Monday, August 24, 2020

High School Sports Importance

Secondary School Sports Most secondary schools have in any event four games they offer to their understudies. In numerous locale, there must be an equivalent measure of sports for young men and young ladies. Some even have co-ed wearing clubs. Secondary school sports have been a fundamental piece of the secondary school educational program for a long time. For a considerable length of time the school locale have understood the significance of sports. In any case, not all guardians completely understand the significance. A few kids are not permitted to take an interest in school sports, as a result of the cost, the time duty, or the chance of injury.The truth is that secondary school sports are something beyond fun. They are incredible devices to helpstudents find out about existence. They can show understudies who are included numerous things. Collaboration, participation, and initiative are a few things understudies can gain from school sports. They can bring these things into their regular day to day existences also. At the point when they manufacture certainty on the brandishing field, they are likewise fabricating certainty against the world. They will have the option to cooperate with other people in every other everyday issue also. Secondary school sports are additionally the ideal method to get adolescents far from drugs and different risky behaviors.Coaches are incredible good examples that can frequently urge players to be respectful. A few schools even have restricts on GPAs for their competitors. On the off chance that an understudy athlete’s grades fall beneath a specific point, they can't play. Understudies who love sports will effectively play, including concentrate more. They will likewise be more averse to attempt medications or violate the law in some other way. Thus, permit your youngsters to take an interest in school sports. Get included and warm up to the guardians of different understudies also. The entire family can make some extra ordinary memories and find out about games together

Saturday, August 22, 2020

The Outsiders

The Outsiders by S. E Hinton, the creator contends that gallantry characterizes an individual by their activities not by their experience, history, or looks. The occasions at the congregation, the episodes that occurred before the congregation and the consequence all show the progressions that occurred after some time that would in the long run refute Ponyboys history and foundation and see him as a hero.There are various purposes of chivalry in the story and various types of eroism in the story however for the present we are going to take a gander at the most significant three, Cherry going about as a government agent, Ponyboy saving the children and what he was characterized by before he was a saint. Ponyboy is a lot of characterized as a saint after the occasions that occurred at the congregation where he saved each one of those children from death by getting them out of the consuming church. He outed of mental fortitude and thoughtfulness and was applauded as a saint for it. â₠¬Å"Mrs.O'briant and I think you were sent directly from paradise. Or on the other hand would you say you are Just expert legends or something? Sent from paradise? Had he gotten a decent glance at Dallas? â€Å"No were greasers† I said. I was excessively stressed and terrified to welcome the way that he was attempting to be entertaining. mfou're what? † â€Å"Greasers you know as id hoods. Johnny is needed for homicide, and Dallas has a record with the fluff a mile long. â€Å"(95). The statement present here identifies with the subject and clarifies the rescue vehicle driver disregarding his past and as yet valuing him as a hero.The creator is placing accentuation on the valor in the statement and that regardless of what foundation legends ome from, they are viewed for their activities and the equivalent applied for Ponyboy and what he accomplished for those children. The explanation that he was viewed as a legend was a direct result of his activities, yet what was he characterized as before the congregation? He was a greaser, Just your normal consistently greaser who was viewed as a hood, a criminal, and Juvenile reprobate to society. â€Å"It was my pride. It was long and satiny, Just like soft drinks just a smidgen redder.Our hair was tuff †we didn't need to utilize a lot of oil on it. Our hair marked us greasers too †it was our trademark. The one thing we were pleased with. Perhaps we couldn't corvairs or madras shirts, however we could have hair. † Ponyboys pride was his hair and that is the thing that he believed himself to be characterized by. It was an excruciating change for him to make when he needed to cut it off. At the point when Johnny advised ponyboy that he is going to trim their hair ponyboy answered by expressing the past statement. Ponyboy could have been characterized as a saint before the occasions at the congregation in an alternate manner and from an alternate perspective.He could be a legend in Johnnys ey es or staying with him since the time he killed the Socs Bob to him lying in his demise bed. He is a legend for remaining by his companions through the great and the terrible. In spite of the fact that Ponyboy is the most striking saint in the story there are other people who did different things, for example, Cherry going about as a covert operative for the Greases and giving them information. At long last the entirety of the various accounts of valor in the story all relate back to the principle topic courage is characterized by your activities not by your experience, history, or looks. The Outsiders By Pancakewaffe The Outsiders Quest for Self Conflict emerges between two exceptional social gatherings, bringing about unfortunate passings. In the novel The Outsiders by S. E Hint, two separate posses, the Soc and Greasers, are at steady dispute. The Outsiders happens In Oklahoma, the sass's. Clue utilizes the character, Pony Curtis to clarify why It doesn't make a difference what social position you are In. The message she Is attempting to get across to the perusers Is you are your own individual, and you don't need to be delegated any other individual yet yourself.Throughout the novel Pony turns out to be increasingly modern, by figuring out how to reaffirm is own qualities and feeling of self. He continuously develops through the course of the novel from numerous points of view by encountering things he would have never envisioned experiencing. Horse never appreciated the young ladies that were Greasers yet one night he found the young lady he had always wanted. Lamentably, she was a Soc and she had various guidelines for her sentimental buddy. Horse knows his situation in the public eye yet that never kept him away from succumbing to the delicious Cherry Valance.Heartbreaking for him, she was a greater amount of the young lady to succumb to â€Å"bad-boys† not at all like Pony. It wasn't Johnny's shortcoming Bob was an alcohol dog and Cherry went for young men destined for By the finish of the novel, Pony at long last goes to the acknowledgment of considering Cherry even more a companion, as opposed to having sentimental expressions of love for her. He shows affectability and comprehension by valuing their disparities and tolerating her emotions towards him. A second way Pony has changed is by learning the results of his own slip-ups and wrong doings.After Running endlessly was consistently Pony preeminent hypothesis on finding a spot he felt affirmation, â€Å"Come on, Johnny, we're running )After getting back home late, his more seasoned defensive sibling Dairy, who has assu med control over obligation of Pony and Soda after their folks died, is exceptionally irate with him. Because of his shock, he winds up hitting Pony. Crushed, Pony flees, and depends on one of the posse individuals to stay up with the latest on what Is happening. He Is then stuck In a surrendered church starving for news to originate from his confidant.As a consequence of his activities, Pony figures out how large of an Impact his loved ones have n him. The greatest effect that changed Pony all through the novel was the acknowledgment of his sibling's sentiments towards him. In the start of the novel, Pony is insubordinate against his most established sibling Dairy, â€Å"Me and Dairy simply didn't burrow one another. â€Å"(p. 13)He felt like Dairy was distinctly out to get after him, and that Pony was rarely uncommon enough. Despite the fact that Dairy is stricter than their folks, he was just attempting to make the best of Pony, which he reached acknowledge toward the end. Dair y cared about me, possibly as much as he thought about Soda, and in light of the fact that he eared he was making a decent attempt to make a big deal about me. â€Å"(p. 98)After attempting to shut Dairy out, Pony at long last made sense of it for himself subsequent to seeing the anguish he has gotten Dairy through.

