riding, knuckle push-ups, curls – the works. â€Å"Okay. Not bad. You got the crawling down, and one of the lifts doesn't look awful anymore. But we only have a week left. Can we do this? Can we do this?† â€Å"I bought you a present,† Tiffany tells me. â€Å"Go into the powder room and try it on.† In her studio's washroom, I remove a pair of yellow tights from a plastic bag. â€Å"What's this?† I call out to Tiffany. â€Å"It's your outfit. Put it on, and we'll have a dress rehearsal.† â€Å"Where's the shirt?† â€Å"Again,† Tiffany says, even though it is 10:41 p.m. and my elbows feel as though they might explode. I am dancing on raw nerves. I am dancing on bone. â€Å"Again!† Eleven fifty-nine p.m. â€Å"Again,† Tiffany says, and then takes her place at the left side of the studio. Knowing that arguing is no use, I drop to the floor and prepare to crawl. â€Å"This might tickle some,† Tiffany says just before she slides her pink lady razor through the shaving cream coating my chest, and then she shows me how much hair is in the teacup she rinses the blade in. I am lying on a yoga mat in the middle of her dance studio. My chest is covered with some sort of green aloe shaving gel that turns white when you make foam. Being shaved by Tiffany sort of makes me feel strange, as I have never been shaved by a woman before and have never had my torso shaved at all. When she lathers me up, I close my eyes, and my fingers and toes tingle wildly. I sort of giggle each time she shaves a line of hair off my chest. I sort of giggle each time she shaves a line of hair off my back. â€Å"We want those muscles to gleam like the sun onstage, right?† â€Å"Why can't I just wear a shirt?† I say, even though – in a weird sort of way – I secretly enjoy being shaved by Tiffany. â€Å"Does the sun wear a shirt?† The sun does not wear yellow tights either, but I do not say so. In anticipation of our big performance, I'm running a little faster with Tiffany every day. We push ourselves, and when we get to the park, we sprint the last mile to her house and get really sweaty. I always beat Tiffany, because I am a man, yes, but also because I am an excellent runner. Two days before the competition, just before we are about to perform the routine for the twenty-fifth time that day – twenty-five being Tiffany's favorite number – she says, â€Å"We need to do this flawlessly.† So I try my best, and as I watch bits of our routine in the mirrors that surround us, I think, We really are dancing flawlessly! I am so excited when we finish, because I know we will win – especially since we have improved ourselves so much with sacrifice and hard training. This mini-movie will have a happy ending for sure! But something about Tiffany's demeanor is off as we take our water break. She is not yelling at me, nor is she using the f-word, so I ask, â€Å"What's wrong?† â€Å"How many people did you recruit to come to the competition?† â€Å"I asked everyone I know.† â€Å"Veronica tells me your family is mad at you for abandoning the Eagles.† â€Å"Not my mom.† â€Å"I'm worried that if we don't get enough fans there to cheer for us, the judges might be swayed by another dancer's larger fan base. We might not win, and then I would not be able to act as your liaison, Pat.† â€Å"Maybe if you are not doing anything tomorrow night, you might want to bring your wife and children to my dance recital,† I tell Cliff. â€Å"We've really got a good routine, and I think we can win if only we have enough audience support, and I don't think that my father or brother will be likely to show up, so – â€Å" â€Å"After tomorrow night, you'll be done with these long rehearsals?† â€Å"Yeah.† â€Å"So you will be able to go to the Redskins game on – â€Å" â€Å"Hmmmmmm.† â€Å"Just tell me this, if I go to the dance recital, will you go to the Eagles game with us on Sunday? The Asian Invasion misses you, and truthfully, we sort of feel like you've cursed the Eagles by abandoning them mid-season. Poor Baskett has only caught two balls in the last three games and had zero catches last week. And the Birds have lost three straight. We miss you down at the Linc, Pat.† â€Å"I can't talk about that subject until my dance recital is over tomorrow night. I can only say that I need to recruit as many people as possible to cheer for Tiffany and me so the judges will be swayed. Let me just say that winning is really important, and Tiffany says that crowd reaction can sway the judges.† â€Å"If I come, will you talk to me about that-thing-you-are-not-allowed-to-talk-about after your performance?† â€Å"Cliff, I can't talk about that until after the performance.† â€Å"Well then, neither can I tell you whether I will be at your performance,† Cliff says. At first I think he is bluffing, but he doesn't bring up the subject again, and by the end of our therapy session I feel as though I have blown my shot at getting Cliff to bring his wife to my recital, which makes me feel very depressed. Hello, you've reached Jake and Caitlin's machine. Please leave a message after the beep. Beep. â€Å"Jake. Sorry to call so late, but I just got done rehearsing. I know that you are mad at me because you think I jinxed those-people-who-make-me-hum-at-the-present-moment, but if you bring Caitlin to my dance recital, there's a chance I might be able to do that thing we used to do on Sundays, especially if you cheer for Tiffany and me very loudly. We need people to cheer for us, because the judges are sometimes swayed by the audience. It's really important that we win this competition. So as your brother, I'm asking you to please bring your wife to the Plaza – â€Å" Beep. I hang up and redial the number. Hello, you've reached Jake and Caitlin's machine. Please leave a message after the beep. Beep. â€Å"That's the Plaza Hotel at – â€Å" â€Å"Hello? Is everything okay?† It's Caitlin's voice, which makes me nervous, so I hang up, fully realizing I have blown my shot at getting Jake to come to my dance recital. â€Å"Pat, you know I'll be there. And I'll cheer so loudly for you, but winning isn't everything,† my mom says. â€Å"It's the fact that you were able to learn to dance in only a few weeks that is impressive.† â€Å"Just ask Dad, okay?† â€Å"I will. But I don't want you to get your hopes up. A dance recital is not something he would have attended even if the Eagles won the last three games.†