Saturday, January 25, 2020

Examining The Use Of Motion Capture Film Studies Essay

Examining The Use Of Motion Capture Film Studies Essay Motion capture is a technique that records movements for fields like entertainment, sports, and medicine; it is the process of animating a virtual character through the means of capturing live motion of a human. Motion capture is normally used in games to animate characters and other objects by recoding motion from the human character that normally involves tracking sensors that has been placed in major body parts that require maximum motion and detecting their locations in three dimensional spaces. Motion capture captures human body, facial expressions, camera and lighting positions, and other elements. It measures position and direction and recording by computers. Motion capture for computer animation requires the use of human motion to be implanted onto the motion of the compute. There are two classes of motion capture technology, they are the on-line motion capture devices, and off-line motion capture devices. The on-line motion capture device wherein its main technology is based on magnetic sensors thatare mainly used for virtual reality and online television shows with artificial characters. The off-line motion capture device on the other hand wherein its main technology is based on optical motion capture from different camera views, off-line motion capture devices allow capturing of large motions that are important to maintain outstanding visual effects, it also allows the acquiring of delicate motion to properly convey motion. Motion capture is limited to movements that are possible, but it creates natural movements than manual animation and it saves more time. Before motion capture was even possible, rotoscoping was used and is still being used by some traditional animation studios to copy motion from films to cartoon characters. Many cartoon studios use rotoscoping, but only a few admit that they use it because they consider it cheating and a desecration of the art of animation. (Menache, 2000, p.2).In the Walt Disney film Snow White, Snow White herself and her prince were rotoscopedin 1937. The rotoscoping device was invented on 1915 by Max Fliescher to make production of cartoon films automated. The rotoscoping device projected live action film frame by frame then places on a lighted table to allow the artists to trace the image into paper. The idea of copying human motion for animated characters is of course, not new, they decided to use rotoscoping to create realistic human motion. Motion capture started in bio mechanic research then moved to education, sports, computer animation, and finally video games as technology evolved and is s till evolving until now. Rotoscoping today is still being used in visual effects and character animation. It was originally developed in the early days of cell animation; it can be considered a form of time-delayed motion capture. (Kerlow, 2003, p.338). Two dimensional rotoscoping is used for hand drawn cartoons, while the three dimensional rotoscoping gave birth to what we now call motion capture. Motion is anything that forms a before and after position, without this, motion is not even possible. Motion capture first requires a motion that is recorded for the skeleton fitting post-processing, second the artist will repeat and repeat the motion that should be taken until the director is satisfied, third is the post processing which its first stage is motion tracking which is used to detect the motion through the joints, and the last stage is the anatomic conversion, it produces the character s motion without interrupting the original motion. There are twocategories of human motion: pose estimation and tracking. Pose estimation is formulated as the inference of the articulated human pose from a single image. (Sigal, 2006, p. 3) Tracking is formulated as inference of the human pose over a set of consecutive image frames throughout the image sequence. ( Sigal, 2006, p.3)Motion capture cannot be produced when the human character cannot exhibit that certain motion, and if the motio n was not captured. Once the captured session or data did not meet its requirements or standards, it cannot be fixed for motion capture can only produce and capture live motion, instead the user should recapture the motion where the data went wrong. Captured motion must first be developed in many ways before being applied to robots that are human like. Proper alignment of body parts is essential in order to get the proper animation of the model, or else something might go wrong in the future. Motion capture is a software that captures human motion to make computer games and computer animation more realistic and true to life by requiring the user or the character to place magnetic sensors in any part of the body that detect individual position and orientation relative to the generator. There are different types of motion capture system: Electrical motion capture, Magnetic motion capture, and optical motion capture. Electrical motion capture uses technology that tracks motion from sensors using magnetic fields, normally one sensor per body part is enough, a magnetic motion capture, on the other hand, is a technique that is based on receivers that detect magnetic fields. In order to capture the human character s motion, magnetic motion capture uses magnetic sensors that measure relationships in space to a nearby transmitter magnetically,a magnetic sensor measures the position and orientation that is in relation to a transmitter, it requires the human character to wear magnetic sensors around his/her body that are capable of measuring their relationship to a centrally located magnetic transmitter (Alonso, N.D, p.55), and lastly, optical motion capture system, it is a motion capture system that is very accurate and is typically based on a single computer. It is usually used for medical applications and is usually places near the joints for humans and animals. An optical motion capture system does not need wirings because they depend on optical markers that are tracked visually. Optical systems plan positions of cameras in order to track down information. All most all of the optical capture systems can track reflective markers. An optical marker is a reflective ball that allowsa camera to track motion in space. In order to create the 3D position of the object, the system combines information of the different shots taken from different views from different cameras. Optical motion capture has been used to recover the fidelity of the motion of strolling adults, playing children and other lifelike activities. (Boulic, N.D. p.1) The motion capture system is also classified as the outside-in, inside-out, and inside-in system. These systems are where the capture sources and