Saturday, July 25, 2020

How Thinking Like A Scientist Can Make You More Productive

How Thinking Like A Scientist Can Make You More Productive Theres a very particular way of thinking thats prevalent among scientists. Scientists work on studies and experiments. For each one, they determine a hypothesisâ€"a prediction of what will happen during the experiment. But heres where things really differ from the way most of us think: experiments dont fail or succeed. They simply prove or disprove the hypothesis. A scientist hasnt failed in their work if their hypothesis turns out to be incorrect. Rather, all they have to do to succeed in their work is run the experiment and collect data. That data helps them form new hypotheses and run further experiments. Compare that to how you think about your work. If you have a deadline, or a side project youre working on, or a promotion youre aiming for, you probably have a clear definition in your head of success and failure. And youre aiming for success, right? Theres no scientific process when it comes to getting your work submitted by a deadline. You do the work well or not, and turn it in on time, or not. But, though it might seem out of place, bringing this scientific way of thinking in to your work can be surprisingly effective in helping you succeed more. Lets take a look at two particular examples where this is the case. Thinking Like a Scientist to Increase Your Chances of Success Taylor Pearson writes of Buckminster Fuller, an incredibly productive scientist who published more than 30 books, as well as inventing various architectural designs, and even coining new terms such as Spaceship Earth. Pearson tells the story of a low point in Fullers life in 1927, when his familyâ€"including a new babyâ€"was struggling financially after hed lost his job. It was at this point, when Fuller was on the brink of giving up on life entirely, that he realized he had nothing to lose in terms of how he lived in the future. He resolved to live his life with the mindset of a scientistâ€"continually experimenting, tweaking, and experimenting again, to see how he could best contribute to humanity. My objective was humanitys comprehensive success in the universe, he once said. Looking over his achievements, one could say his experiments turned out rather well. Fullers approach was to act as if he were two people: Fuller the scientist, and Fuller the operator. His operator self carried out his experiments, living his life and doing his work based on the parameters set by his scientist self. Fuller called himself Guinea Pig B, with B standing for Bucky, as he was known to his friends. After each experiment, Fuller the scientist examined the data, adjusted for a new hypothesis, and started a new experiment. His experiments generally took the form of designing some new inventionâ€"most of which were failures. But he didnt quit. After all, he was on a lifelong mission to determine what he could contribute to humanity. Each new invention he worked on was another data point in his 50-year experiment. While I wouldnt suggest such an extreme approach for anyone, least of all those with a new baby at home and no job, its worth noting that the scientists approach to thinking turned around a man ready to give up on life and made him a prolific writer, inventor, and designer whos well-remembered today. On a smaller scale, approaching your work as both a scientist and a guinea pig may help you find the key to productivity you cant see otherwise. By running experiments and taking a step back to examine the results after each one, you can continue adjusting your approach until you find what gives you the most productive output possible. To get started, you might try experiments such as these: Use a standing desk for a week Exercise before work to improve your mood and mental clarity Trying working from another room or in a café for one day per week Batch your email processing into one or two periods per day, and keep your inbox shut in-between those Schedule all calls and meetings for one day per week and keep other days free for focused work Dont forget one of the critical parts of the scientific method: gathering data. First, write down your hypothesis: what do you think will happen during the experiment? Then, find a way to measure what happens. It might be keeping a tally of how many tasks you get done in a day, what type of work you get through, or simply using a time tracking app to note how you spent your time overall. As Pearson says, one of the most important parts of designing experiments is to ensure youve clearly outlined the parameters ahead of time. By treating life as an experiment, he says, you can limit downsides and maximize upside by removing your ego. Once you start putting the experiment into effect, says Pearson, your ego is involved. Knowing ahead of time what fits the parameters of your experiment and what doesnt takes away the uncertainty of what to do in the momentâ€"and ensures youll have solid data to work with after the experiment is over. You need to understand that the success of that one experiment doesn’t define your success as a scientist, it’s the aggregate that matters. â€" Taylor Pearson Work smarter, not harder. Thinking Like a Scientist to Overcome the Fear of Starting New Projects Side projects, unlike our day jobs, tend to reveal a lot more about us. Theyre more linked to our identities and our valuesâ€"in short, our egos tend to be more wrapped up in our personal projects. For this reason, theyre also more scary. Its a lot harder to face failure in a passion project than it is in a task assigned to you by someone else. Entrepreneur, designer, and writer Paul Jarvis says fear kept him from starting new projects for a long time, leaving his skills and experience stagnating. I used to let fear of a failed side project keep me from trying new things outside of my normal workload, he says. My day-job was comfortable, so I didn’t want to fail at something new. When Jarvis realized he wasnt pushing himself creatively, he knew side projects were the perfect way to do so. Side projects, he says, give us a chance to push new skills, flex our creative muscles, and give us testing grounds for new and innovative ideas. Jarvis found a way to push through his fear of failure: he started thinking of his personal projects as simply experiments. He took the succeed-or-fail risk out of them, which also took away the fear. Experiments dont failâ€"they simply prove or disprove a hypothesis. For example, despite my day job as a designer I had the hypothesis that I could also write an e-book. I then simply started writing. I didnt focus on the outcome, how the book would be received or what others would think of it. I figured, lets give this a try. These days Jarvis has expanded his projects to include multiple online courses, two podcasts, and publishing four books. Like Fuller, approaching every new project as an experiment has helped Jarvis increase his outputâ€"but more importantly, hes not afraid to try new things anymore. By framing the side projects Ive done as experiments, Ive had both the confidence to pursue them and the ability to judge them less harshly when they didnt work. Jarvis says treating his projects as experiments means he has to act in two modes. Dont create your experiment and judge it at the same time, he says. Creation and judgment are very different thought processes and can interfere with each other, and must be done separately. He also finds it important to focus entirely on the task at hand, and not think about the end result. The purpose of each experiment, after all, is to allow you the confidence and freedom to try things without worrying about success or failure. Remember: these are  experiments. Not full-time business ideas. â€" Paul Jarvis Once each experiment is over, Jarvis either changes the parameters and tries again, or moves on to something new. He warns against repeating the same experiment over and over, hoping for a different result. If you want a different outcome, he says, you have to change your experiment up a littleâ€"refocus for a new audience, try a different medium, or try experimenting with a new idea completely. The projects you apply this approach to will depend on what skills you want to develop, but here are some ideas to get you thinking: Writing a book or online course Cooking an ambitious meal Building an app or website Running a workshop Running a crowdfunding campaign for something youve designed Starting a podcast or blog Whether youre thinking about ambitious passion projects youve been meaning to start or increasing your productive output at work, the scientific mindset can help. When you remove the options of success and failure from your work, its freeingâ€"you can suddenly experiment, or simply enjoy the process without the pressure of succeeding. You dont have to do this in all your work, but give it a go for the next project you work on. Start by defining the parameters of your experiment and writing down a hypothesis. And dont forget to measure the results so you can adjust and retry the experiment when youre done. But dont worry about your experiments failingâ€"after all, Fuller went down in the history books despite almost all of his experiments failing. You certainly wont be alone. Work smarter, not harder.

Friday, May 22, 2020

A Political Theorist During The Enlightenment Kant s...

Kemisa Kassa ID#003638997 As a political theorist during the enlightenment Kant’s ideas about using logic and reason to guide thought. The importance of logic in guiding one’s thought to freedom of expression is vital. That same freedom of expression is especially critical in the ever-changing 21st-century perceptions on the idea of â€Å"freedom†. Today the most challenging form of freedoms that is hard to protect is one’s presence on online. Kant’s amendment, â€Å"Protects the individual right to property that was created and inspired by original thought and is generated on any online entity†, this will protect intellectual property, the natural/inalienable rights granted to everyone and those who oppose may argue its relevance might cause an uproar because of finding the truest of true origins of thought. The proposed amendment by Immanuel Kant is as follows, stating that this amendment â€Å"Protects the individual right to property that is created and inspired by original thought and is so generated on any online entity† guaranteeing the rights of everyone online to post their original ideas and creations without fear of getting it stolen. This is important because Kant wants there to be happiness and reason at all times so now it will be easier to accomplish these goals. During his time, it was important to act and think based on reason so this will make it easier for those who have ideas and concepts to contribute through various mediums can comply and fulfill their needs online.Show MoreRelatedOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 PagesChallenges and Perspectives John McAuley, Joanne Duberley and Phil Johnson . This book is, to my knowledge, the most comprehensive and reliable guide to organisational theory currently available. What is needed is a text that will give a good idea of the breadth and complexity of this important subject, and this is precisely what McAuley, Duberley and Johnson have provided. They have done some sterling service in bringing together the very diverse strands of work that today qualify as constitutingRead MoreDecision Theory: a Brief Introduction28334 Words   |  114 Pages Contents Preface ..........................................................................................................4 1. What is decision theory? ..........................................................................5 1.1 Theoretical questions about decisions .........................................5 1.2 A truly interdisciplinary subject...................................................6 1.3 Normative and descriptive theories..............................................6 1.4 Outline of the

Friday, May 8, 2020

Criticism of Practical Application of Utopia in Brave New...

Criticism of Practical Application of Utopia in Brave New World Debra Ackerman Mrs. Eileen Waite Criticism of Practical Application of Utopia in Brave New World Aldous Huxleys Brave New World illustrates the loss of morality when established standards are replaced by amoral criteria. In his novel, Huxley criticizes the practical applications of Utopia in actual society. Huxleys depiction of love, science, and religion support the ineffectiveness of implementing Utopia in everyday life. In Brave New World, Huxley shows contempt for the human emotion of love. The people that make up his imaginary society have no conception of love or any other passion, and actually scorn the idea. Huxley believes that along with passion†¦show more content†¦Not only are people born, or in this sense created, by scientific means, but they are also conditioned to think and live a certain way through science. Even before babies are born, they are treated to a specific amount of oxygen, or a specific temperature in order for them to be conditioned to fit into a certain caste. In the novel, Henry Foster explains this process to the students saying: We also predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers, or future . . . Directors of Hatcheries. (12) In Brave New World, science and technology are used not to help society, but to control society. From the time that the embryos are in each bottle to the time of death for each person, science is acting as a controller, ruling over every individual life. Although their world is based on science and technology, the leaders of Utopia know that science is dangerous; [they] have to keep it most carefully chained and muzzled (231). In a world where Community, Identity, and Stability is the main objective, scientific advancement is unacceptable. As the World Controller explains, science is . . . another item in the cost of stability . . . incompatible with happiness (231). Huxley knows that along with science comes change and in his Utopia, no one can afford change. By sacrificing change, the controllers of the brave new world are maintaining stability. In our society, man controlsShow MoreRelated The Application of Utopia in Brave New World Essay1190 Words   |  5 PagesThe Application of Utopia in Brave New World      Ã‚   Aldous Huxleys Brave New World illustrates the loss of morality when established standards are replaced by amoral criteria.   In his novel, Huxley criticizes the practical applications of Utopia in actual society. Huxleys depiction of love, science, and religion support the ineffectiveness of implementing Utopia in everyday life.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Brave New World, Huxley shows contempt for the human emotion of love.  Read MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pagesothers who should know better) to trivialize this very problematic and challenging subject. This is not the case with the present book. This is a book that deserves to achieve a wide readership. Professor Stephen Ackroyd, Lancaster University, UK This new textbook usefully situates organization theory within the scholarly debates on modernism and postmodernism, and provides an advanced introduction to the heterogeneous study of organizations, including chapters on phenomenology, critical theory and psychoanalysis