sensors are placed. The outside-in system is placed on the body and by collecting data; it uses external sensors, examples of which are camera based tracking devices. The inside-out system on the other hand collects external sources from sensors that are placed on the body. Lastly, the inside-in system, which sensors and sources are placed on the body, examples of which are electromechanical suits. Applications that have big benefits from motion capture are industries like medicine, sports, entertainment, and the law. Motion capture is also used in other fields like crash test dummies wherein motion capture is required for automobile safety tests. Non-entertainment applications for motion capture on the other hand are sports, medicine, and physical rehabilitation. Motion capture in medicine is used for gait analysis, which is useful in medicine for it makes it easy to detect certain abnormalities and changes by accurately separating the different mechanism during the cycle ofwalk by generating biomechanical data. Gait analysis is also used to determine treatment for pathological conditions. It is also used in applications like joint mechanics, sports medicine, prosthetic design, and analysis of the spine. Motion capture in sports is used to improve the performances of the athletes to analyze and study their movements to improve them and reserve them for future use. There are some motion capture studios that specialize in capturing motion for anything sport related especially for golf, which is very essential to golfers because every inch of his/her swing is analyzed to find and improve on areas, also is compares his/her swing to that of a professional. Motion capture in sports is better than actually videotaping the movement because the normal speed of a video tape is at 30 frames per second, while motion capture is capable of recording higher frequencies, meaning much more motion is recorded. Motion capture in the entertainment industry is the segment with the highest (of not the largest) profile especially for video games which is the most widespread and the most accepted in the entertainment application. Motion capture for video games is a very used system that requires live human motion. As game engines become faster, motion capture is also maturing. (Menache, 2000, p.34). Motion capture for films mainly involves stunts that are not humanly possible, by using realistic motion and extras like large crowds which are digitally generated to simulate a large number of crowds. Motion capture in law, on the other hand, is mainly used for evidence. The evidence used provides aid and support to help the jury understand the statement of facts and opinion form the witness, by means of action and facial expressions in order to get the case solved. Out of 50 people, 8 disagreed to the statement that motion capture is useful in fields like medicine and the entertainment industry, 6 people agreed, and 21 people were uncertain. This is probably because people do not know much about motion capture that they don t notice it in certain field. Before deciding to use motion capture, the user should think if the decided motion is possible for a human or an animal to handle. Also, the user should state the expectations and the demands as early as possible so that all of the user s concerns are addressed. The user should also think about the amount and size of markers to be used depending on a given situation so that the markers won t fall off or move around during the session knowing that a performer needs to wear markers that are near joints to easily identify motion. In order to capture simultaneous motion information, the user should equip the human character with the typical tight fitting black motion capture suit so that the markers will not move rather than just attaching invisible adhesive tape to get the natural look of the clothes as it moves. In order to create a virtual character, one must first identify the performer s motion. Always remember that motion capture takes time to produce and that you cannot fix a mist ake, instead you must redo it. If you decide to do facial and body motion for a character, you will need two separate setups, but you may also have one setup for each character, always remember that motion capture requires a frame of reference. Before getting a human actor to perform all the motion for the motion capture, a script and a blue print must be done first. After which, provide the human actor with the script and the blue prints in advance and tell everything about the character to the human character to avoid misunderstandings in the future. Rehears the motions first without the motion capture sensors so that the human actor will get familiarized and comfortable with his/her role; once the actor is already comfortable and is familiar with the role, get the human actor comfortable with the motion capture sensors that will be all around his/her body soon, always remember that preparations are still needed whether you have an in-house system or are hiring service provider. (Menache, 2000, p.88) in order to create motion capture, one needs to have experience. Out of 30 people, a majority agreed to the statement, while a minority either disagreed or were uncertain about the statement.This is probably because when crea ting something, one must have an experience, or else nothing productive will happen. Motion capture must be and must always be precise about the sizes of the character. If the computer model has different proportions from the subject, weird things may occur, an example is that a feet entering the floor because the characters legs are longer than that of the human actors legs. Motion capture requires motion that follows the laws of physics, otherwise it cannot be presented.12 out of 30 people are uncertain about this statement, this may imply that they are not sure whether it is possible to make motion out of anything that do not follow the rules of physics, 16 out of 30 people on the other hand agreed that movements that do not follow the laws of physic cannot be presented maybe because they believe that there will be a lot of errors if this happen, and 5 out of 30 people disagreed thinking that motion capture can generate any kind of motion impossible or not. Motion capture requires live motion, meaning it can only work in real time, although 9 out of 30 people were uncertain whether this statement is true or not, this is probably because some people do not know how motion capture works, but a whopping 23 out of 30 people agreed that motion capture only works in real time.Motion capture system is very expensive and 23 out of 30 people agreed so, it requires hard work and is time consuming for the actors and the technicians, although 21 out of 30 people were uncertain on whether motion capture is easy.Dogs, horses or any animal with four feet can be difficult to capture. 