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Succubus on Top CHAPTER 5 Free Essays

I jerked my head away from him. â€Å"What?† Bastien didn’t miss a beat, obviously amused by my reaction. â€Å"You heard me. We will write a custom essay sample on Succubus on Top CHAPTER 5 or any similar topic only for you Order Now We’re going to break in. I overheard Bill saying the whole family would be out the night after next.† â€Å"And pray tell, how are we going to lead her to scandal through violating her home? By proving to the world that her security system isn’t as good as she thought it was?† He laughed. â€Å"No, by rifling through her paperwork and finding some sort of incriminating evidence. Money laundered from the CPFV. Illegal means of carrying out the group’s goals. Maybe even love letters from the infamous pool boy. You know there’s got to be something.† â€Å"Bastien, this is – â€Å" â€Å"Ingenious?† â€Å"Ridiculous. Even for us.† â€Å"Hardly. Like I said, it’s a backup plan. Probably not even necessary, since I suspect she’s probably in the shower right now masturbating to fantasies of me.† â€Å"Yeah, she sure looked like it back there,† I said nastily. â€Å"More likely she’s sanitizing her pool after my defilement of it. Well, backup or no, you’re going to have to do this break-in on your own. â€Å" â€Å"Come on! We’ll bein visible. Nothing to lose.† â€Å"That’s not the point. The point is I don’t do this kind of thing.† â€Å"We’re agents of evil. We lead innocents into temptation and suck away their life. How is breaking and entering that much of a leap?† I tightened my lips and shook my head. â€Å"I thought those broadcasts pissed you off. Don’t you want to see her fall?† â€Å"Not enough, apparently.† He fixed me with a sharp stare. â€Å"Did you know that the CPFV recently kicked out a woman for leaving her husband? He had been beating her incessantly – sent her to the hospital twice. When she finally got the nerve to walk out on him, Dana condemned her for violating the sanctity of marriage. Said the woman hadn’t tried hard enough to make things work.† I groaned. â€Å"Don’t tell me this stuff.† â€Å"So are you in or out?† â€Å"You sure are pushy, you know that?† He kissed my cheek and hugged me. â€Å"I learned from the best.† I went to Doug’s concert the following night, showing up about halfway through the opening act’s set. I found several of the bookstore staff occupying a corner but saw no sign of Seth yet. Part of me regretted the whole separate-arrival mandate, but then I remembered the part in Seth’s story where Genevieve had spanked O’Neill. Suddenly I didn’t feel so bad anymore. While waiting at the bar for a vodka gimlet, a familiar shape slid up next to me. â€Å"Hey, hey, pretty lady.† I flashed a smile at Doug’s bass player, Corey. â€Å"Hey yourself. You guys ready for this? You’re in the big time now.† He returned my smile, eyes alight. Intimidating and fierce looking, he wore a lot of black and had piercings everywhere. He was also one of the nicest guys I knew. â€Å"Hell yeah, we are. We were born for this night. This is the night that’s going to define our existence! The night that’s going to define existence for everyone in this room!† He extended his hands over his head and whooped with delight, emitting something like a cross between Tarzan and a B movie Apache chief. The silvery glitter of those piercings added to his savage persona. He was as exuberant as Doug had been the other day. Maybe more so. As much as I wanted to see the band succeed, there was no telling what true fame would do to them. They’d be bouncing off the walls. Setting things on fire. When I got the gimlet, Corey tugged at my arm. â€Å"Come on. I’ll give you a sneak peek backstage. You can say hi to Doug.† I glanced back at the corner, saw no sign of Seth, and followed him. In the dressing room, the rest of the band was in similar form. They all knew me and cheered my arrival, holding up their drinks in a giddy salute. Doug was dressed in a spectacularly gaudy manner, sporting black spandex biker shorts, a Thundercats shirt Seth would have envied, and a sweeping red velour cape. His shoulder-length black hair was tied back in a sleek ponytail. He scooped me up as I entered, hoisting me so that I nearly sat on his shoulder. Min, the group’s saxophonist, waved the instrument over his head in barbaric approval at my capture as Doug roared a cry of victory. â€Å"Here she is! Kin-fucking-caid! You ready to rock, babe?† â€Å"I’m ready to dump this drink on your head. Put me down. â€Å" Doug laughed and eased me down to the floor. I stumbled a bit but not from being set down. It was here again. That weird tingling feeling I’d felt with Doug in our office. Only this time, it was stronger. Much stronger. It pulsed around me, almost making me squirm. I peered around stupidly, trying to figure out where it came from, but it was impossible to tell. The sensation was everywhere, an abrasive vibration singing through the air that only I seemed affected by. Wyatt, a redheaded guitarist, grinned at me. â€Å"How much have you been drinking out there? You look a little glazed over. â€Å" â€Å"Starry-eyed’s more like it,† said Doug, teasing. â€Å"Not every day a girl can be around this much sexy action, huh?† â€Å"Whatever. I think her sexiness is a little more lethal than ours,† Wyatt said. He gently turned me around. â€Å"You met Alec yet?† The new drummer, presumably. He stepped forward and bowed before me with a flourish, just as goofily wound up as the rest. He was a little younger than they were, a bit lanky, and had fading blue streaks in his blond hair. He seemed only slightly less keyed up. Still clueless about what was making me feel so weird, I attempted to push it out of my mind and offer Alec a normal smile. â€Å"Hi,† I said. â€Å"You sure you want to hang with this group of misfits?† â€Å"I’ve seen worse.† â€Å"In an asylum?† He laughed and nodded at my drink. â€Å"What are you having?† â€Å"Vodka gimlet.† â€Å"Nice choice,† he said coolly, though I suspected he’d probably never heard of one before. There was a total look of fumbling inexperience about him. â€Å"Order your next one on me. Tell the bartender to put it on my tab.† I worked hard to keep a straight face. He was attempting suave movie-star lines, but they lost some of their effectiveness coming from someone who was barely old enough to drink himself. He probably hoped Wyatt’s earlier assessment of my inebriation was accurate. â€Å"Hey,† said Doug, grabbing hold of me. â€Å"Stop flirting with my Groupie Queen. Only when you can snatch the fly with the chopsticks, Grasshopper, can you accumulate the groupies. For now, the student must leave the groupies to the master. â€Å" Doug marched me around the room in a – very bad – mock tango. The jerking motion, combined with that grating buzzing in the air, made me lightheaded. â€Å"Is the rest of the gang out there?† â€Å"Waiting with bated breath,† I promised. I cocked my head at him. â€Å"Shouldn’t you be a little more nervous than this?† â€Å"Sure. If I had anything to be nervous about. Which I don’t.† I felt just as astonished now as I had at work. Doug knew his own talent, but I’d seen him before shows in the past. While always joking and in a good mood, there had been a nervousness to him before, a private sort of ruminating while he mentally braced himself to put on the best show he could. I knew he’d said the band had hit some sort of peak recently, but the change was dramatic, to say the least. After a few more jokes and sexual innuendoes, I finally left them. Just like that, the discordant feeling disappeared as soon as I cleared the door. It was like breathing fresh air after a sandstorm. Glancing behind me, I stared into the room, trying to find any indication of what had just happened. Nothing revealed itself. The band had forgotten me already. They were laughing at something else, drinking their beer or pop or whatever, and roughhousing in what must have been some male tension-reliever. Puzzled, I walked away. Seth had joined the others when I finally made my way back to the main floor. I felt a smile creeping up on me in spite of my concerns. His hair was as unkempt as ever, and he wore a Thundercats shirt. â€Å"Hey,† I said when I saw him, conscious that everyone was watching us, apparently waiting for me to pull out my handcuffs. â€Å"Hey,† he returned, hands casually in his pockets, posture relaxed and easy like always. â€Å"You know, Doug’s wearing a shirt very similar to that.† â€Å"I know. I lent it to him.† We all shared a good laugh over that, and Beth turned to me. â€Å"You saw Doug? Is he ready for this?† â€Å"The question, actually,† I told them with a small frown, â€Å"is ‘Is the world ready for Doug?'† A half hour later, they saw what I meant. Nocturnal Admission burst onto the stage, and suddenly all that pent-up energy and enthusiasm was channeled into their music. Like I’d told Doug, I’d long been a fan of the group. Their style combined hard rock with a bit of ska, and the fusion always hooked me. After centuries filled with repetition, innovation was a treat. They regularly performed with flair and passion, making them as much fun to watch as to listen to. My biased affection for Doug didn’t hurt either. Tonight was unbelievable. All of their songs were new; I’d never heard any of them before. And Christ, what songs they were. Amazing. Incredible. Ten times better than the old ones – which I’d hitherto found hard to beat. I wondered when Doug had had time to compose these. He wrote most of their stuff, and I’d last seen them perform about a month and a half ago. He must have had help to write all of those in so short a time. I knew he usually took a while to compose one, refining lyrics over and over. He never treated the process lightly. And the performance itself†¦Well, Doug was always flamboyant; it was his trademark. Tonight, I swear, he never stopped moving. Pure energy in human form. He danced, he sauntered, he did cartwheels. His between-song monologues were hilarious. His singing voice surpassed anything I’d ever heard from him, rich and deep. It resonated in my body. The audience couldn’t get enough. They loved him, and I understood why. No one, even the people who worked there, could take their eyes off the stage. Except one. There, along the far edges of the crowd, was a man casually making his way toward the exit. By his stride and apparent lack of interest, he didn’t find Nocturnal Admission as compelling as the rest of us. While this was intriguing enough to draw my own gaze from the band, his attire struck me even more strongly. If GQ magazine had been around in the days of Victorian poets, he would have been their cover model. He wore beautifully tailored black slacks paired with a long, black coat, the tails of which almost touched the backs of his knees. Underneath the coat was a gorgeous, billowing white shirt that might have been silk. Whatever it was, it made me want to touch it and see how soft it was. Unlike Horatio, whose demonic wear had simply been out-of-date, this guy had taken the past and made it his own. His own hot historic couture. The kind the modern day â€Å"goth† movement so longed to achieve. He’d opened the first few buttons to reveal smooth, tanned skin. That skin tone paired with the glossy black hair that flowed halfway down his back made me think he must be of Middle Eastern or Indian descent. When he reached the door leading out, he paused and turned toward the stage, watching the band for a few moments. A small, pleased smile played along his lips, and then he was gone. Weird, I thought. I wondered who he was. Prospective agent maybe? Or perhaps just someone who didn’t get down to this type of music. He had looked like the kind of guy who owned Chopin’s complete works, after all. I considered the man for a few more moments, then turned back toward the stage. The group was taking a momentary reprieve from their new stash and doing a cover of one of my favorite Nine Inch Nails songs. Nothing like hearing Trent Reznor’s lyrics paired with a saxophone. â€Å"I can’t believe this,† I told Seth later, moving to the back of our group so I could stand near him. Our friends were so hypnotized by what was onstage that Seth and I could actually talk without drawing attention. â€Å"It’s†¦unbelievable.† â€Å"That it is,† he agreed. â€Å"I take it this isn’t the norm then?† â€Å"No. Absolutely not. But I hope it becomes the norm. Jesus.† We fell silent then, our eyes and ears drawn back to the band. As we watched, however, Seth rested his hand on my back in a friendly, innocent gesture that made me promptly lose interest in the music. And that was saying something. The shirt I wore was hardly a shirt at all. It was a glittering tunic type thing that covered the front of me only, then tied behind my neck and once below my shoulder blades, thus letting his fingers stroke bare, exposed skin. Less than a week ago, I’d been in a hotel room with a guy who’d massaged scented oil all over my body and then gone down on me in a way that left me gasping. And yet, I swear that didn’t do as much for me as Seth’s fingers on my bare skin did now. The rest of my body jolted to life, suddenly ravenous for more of him. When he trailed his fingertips down to my lower back, I could perfectly discern every place he had touched me and every place he hadn’t, as though his fingers left scorch marks in my flesh. Magic fingers. Seductive fingers. My nerves pulsed hungrily, demanding I take action and give them more. When his hand finally came to rest by my tailbone, right at the edge of my jeans, I murmured, â€Å"You can go lower if you want. â€Å" â€Å"No,† he returned. His voice seemed huskier than usual, holding an unfamiliar intensity. But it was laced with wistfulness too. â€Å"I really can’t.