18 out of 30 people agreed that applying motion capture to 4 legged animals could be hard because animals don t actually perform all the time the way we want them to because animals, even tamed one are still considered wild and unpredictable, although 12 out of 30 people were uncertain and 3 out of 30 people disagreed thinking that animals obey every command as long as you treat them well and give them a doggie treat every time they do things correctly. Motion capture technique s are well known for preserving the distinctive signature of the real movement (Amaya, 1996, p.1) coming from the human actor. In spite of this, motion capture involves the use of special equipments; this requires the entire motion session to be recapped once a motion session is different from the already captured one. What I basically did was I looked for scholarly articles on the internet, gave out surveys, looked for books in the library that were related to my topic, and placed interesting or related texts on my note cards and paraphrasing them so that writing the actual research paper would be easy considering that you will just copy what is on the back of the note cards. A majority of the people who took part in my research paper were students from Computer Science in De La Salle University, and a minority came from Psychology Students from the same University. The results were reasonable and I would have said the same randomly if I did not research about the topic. The result s mean that motion capture is applied in our everyday lives whether we know it or not. Compared to the 2nd research, the 1st research was all about the opinion of other people on how they know about motion capture. Though impressive in its ability to replicate movement, the motion capture process is far from perfect. (Boulic, 1998, p.1)

Friday, January 17, 2020

Effectiveness Home Based Exercise Interventions Health And Social Care Essay

In this survey effectivity means betterment in measured results. Outcomes which are traveling to be measured in this survey are physical public presentation ( lower appendage muscular strength and hand-grip strength ) and functional capacity ( balance and walking-timed up and travel ) . For lower appendage muscular strength the chair stand trial normally used. The chair stand trial is a physical public presentation trial used to measure lower-extremity map. A 5 repeat trial is a step of strength ( Ward et al. , 2010 ) . Subjects ‘ manus clasp force mark in their left and right custodies will be recorded. Individual patients whose grip strength is less than the lower bound of the assurance intervals can be considered to be impaired clasp ( Bohannon, Peolsson, Massy-Westropp, Desrosiers, & A ; Bear-Lehman, 2006 ) . In add-on, balance and walking ( functional capacity ) and physical public presentation before and after exercising plan are measured including: ( a ) Berg Balance Scale ( BBS ) , which rated the public presentation of 14 specific undertakings ; ( B ) the Timed Up-and-Go Test ( TUG ) , which measures the clip required to acquire up from a seated place and walk 3 m ( two tests are allowed and the clip required in two tests is averaged ) . Furthermore, physical public presentation in each topic will be assessed by both the Chair Stand Test ( CST ) and Hand Grip Strength ( HGS ) . The chair stand trial is a physical public presentation trial used to measure lower-extremity map and manus clasp strength assesses clients ‘ manus force and strength.Justify why you wanted to analyze place based exercising intercession?The demand for a home-based preparation exercising plan to forestall falls among frail aged people is felt by some research workers ( Kamide, Shiba, & A ; Shibata, 2009 ) . There are promoting informations to demo effectivity of home-based exercising among aged people in maintaining and increasing functional and wellness position, when carried out right ( Hinrich 2009 ) . Nelson et al 2004 summarized that a home-based exercising plan in community-dwelling seniors with functional damage is executable and effectual in bettering functional public presentation, despite limited supervising. They besides added that home-based exercising plans that focus on strength and balance preparation improve functional public presentation in aged people and should be promoted by the allied wellness community ( Nelson et al 2004 ) . A more recent RCT emphasized on feasibleness of home-based exercising plan for aged people populating in community ( Matsuda, Shumway-Cook, & A ; Ciol, 2010 ) . In add-on home-based exercising plan can get the better of the job of center-base plans including, deficiency of public handiness of hi-tech installation in developing courtiers, t ransit barriers for aged, the job of cost-benefit and cost effectivity of any hi-tech plan ( Nelson et al. , 2004 ) . Conformity, which is a major job in centered-based exercising among aged people, can be achieved by home-based plans. Previous researches accent that attachment to any exercising plan is low among aged people particularly in long tally ( Campbell et al. , 1997 ; Dishman, 1991 ; Gobbi et al. , 2009 ; Sturnieks, St George, & A ; Lord, 2008 ; Sun et al. , 2005 ) . Blanchard 2008 stated that less than 15 per centum of aged people participate in center-based exercising plan. He added that to accomplish a larger figure of participants, there has been a displacement toward implementing home-based rehabilitation plans. Home-based muscular strength preparation can be considered as an option to expensive and low conformity clinical-based musculus preparation ( Blanchard, 2008 ) . Many research workers have suggested more community tests designed to get the better of barriers and supply support for inactive aged people to get down exercising plans ( Judge, 2003 ) ; nevertheless, merely a few ra ndomized controlled intercessions studied on falls have investigated the effects of home-based preparation intercession among the community-dwelling elderly people. A home-based preparation exercising should be directed toward beef uping weak musculuss and balance. The effect of muscular failing and co-contraction is lack of assurance ( Tinetti, Richman, & A ; Powell, 1990 ) which makes aged people loss their assurance and fright of falls ( Hill, Schwarz, Kalogeropoulos, & A ; Gibson, 1996 ) . Fear of falling deteriorates the balance reactions and leads to increased hazard of falls and increased hazard of hurt ( Okada, Hirakawa, Takada, & A ; Kinoshita, 2001 ) . Loss of assurance among aged people consequences in functional restrictions and may do limitation in activity due to fear of falling, which is really common job among community-dwelling older grownups with or without experience of falls ( Hansma, Emmelot-Vonk, & A ; Verhaar, 2010 ) . So, it is logical that improved muscular strength can ensue in assurance, cut down fright of falls, addition balance and lessening hazard of falls. A great figure of surveies have proposed that merely extra research with frail aged persons will assist reply if home-based preparation would better balance in older ages ( Nelson et al. , 2004 ; Baker et al. , 2001 ) .What are the issues / job with place based intercession exercising?There have been some jobs in old home-based plans. They still rely on most adept forces who closely supervise their patients and supply them with high criterion attention at their place ( Gardner, Robertson, McGee, & A ; Campbell, 2002 ; Nelson et al. , 2004 ; Luukinen et al. , 2007 ) . The others emphasize on individualized tailored plans ( Clemson et al. , 2010 ) which raises the cost of intercession plan. Furthermore, these plans, although were reported to be effectual, deficiency in big scale randomisation was the chief restriction of the surveies ( Nelson et al. , 2004 ) . In add-on, because of low wellness literacy among Persian aged population, any home-based preparation intercession without prop er supervising and attachment will non be able to accomplish its aims ( Carpenter, 2010 ) . A good cited survey suggested that aged people need supervising to better strength in a home-based scene ( Baker et al. , 2001 ) . To get the better of the job of wellness illiteracy among aged people we planned to affect participants ‘ grownup kids who have the most interaction with the client in developing plan to oversee him/her during preparation and make full up the log books.How would command external factors in place based intercession?To command external factors of the intercession, the survey will be done on falls high hazard aged people in urban countries who are cared by a female attention givers for the exercising plan ( homogeneousness of attention givers is an of import issue and is discussed in inquiry 6 ) . Some features of the participants such as age, gender, degree of instruction, matrimonial position, occupation, economic position, Activity of Daily Life ( ADL ) and IADL, Medications, Mental position, self-rated wellness are controlled in this survey.How would you find that the respondents willA followA instructions given?In order to corroborate truth of participants and attention giver ‘s public presentation ( monitoring and recording ) , orientation session and regular place visit are planned. Orientation session: Each participant is instructed to execute the instructions right. The first session of direction is allocated to teaching the participants and their attention givers how to execute the exercisings. A household member as attention giver patterns make fulling the log book in the plan in presence of research worker before beginning of the preparation. Home visit: Researcher will go to at participants ‘ place in exercising session one time a month ( three times in 12 hebdomads ) . To be assured about participants ‘ conformity, a female close household member will be instructed to make full the log books which reflect the sum of exercising aged client has done. Each log book is filled during each session and submitted to researcher at the terminal of month. Subjects ‘ household member will be allowed to name the research worker during the plan to inquire their inquiries. Furthermore, the research worker will name them semiweekly to guarantee proper public presentation of the preparation plan.How would you command for homogeneousness of sample/ respondents in your survey?Participitants will be recruited from about 1200 aged people in part. Random sampling will be applied to delegate at least participants ( N=60 ) into intercession and control groups. The survey is planned to enroll at least 30 topics in each groups. Because of likely abrasion, trying will go on to accomplish at least 60 participants complete the 12 hebdomads exercising. To increase the homogeneousness of the participants all participants will be recruited from abode of urban countries. All topics should be 60 old ages old and above, had old experience of falls in last 12 months. Furthermore, they should hold a female household member as a attention giver ( aged 18-50 ) who has wellness literacy. Health literacy will be tested by a criterion questionnaire called Rapid Estimates of Adult Literacy in Medicine ( REALM ) . In order to keep homogeneousness of attention givers, merely female attention givers are included. Exclusion standards are acute cardiorespiratory diseases ( approved by a heart specialist ) , terrible dementedness ( MMSE ) , audile lack, vestibular change, impaired vision, hearing and motor coordination restricting exercising ( approved by a brain doctor ) , unable to walk independently more than 10m, old hip replacing surgery, old history of lower appendages fracture in last 12 month, terrible articular engagement restricting physical activity and exclusion for any ground by orthopaedic sawbones. Furthermore, aged people with high vigorous degree of activity in last 12 months will be excluded from the survey. All topics will be matched and indiscriminately assigned in intercession and control groups, utilizing random figure tabular array. To make random allotment, after baseline appraisal, topics will be divided into two groups based on features, harmonizing to random Numberss table. Thereafter, one group will be allocated to the intercession and the other group to the control.What is the exact exercising protocol that you would utilize to mensurate effectivity?Exercise protocol is designed by American Heart Association ‘s ( AHA ) recommendation for maintain musculus strength, balance and falls bars in 2007. This protocol is planned to better musculus strength and balance among high hazard community aged people for falls. The same instructions with some differences are recommended by research workers in New Zealand in Otago survey. Intervention group will have 12 hebdomads exercising preparation in presence of their household attention givers. The first session after randomisation for intercession group will be held in client ‘s place to teach participant and his/her attention giver how to make the exercisings. Since there is no demand for any excess device, all the exercising can be demonstrated in a client ‘s ain place. The plan is non separately tailored, but will be done separately at place. In add-on to face to confront instruction, participants will be given a pictural brochure of all preparation exercising. They will be instructed how to utilize the preparation brochure. A flexible timetable ( harmonizing to participants ‘ penchant ) in a log book will be arranged for the topics to apportion 40-50 proceedingss for exercising three times a