† The audience whooped and demanded an encore when the show ended, which the band was only too happy to give – multiple times. Talk about stamina. As I watched them wrap up the song and make their bows, an idea suddenly struck me. Excusing myself for the bathroom, I headed back in the direction of the dressing room. Once out of any passerby’s eyesight, I turned invisible and slipped back into that room, still perplexed about that burning, crawling sensation. It was gone. Everything felt perfectly normal in the room. Jackets and instrument cases lay in unceremonious heaps on the floor, and empty red plastic cups vied with overflowing ashtrays to cover up other flat surfaces. I paced around slowly, peering in corners, looking for something – anything – that would explain what I had felt. And again, I came up empty-handed. All was quiet and still. No person or creature waited to leap out, though I was pretty sure what I’d felt hadn’t come from anything living. Yet, it also hadn’t resembled any charm or enchanted object I knew of either. If anything, that tingle had felt like something in the middle: half sentient, half not. But that made no sense. Returning to my friends, I saw them making preparations to leave. None of us could stop talking about the show. We separated and met up again at Doug’s place for a post-show party he’d invited us to. I’d been to similar gigs of his but saw more people here than ever before. They packed the place. Alcohol and pot flowed like milk and honey, but I stopped after a couple shots since I had to open at work in the morning. Through the smoky, decadent haze, the band worked the crowd like they’d done this sort of PR all their lives. They talked to everyone, charismatic and outgoing, though never too proud or conceited. As this went on, Seth and I kept a respectable distance from each other in order to maintain the illusion we were nothing but friends. While I still believed that was a good idea, it sort of seemed like rubbing salt into open wounds. Bad enough we couldn’t touch each other; now we couldn’t talk either. Alec found me at some point, attempting to resume the conversation we’d been having when Doug spirited me away. The drummer handed me a plastic cup. â€Å"This guy over there knows how to make vodka gimlets,† he said happily. I sniffed the cup. It smelled like pure vodka. Probably a cheap kind at that. â€Å"Thanks,† I said, literally keeping it at arm’s length. Alec leaned against a nearby wall, propping his elbow against it to create a more enclosed sense of space between us. â€Å"So, did you like the show?† â€Å"Yes. Absolutely. You guys were amazing.† His chest puffed up with pride. â€Å"Thanks. We’ve been working really hard. We’ve got some other big shows coming up soon – I hope you’ll come see us.† â€Å"I will if I can. I seem to be working a lot lately.† â€Å"Over at that bookstore with Doug? I can’t figure that out. Neither of you seem like that type. Especially you. You look like someone with a wild side. Someone who likes to party. â€Å" I kept my smile up and took a step back. â€Å"Sure. Just not on school nights, you know?† Ignoring what I thought were obvious â€Å"back off† signs, he took a step toward me with a smile he probably believed was seductive. His clumsy attempts at flirtation suddenly seemed less endearing. â€Å"Come on,† he laughed. â€Å"Call in sick tomorrow. I know somewhere†¦somewhere we could go if you really wanted to have a good time. A more intense scene than this.† â€Å"No. I can’t. Sorry. Um, thanks for the drink, but I’ve got to go ask Doug†¦uh, something about work. I’ll see you around.† Clear disappointment flashed across Alec’s face at my rejection, but he didn’t push the matter as I made a hasty retreat toward Doug. When I found him, he and I didn’t really discuss work, but we hashed out a number of other amusing topics, made more so by his increasing intoxication and the fact that he really did now have an entourage of groupies. It looked like he’d be getting lucky after all. If he was still running on the same energy tonight, he’d probably keep a bunch of them happy. Finally, tired of the scene, I told him good-bye and found Seth on the other side of the room. Not surprisingly, he was by himself and not drinking. He’d been born without the small-talk gene, and I knew for a fact interacting with others at parties made him uncomfortable. I had teased him in the past that he might actually be pleasantly surprised if he just made an attempt at talking to new people. He wouldn’t have any of it, however. He seemed fairly entertained by people-watching, eyes twinkling and lips quirked in a half-smile as if he were in on some kind of joke the rest of us didn’t know about. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was logging all of this for future novels. â€Å"Hey,† I said. He brightened upon seeing me. The twinkling eyes took on a warm, knowing look. Something inside of me heated and tightened. â€Å"Hey.† â€Å"I’m ready to go. You want to come over to my place?† He deserved it after the way I’d neglected him tonight. â€Å"Sure.† We were discussing who would leave first when I looked across the room and saw Alec handing Casey a drink. She looked like she’d already had more than enough, and Alec was doing the same closing-in maneuver he’d tried on me. â€Å"What’s wrong?† asked Seth, seeing my frown. â€Å"That new drummer. Alec. He hit on me earlier, and now he’s moving in on Casey. I think he’s one of those guys who thinks plying girls with liquor is the only way to get laid.† â€Å"Wait. I thought I was the only guy who knew that secret.† I chastised him with a dry look before turning back to Alec and Casey. â€Å"I don’t like it. I don’t like him thinking he can do that to women.† â€Å"You don’t even know he’s thinking that. Besides, look around. Every guy here is trying to get laid. Alcohol is par for the course. Casey’s old enough to know that.† â€Å"I’m going to go over there.† Seth gave me a warning glance. â€Å"She won’t thank you for playing mother hen.† â€Å"Better she’s mad at me than does something stupid.† â€Å"Thetis, don’t – â€Å" I’d already left him behind, weaving through the people as I honed in on my target. â€Å"†¦look like someone who likes to party,† Alec was saying as I approached. â€Å"Hey,† I said loudly, sort of wedging my way in between them. They both turned to me in surprise. â€Å"Hi, Georgina. What’s up?† â€Å"I’m heading home,† I told her. â€Å"Wondered if you wanted a ride.† Casey smiled, glanced at Alec, then back to me. College-age, Casey was Hawaiian and Filipino, with high cheekbones and sleek black hair. Very pretty. â€Å"Thanks, but I’m gonna stay here for a while.† Alec looked very pleased with himself. I turned back to her. â€Å"Okay, but can I ask you something real quick, Case?† I smiled sweetly at Alec. â€Å"It’ll just take a minute.† I steered her away, catching her as she stumbled. Closer inspection revealed she’d been indulging in more than just alcohol. â€Å"Casey,† I told her, once we were out of earshot, â€Å"I don’t think you should be hanging around with him. â€Å" â€Å"Why not? He’s a nice guy.† â€Å"I don’t know about that. He just used the same pick-up lines on me. I think he’s trying to get laid.† â€Å"Every guy here is trying to get laid. I know the game.† â€Å"Yeah, but – â€Å" â€Å"Look,† she said, â€Å"I appreciate the big sister thing, but I’m not stupid. I can handle this.† A mischievous look crossed her face. â€Å"Besides, I never would have thought you would be the one preaching sexual caution.† Like I didn’t know what that was a reference to. Damn O’Neill’s libido. I made a face and attempted a few more logical pleas. She rejected them all, indulgence soon giving way to annoyance. By then, Alec hadn’t been able to control himself. He came back over and put a possessive arm around her. She looked up at him adoringly, and I knew a lost cause when I saw one. Seth and I met up back at my place, and he listened with admirable patience while I vented about men preying on women. â€Å"Isn’t that what you do though?† We were sitting on my living-room floor, setting up a game of Scrabble. â€Å"I†¦no. It’s not the same at all.