hebdomad. Each session consists of a 5-10 proceedingss warm-up, 30 minute strength preparation, and 5-10 minute cool-down preparation. They will be in structed to follow sequences of the preparation as warm up, exercising and cool down.What would the sample size be, taking into considerations attrition rates etc. Decidedly 30 is non plenty. Cells will be empty.In most of old intercessions sample size is less than 70 ( Kameide et al 2009 ) . However, in this survey random sampling will be applied to delegate participants ( N=100 ) into intercession and control groups. The survey is planned to enroll at least 50 topics in each groups. To increase the homogeneousness of the participants all participants will be recruited from abode of urban countries.You are trusting to beg aid from carers? ? ? How would you specify carers? Issue of gender, live-in? ? ? ?A Since, a big figure of community aged people in Iran are illiterate and are non able to enter their exercising in log books, this survey will inquire for aid of a attention giver. Care givers will be recruited from participant ‘s interested close female household member. All attention givers will be recruited from household members who are populating with their parents or able to see them often at their place ( at least one time every other twenty-four hours for one hr ) . They will be tested for wellness literacy to be able to make full in the log books. To guarantee homogeneousness of attention givers, they will be recruited from female household members, between 18 to 50 old ages old, able to see the participant freely and are willing to assist the participant. Both participant and attention giver should accept and subscribe the informed consent to be involved in research procedure. The chief function of household member attention giver is to supervise the participant during exercising and record the exercising in logbook. Furthermore, they can name the research worker to inquire any inquiry about any likely job in any phase of the survey.AimsThis survey is planned to look into the relationship between muscular strength to hazard of autumn among community dweller aged people. To accomplish this aim, the following specific ends are followed: To depict the topics ‘ muscular strength, self-efficacy, fright of falls and balance before and after intercession To analyze the relationship between topics ‘ muscular strength and hazard of falls before and after intercession To analyze the relationship between topics ‘ background variables, muscular strength, self-efficacy and fright of falls before and after intercessionConceptual ModelThis survey will be conducted based on a modern biologic theory called â€Å" wear and tear † theory and Orem ‘s self-care theory. In this survey the wear and tear theory is used to explicate why muscular strength and balance deteriorates during old ages. Orem ‘s self-care theory is utilized to explicate how self-care through exercising can keep and better an old individual ‘s ability for balance and cut down the hazard of falls. Furthermore, Bandura ‘s self-efficacy explains the moderating function of self-efficacy between muscular strength, fright of falls and balance to hazard of falls among aged people.Proposed conceptual modelBackgroundAgeGenderMarital StatusEducationMental positionSeleniumChronic DiseasesMedicineHealth literacyADL/IADLSelf-rated Health( IV )Muscular StrengthFear of FallsSelf-Efficacy( DV )Falls Hazard( Balance )

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Alcohol Dependency And Its Effects On The Community

Alcohol dependency has grown to be stigma in the community which is responsible for growing problems into the world. It can also remain defined a deep-rooted disease of the brain which might also bear the damaging outcomes on brain as addiction fluctuate the working pattern of human brain that can be for long period. It is even hard for a person after circulate the addiction on alcohol dependency as soon as that is attached per a substance. Moreover, human beings use alcohol to keep away themselves from worries, to keep calm themselves and to boost up their confidence but they were not aware with the period, person become slave to alcohol and habit of dependency is difficult to overcome. Besides this, some people uses alcohol as they feel†¦show more content†¦The purpose for cleansing represents a cure end-point of the interacting factors about hooch dependence, tolerance yet withdrawal. Another process of withdrawal of alcohol from person body is delirium tremens. The proce ss of delirium tremens is usually between 3 to 5 days after conclusion of alcohol. It is the most complicated method of alcohol withdrawal. A complete body trial which includes a neurological analysis is essential at preliminary advice in accordance with provide a baseline assessment before treatment because sometime the patient face some worse physical symptoms, e.g. tachycardia, hyperthermia, hypertension and tachypnea (Martin,2008). Medicine plays one of the key role in alcohol addiction treatment. The goal of medicine is to minimize the depth of the unremitting cravings for alcohol and limit the frequency over relapse and the quantity of alcohol consumed. There are mainly three medicine use in alcohol addiction that are approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Firstly, Antabuse commonly known as Disulfiram is one of the oldest drug in the market approved for the treatment of alcoholism for more than 50 years. 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Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Essay on Medical Marijuana Should NOT Be Legal For Minors

With the major and ongoing controversy of the legalization of marijuana, medical marijuana has been thrown into the limelight as an excuse as to why marijuana is â€Å"good.