† â€Å"How so?† He held my eyes for a moment, and I finally looked away. â€Å"It just isn’t. Do you want to go first?† He let the matter drop. Another nice thing about being with a non confrontational guy. I quickly discovered playing Scrabble with Seth was like playing Monopoly with Jerome. A losing battle from the first turn. Admittedly, my knowledge of more than two dozen languages gave me a large vocabulary, but I didn’t craft or manipulate words on a regular basis. Seth was a master. He could study the board, spend a minute calculating, and then play some word that was not only worth tons of points but interesting too. Maize. Hexagon. Tawdry. Bisque. That last one was just cruel. Meanwhile, I was spelling words like as, lit, ill, and tee. And almost never on high-point spaces. â€Å"Wait,† he said. â€Å"That’s not a word.† I looked down to where, in a moment of desperation, I’d played zixic on a triple-word-score space. â€Å"Uh, sure it is.† â€Å"What’s it mean?† â€Å"It’s sort of like†¦quixotic, but with more†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Bullshit?† I laughed out loud. I’d never heard him swear before. â€Å"More zeal. Hence the z.† â€Å"Uh-huh. Use it in a sentence.† â€Å"Um†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢You are a zixic writer.'† â€Å"I don’t believe this.† â€Å"That you’re zixic?† â€Å"That you’re trying to cheat at Scrabble.† He leaned back against my couch, shaking his head. â€Å"I mean, I was ready to accept the whole evil thing, but this is kind of extreme. â€Å" â€Å"Hey, it’s not cheating. Just because your limited vocabulary doesn’t include this word doesn’t mean there’s anything sinister going on.† â€Å"Care to back that up with a dictionary?† â€Å"Hey,† I said haughtily, â€Å"I don’t appreciate your zixistic tone.† â€Å"If you weren’t such a zixy woman, I’d be angry.† â€Å"Your zixicism is infuriating.† The game forgotten, we spent the next twenty minutes coming up with as many zix variations as we could. Interestingly, it seemed to function just as well as a suffix as a prefix. I suspected that if Bastien had heard this conversation, I’d be accused of more boring geekiness. Seth and I finally went to bed on the verge of hysterics, both of us still giggling once we were wrapped up in my covers. â€Å"You smell good,† I told him, my face close to his neck. â€Å"What cologne is that?† He stifled a yawn. â€Å"I don’t wear cologne. Too strong.† â€Å"You must.† I pressed my face closer. â€Å"Hey, be careful. You’re giving me funny ideas.† He had skin and sweat smells unique to him and him alone, deliriously delicious. With that, however, was a faint scent of something else. Almost like apples, but not in a girly, boutique sort of way. It was fleeting and lovely, mingled with musk and soft leather. â€Å"No, it’s something. You must. Is it your deodorant?† â€Å"Oh,† he mumbled, yawning again. â€Å"I bet it’s this soap Andrea and Terry got me. Came as part of some set.† â€Å"Mmm. It’s perfect.† It made me want to eat his neck – among other things. â€Å"You know, you still owe me pancakes. I think I could go for†¦apple cinnamon ones now. â€Å" â€Å"Apple cinnamon? You sure are demanding.† â€Å"It’s all right. I think you’re man enough for it.† â€Å"Thetis, if I actually believed you had either apples or cinnamon in your kitchen, I’d make them for you right now.† I didn’t answer. I was pretty sure I had some year-old Apple Jacks, but that was about it. Seth gave a low laugh at my silence and then kissed my temple. â€Å"I don’t know how anyone could think you were Genevieve. I couldn’t make up someone like you in a thousand years.† I considered that, not entirely sure if it was a compliment or not. â€Å"How do you come up with your characters then?† He laughed again. â€Å"If I didn’t know any better – and I’m sure I do – I’d say that sounds suspiciously like ‘Where do you get your ideas from?'† I blushed in the darkness. When he and I had first met, I’d taken a haughty high ground over that question, making fun of the fans that so often asked him that. â€Å"Hey, it’s a totally different question.† I could sense his amusement as he contemplated an answer. Part of the reason he stumbled in conversation sometimes was because he didn’t like to blurt things out. He chose his words carefully. â€Å"They come from my head, I guess. The stories too. They live there, screaming to get out. If I didn’t write them down, they’d eat me up. Give me less of a grip on the real world than I already have.† â€Å"Not that I’m complaining†¦but, if there’s so much inside, do you even need to care about the real world?† â€Å"Well, that’s the paradox. The stories are born in my head, but my inner self is fueled by my outer self. Symbiotic relationship of sorts. The stories’ ideas wouldn’t come if I didn’t have experiences to draw on. Jealousy. Love. Lust. Anger. Heartache. All that stuff.† Something pulled inside of me. â€Å"You had your heart broken much?† He paused. â€Å"Of course. Everyone does. Part of life.† â€Å"Tell me her name. I’ll kick her ass. I don’t want anyone hurting you.† He rested his face against my hair, his tone even and gentle when he spoke. â€Å"You’re wondrous and powerful and gifted, but even you can’t save me from hurting. No one can do that for anyone. I can make things perfect in the fictions I create, but the real world isn’t so kind. That’s just how it is. And anyway, for every bad thing in life, there are more good things to tip the balance.† â€Å"Like what?† â€Å"Like little blonde nieces. And royalty checks. And you.† I sighed and relaxed into him. His grip on me shifted into something more comfortable, and in a few minutes he was asleep. Amazing. I lay snuggled with him for a while, but sleep proved more elusive for me this time, as I turned over his words. I thought about someone breaking his heart and wondered if I’d be the next culprit, intentionally or otherwise. When sleep came, I immediately dropped into a steamy dream in which Seth and I were having mad, passionate sex. He’d tied my hands to my bedposts, and naturally, he was huge. Each thrust made my headboard bang against the wall, so much so that my neighbors complained. I woke up with a start, suddenly thinking being so entwined with him wasn’t such a great idea. Of course, I was apparently the only one who had a problem with it. Seth slept on peacefully and heavily, like I wasn’t even there, no doubt having properly chaste dreams. A paradigm of virtue and resolve. I watched him for a long time, admiring the way the soft lighting fell across his features. The fit muscles of his upper body. Eyelashes I wished I could have had as a mortal. Biting my lip, I resisted the urge to reach out and touch him. It was lust and something else, something that just wanted to be close to him. It scared me. Maybe he wasn’t the only one who could walk away from this with a broken heart. I wiggled my own weak self away to the other side of the bed, putting what space I could between us. As I lay there, my back to him, Aubrey jumped up and lay next to my stomach. I stroked her black-speckled white head and sighed. â€Å"They were all wrong, Aub,† I whispered. â€Å"There’s at least one guy in this world not trying to get laid.† How to cite Succubus on Top CHAPTER 5, Essay examples

Monday, April 27, 2020

White Collar Deviance

White-collar deviance entails all unethical practices including legally delineated crimes that high-ranking workers commit in their work. Many people mistake white-collar deviance for white-collar crime; however, white-collar deviance encompasses more factors than white-collar crime. In addition, white-collar deviance covers deviances in government, corporate world, and private industry as well.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on White Collar Deviance specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The measurable constructs of deviance include moral, physical, and financial harms that the elite class might cause in the course of their duty. Nevertheless, it is important to note that, white-collar deviance covers all white-collar workers, even though the attention mostly centers on the elites in society. The fact that the elite in any society own and control the most resources underscores the reason why people perceive white-collar deviance as a deviance by the elites. As aforementioned, the white-collar deviance usually gives the impression of the elite and this highlights the relationship between white-collar deviance and social class. Well, even though white-collar deviance does not explicitly refer to deviance amongst the elites in the society, there is a strong positive correlation between white-collar deviance and social class. The underprivileged people in any society lack a feasible means to improve their living standards and thus they stand less exposed to practices that can lead to white-collar deviance. On the other hand, the elites are influential and they can influence decision making at all levels as opposed to the underprivileged that have little or no influence in decision-making. Given the fact that the elite own power, they are likely to make decisions that would favor their well-being, even if it means deviating from the norms. The effects of such made decisions remain felt across the socie ty thus linking the high social class with white-collar deviance. In most cases, the elites involved in white-collar deviance work in the government or have strong links with those in the government thus government has been implicated in white-collar deviance cases for a long time. After committing white-collar deviances, influential government officials are known to interfere with law enforcement to protect their interests or those of their close allies. Government officials in this context represent government, for without people there can never be government. Despite the continued claims that judiciary is an autonomous body that carries the mandate to prosecute law-breakers independently, influential government officials still influence judicial processes in some ways. Such interference of judicial processes is a white-collar deviance in itself. Elites in the government are foxy and even if they do not alter judicial processes, they can influence the interpretation of law to suit their personal interests.Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More From another perspective, governments can formulate and implement regulations that do not allow fair and free business practices. Regrettably, even when some policies, implemented by senior government officials fail to bear fruits or lead to disaster, the government tolerates these officials. The case of Brooksley Born, the former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairperson, shows how government can tolerate white-collar deviance. In 1998, Brooksley sought to regulate Over-the-Counter (OTC) derivatives in the financial market only to face stiff opposition from Alan Greenspan, Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin, the then Federal Reserve chair, and Treasury Secretaries respectively. Even after the economy plunged into crisis from early 2007 due to failure to implement Born’s provisions among other reasons , no legal action has been taken towards Greenspan and his colleagues. This phenomenon illustrates white-collar deviance at its best. This essay on White Collar Deviance was written and submitted by user Briana Blanchard to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.