† But with medical marijuana’s supposed advancements, more and more doctors are prescribing it to anyone who claims to have a headache and now they are moving their clientele base to young children and teens who are not even old enough to know the long-term damage of the â€Å"medicine† their doctors are so willingly prescribing. While many doctors are beginning to jump on the medical weed train, others are continuing to speak against the effects; especially on minors. In order to prevent permanent damage to the young children, medical marijuana needs to be outlawed for anyone†¦show more content†¦The director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse said that she was particularly worried about the risk of dependency because dependency was already high among minors and people with ADHD . The forms that Dr. Talleyrand makes his underage patients sign, agrees because it states that possible side effects include: mental slowness, memory problems, confusion, rapid heartbeat and can lead to dependency on the drug. With non-serious health problems, medical marijuana is too much of a risk for underage children. Not only are there very few reasons to prescribe the drug in the first place, but the mental and physical health of the young patient is compromised every time a doctor recommends marijuana as their medicine. According to the New York Times, researchers have linked the use of marijuana by adolescents to increased risk of psychosis and schizophrenia. The longer marijuana is taken, the more chances there are for it’s effects to start damaging the brain and impairing the patient in the way that complex tasks, are more difficult or impossible to do. Krista Medina, who is as assistant professor of psychology at the University of Cincinnati stated that not only a re thinking abilities impaired, but adolescents brain activationShow MoreRelatedHemp Cultivation in China42289 Words   |  170 Pagesand rapid changes brought about through the influence of Western agricultural advisors, modern cultivation equipment and the introduction of improved hemp varieties. Continued on pg. 60 Shandong cultivation 57 Letters 59 Fiber hemp cultivars 66 Medical Cannabis review 74 New cannabinoid antiemetic 76 Ukranian seed 79 Tasmanian research 82 Interview 86 ICRS symposium 88 Colorado hemp act 92 Canada report 96 Austria report 98 German textiles 101 Book reviews 103 NAIHF 104 Debate Corner 106 JournalRead More_x000C_Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis355457 Words   |  1422 PagesCongress Control Number: 2006933904 Student Edition: ISBN-13: 978-0-495-11873-2 ISBN-10: 0-495-11873-7 ââ€"   To my nephews, Jesse and Luke Smidt, who bet I wouldn’t put their names in this book. R. P. ââ€"   To my wife, Sally, and my daughter, Anna C. O. ââ€"   To Carol, Allie, and Teri. J. D. ââ€"   About the Authors puter Teacher of the Year award in 1988 and received the Siemens Award for Advanced Placement in mathematics in 1999. Chris is a frequent contributor to the AP Statistics ElectronicRead MoreThe Social Impact of Drug Abuse24406 Words   |  98 Pagesdecentralized, growth-pole oriented, cottage-industry promoting, and foreign exchange earning desirable features of rural development in economically stagnating areas (4, p. 57). He has found agreement on the following points: 1) the production of marijuana, heroin, and cocaine/crack is increasing, especially cocaine/crack; 2) cocaine traffickers, now finding their supply substantially exceeding current market demand in the United States, are vigorously opening new markets in Canada, Great Britain,Read MoreFundamentals of Hrm263904 Words   |  1056 Pagesbetter study smarter save money From multiple study paths, to self-assessment, to a wealth of interactive visual and audio resources, WileyPLUS gives you everything you need to personalize the teaching and learning experience.  » F i n d o u t h ow t o M A K E I T YO U R S  » www.wileyplus.com ALL THE HELP, RESOURCES, AND PERSONAL SUPPORT YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS NEED! 2-Minute Tutorials and all of the resources you your students need to get started www.wileyplus.com/firstday Student supportRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pagesorganization is sound and the author does a superior job of presenting the structure of arguments. David M. Adams, California State Polytechnic University These examples work quite well. Their diversity, literacy, ethnic sensitivity, and relevancy should attract readers. Stanley Baronett. Jr., University of Nevada Las Vegas Far too many authors of contemporary texts in informal logic – keeping an eye on the sorts of arguments found in books on formal logic – forget, or underplay, how much of Read MoreLibrary Management204752 Words   |  820 PagesMental Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 Burnout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Violence and Crime in the Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 External Impacts on Human Resources—Legal Protections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 Equal Employment Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Other Important Federal Legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 Affirmative Action

Monday, December 23, 2019

Comparing The Greek Mythology And The Cherokee - 1053 Words

Every culture has its own past belief on how everything was created; Gods, lands, plants, animals, creatures, and humans all have a unique story to be told throughout the ages. But it is plain to see there is some overlap between ideas on how everything was made. Take the Greek Mythology, the most popular and well known type of mythos, has connections to other cultures like Nordic and Native American. But of course, each story has their own twist or other idea to it, as well. There are quite a few similarities between the Greeks stories of creation and the Cherokee. In both stories, before anything could be created, water had been everywhere, and surrounded in darkness. It was void-like and wild, primitive almost. Another similarity†¦show more content†¦For the Greeks, the Grecian Gods, rather than animals, helped make Earth more habitable for humans by getting rid of the creatures Earth birthed. Finally, the personified beings in both stories were different. The animals were personified and giving character as they were the ones that helped create Earth, while the Greeks made planets personified. The next comparison between two stories is that of Norse mythology and Greek mythology. Both stories have very similar ideas and ways of telling their stories of how their world came into being. Norse has their giants, who gave birth to the original three gods that created Midgard. The Greeks have the Titans who bore the Greek gods who overthrew them as well to control the Earth. Both myths contain the presence of creatures in their stories, beasts who helped shape their respective worlds to move the culture’s creation stories further along. Creatures within these worlds would be the dwarves, the serpent Nidhogg, and demons of Norse myth and the Cyclopes, the furies, and Typhon of Greek origin Furthermore, the children of some of these creatures were divines, who ended up overthrowing their elders to lead the creation of their own worlds, to rule over their own creations as well. And speaking of the world, both myths have multiple layers to theirShow MoreRelatedSituational Analysis: 7th Grade Language Arts6569 Words   |  26 Pagesdescribing their beliefs and the roots of where it got started Title of Course and Justification One very interesting aspect of the human experience is the manner in which certain themes appear again and again over time, in literature, religion, mythology, and culture regardless of the geographic location, the economic status, and the time period. Perhaps it is the innate human need to explain and explore the known and unknown, but to have disparate cultures in time and location find ways of explaining

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Succubus Heat CHAPTER 21 Free Essays

There was really only one thing I could say. â€Å"You’re here to kill me.† That would have been a great cue for him to say something like, â€Å"No, of course not† or â€Å"Why would you think that?† Any of those responses, or a variation, would have been immensely reassuring. We will write a custom essay sample on Succubus Heat CHAPTER 21 or any similar topic only for you Order Now Instead he said: â€Å"Not yet.† â€Å"Shit.† I took a couple steps back, knowing it wouldn’t do any good. Even if I’d been in full succubus mode, there was no way I could fight against him. Roman was a nephilim, Jerome’s half-human bastard son. Nephilim were a kind of odd mix between lesser and greater immortals. Nephilim hadn’t been around since the universe’s creation, but they had been born immortal and could potentially possess the same range of powers as a greater immortal. Roman was every bit as strong as Jerome, but unlike my boss or his equals, Roman didn’t answer to any higher power. He was rogue, which made him dangerous when he was pissed off. And he had every right to be pissed off at me. Angry at the way Heaven and Hell hunted their kind down, Roman and his twin sister Helena had gone on a vigilante hunting spree to get back at other immortals. I hadn’t known that when he and I were dating, and eventually, I’d been instrumental in stopping them-and getting his sister killed. â€Å"What are you doing here then?† I asked at last. Roman’s posture was casual as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. He looked exactly as I remembered, enormously tall compared to me, with soft black hair and those gorgeous eyes. â€Å"You sound disappointed,† he said. â€Å"Do you want me to kill you?† â€Å"No! Of course not. But I can’t really think of any other reason you’d be here. Somehow I doubt you’re here for a social call.† Despite my fear, my sarcasm still managed to function. Carter had told me it was unlikely Roman would ever return to Seattle, knowing that he and Jerome would be on the lookout. Except, I realized uneasily, Jerome was no longer here to keep watch. â€Å"I’m here to help find my illustrious sire.† Roman’s voice was smug as he spoke, and I was sure he was taking a great amount of pleasure in watching my reaction. I hoped he was satisfied because while my jaw didn’t exactly hit the floor, it came pretty close. â€Å"Bullshit.† â€Å"Why don’t you believe me?† â€Å"Because you have no reason to!† My fear was being overridden again, this time by incredulity. â€Å"You hate Jerome.† â€Å"Yeah, that’s true.† â€Å"Stop playing with me then. You’re not here to help.† â€Å"No? Then how come I helped you with the seal’s notes?† â€Å"You didn’t-† I froze for a moment. â€Å"Oh lord. That was you.† â€Å"Really,† said Roman amiably. â€Å"You should be a lot nicer, considering all the things I’ve done for you.† â€Å"Yeah? I don’t recall you wasting your time wandering aimlessly along beaches.† â€Å"Nah. I’ve been too busy blowing up stoves and carrying injured damsels to bed.† I sank into a chair and closed my eyes. â€Å"It really wasn’t Carter.† The angel had been telling the truth about noninterference. I opened my eyes again. â€Å"And you gave me the matches, didn’t you? That’s exactly the kind of fucked-up thing you’d do.† He put on an offended air. â€Å"That was pretty nice of me, considering how you looked like you were ready to have a withdrawal seizure then and there.† â€Å"This doesn’t make sense. You can’t be here to help find Jerome. What’s really going on?† â€Å"Does the reason matter if I help find him?† â€Å"Yes! It matters if you want to find him, only so you can promptly destroy him.† â€Å"I don’t want to destroy him.† â€Å"I have no reason to trust you.† His eyes narrowed a bit. â€Å"And I have no reason to trust you, if memory serves.† I shrugged, almost too weary to be afraid anymore. â€Å"Well, then, we’re even, huh? Except, of course, that you can channel your mistrust into blowing me off the face of the earth.† â€Å"And you could tell the demon horde out there that there’s a nephilim in the city.† Roman laughed. â€Å"Oh, they’d love that, wouldn’t they? If one of them could hunt down and kill a nephilim, that’d pretty much cinch their position here.† â€Å"Yeah, like I’d get a chance to tell anyone.† I sighed. â€Å"Roman, if you’re not going to destroy me, then what exactly do you want with me? Why did you save me all those times?† â€Å"Because you’re the only one in this fucking town with any chance of finding Jerome. And you can move around a lot more freely than I can.† â€Å"Um, last time I checked, you’re the one in the Junior Smiting League, not me. I don’t have any pow-abilities right now to defend myself.† â€Å"Yeah, but if you’re caught poking around, people aren’t going to declare open season on you†¦I mean, aside from that bitch demoness.† I grimaced at the memory, and Roman pushed forward. â€Å"Look, Georgina, we can sit and argue whether I’m going to kill you or not, or we can try to figure this out and get your boss back. Then we can explore me killing you in more depth.† â€Å"God,† I groaned, standing up. I needed my cigarettes. Roman watched me light up. â€Å"New habit since I was last around.† â€Å"Old one, actually. And I’m not in the mood for lecturing.† I sat back down, feeling much more settled with my nicotine. Aubrey wandered out shortly thereafter, apparently not afraid of a sociopathic-yet still eerily sexy-immortal hanging out with us. â€Å"So, what’s there to figure out? It was Grace. You said you saw the seal around her neck.† Roman eased himself into a chair from my kitchen table and scooted up. â€Å"I did. Makes sense that she’d keep it as close to her as possible, though that takes some balls to have it out in the open that much.† â€Å"So why won’t you let me tell anyone, then?† He tsked. â€Å"Think, Georgina. Who are you going to tell? Which demon in this whole mess do you think you can trust? None of them like Jerome. None of them want him back.† â€Å"I was going to tell Hugh.† â€Å"You can’t tell anybody . I was walking along with you today when Cedric popped in.† It figured. There was no telling how long Roman had been following me invisibly. â€Å"If he was telling the truth about not telling Nanette about your theories, then that means one of your friends tipped her off.† â€Å"No,† I said stubbornly. â€Å"It’s more likely that Cedric was lying. None of them would have betrayed me.† To my complete and utter astonishment, Aubrey jumped on Roman’s lap. He scratched her head absentmindedly. â€Å"Well, believe what you want, but I don’t think it’s safe to tell anyone yet. Except me, of course.† â€Å"Right. The guy who wants me dead.† â€Å"Eh, we can talk about that later. For now, let’s go over what we know.† I wasn’t really keen on the casual way we were tossing around my impending doom, nor did I like that I still didn’t know why he was here. Keeping my mind on Jerome did help, though, and it was nice to finally have someone to truly brainstorm this stuff with. â€Å"We know Grace was the demon who helped with the summoning,† I said. â€Å"There could be more, you know.† â€Å"Yeah, but there’s only one archdemon position.† â€Å"True. Just don’t rule other possibilities out. She and that other demoness here are pretty tight.† I thought about Mei, whose poker face was as good as Grace’s. â€Å"Yeah†¦although, they seem to be operating pretty independently now. But, for the sake of argument, we’ll stick with Grace. So, we know she was part of the summoning and has half of the seal. What we don’t know: where the other half of the seal is, who helped her, and where Jerome actually is.† â€Å"Kind of daunting,† he mused. A thought suddenly came to me. â€Å"Wait a minute†¦you might make this simpler. A greater immortal can break up Jerome’s prison. With you, we don’t need to actually find the whole seal to free him-or get the half we know about from Grace.† Roman turned sheepish. â€Å"Well†¦I don’t know for sure that I can do that.† â€Å"Why not? You’ve got the same powers as Jerome.† â€Å"My strength is the same as his when it comes to fighting and whatnot, but I don’t have exactly the same powers. I’m not truly a greater immortal. I don’t know if I could break him out without the seal.† â€Å"Lovely. We’re back to where we started.† â€Å"I don’t know. We should just take this one step at a time. Let’s keep trying to find him and figure out where the other half of the seal is.† â€Å"We’re running out of time,† I murmured, stubbing out the cigarette. â€Å"So, why are you smoking again?† â€Å"That’s not really important right now,† I snapped. â€Å"I don’t know. If I had a mortal body, I’d be kind of worried about that.† â€Å"I’m not mortal. And I’ll be back to my normal self in a few days at most. Probably much sooner.† â€Å"Is it because of Mortensen?† â€Å"We are not talking about that right now.† â€Å"Never thought you’d be one to take a break-up so hard, seeing how easily you deal them out. In fact†¦has anyone ever even broken up with you before?† I fixed him with a glare, so annoyed that I didn’t care if he wanted to try to kill me. â€Å"We are not talking about that right now.† â€Å"Fine, fine. What other info do we have, then?† I racked my brain. â€Å"The cult†¦the Army of Darkness. I think there’s a connection with Jerome’s summoning and their activities. Whoever’s controlling them-well, Grace, I guess-times their stunts to take attention away from other things.† I recapped what I knew of their stunts and what they lined up with. â€Å"Not all of their activities correspond exactly to some part of the summoning, though. At least not that I know about.† Roman was thoughtful. â€Å"Hmm†¦well, it’s possible some may not line up with anything. A few may be red herrings, sort of to establish their presence. I didn’t always follow you to Canada, so I don’t know exactly what they’re like.† â€Å"Wow. Your stalkerdom has limitations.† â€Å"Seemed like a big pain,† he said. â€Å"Aside from maybe going to Tim Hortons.† Nephilim couldn’t teleport like greater immortals, so he was limited with normal transportation when following me around. Uneasily, thinking of my activities with Seth, I wondered just how much Roman had spied on me. It wouldn’t have been the first time he’d taken a front-row seat to my intimate activities. If he wasn’t going to mention it, I wasn’t going to. â€Å"They’ve been quiet ever since the day of the summoning, when they were down here. I guess Grace has nothing left for them to do,† I said. â€Å"Likely†¦Ã¢â‚¬  His mind was still apparently spinning with suspicion. â€Å"But if I were you, I’d talk to them again.† I cringed. â€Å"No†¦I want to be done with them. You don’t know these guys like I do. It’s ridiculous.† â€Å"All I know is that you’ve got to turn over every rock you can find-no pun intended-if you’re going to rescue Jerome.† â€Å"Oh, I’ve got to, huh?† I asked. I didn’t really like the presumption in his voice. â€Å"I thought you were going to help find him too?† â€Å"I will. Tomorrow. When are you going to search again?† I thought about it. â€Å"Noon. After work.† There was a knock at the door, and I moved over to the eye hole. â€Å"It’s Dante,† I murmured. To his credit, he usually knocked first before using his key. I rested my hand on the knob and gave Roman a questioning look. â€Å"I’ll find you at noon,† he said. â€Å"Hold the door open a sec after you let him in.† Roman turned invisible, and I pulled the door open. Dante came in, and I stood there a few more moments until I felt the sweep of someone moving past me. Everything had happened so quickly today that I barely had time to realize that not only I had just made contact with the guy who wanted to kill me, but I’d also just made arrangements to spend time with him. Man. This was going to keep me up when I tried to sleep later. I shut the door and gave Dante a quick kiss on the cheek. He was carrying a bag, and I had to do a double-take. â€Å"Did you buy something from Macy’s?† I exclaimed. â€Å"I somehow imagined you stepping into a department store would be like a vampire stepping into the sunlight-I mean, current situation aside.† Dante rolled his eyes and set the bag down. Crossings his arms, he leaned against the wall. â€Å"Well, maybe I’m in stasis too. Forget about this for a sec and tell me if you’ve gotten yourself on any demon’s shit list today.† There it was again, the sweet concern in spite of his best efforts. â€Å"Not that I know of, but hey, the day’s not over yet.† I glossed over the specifics of who I’d gone searching with, mainly emphasizing that my time at the beach hadn’t turned up anything. I also mentioned Cedric’s visit and his claims that he hadn’t told Nanette about my suspicions. Dante seemed skeptical of that. Finally, I wrapped up with Grace’s appearance, and at that point I faltered. I wanted to tell Dante about my amazing discovery, about how Grace had the seal. Yet Roman had urged me to keep it all to myself. Why? Was he really that mistrustful of everyone? Did he have his own ulterior motives? Against my better judgment, I bit my lip on telling Dante about my discovery. It killed me to do it, particularly since I had a feeling Dante could have some insight. Roman’s warning was too strong, however, as was my fear that he might actually still be around invisibly. And of course, I could hardly tell Dante about Roman. Fortunately, Dante didn’t pick up on any omission of information. â€Å"You had kind of a full day, succubus. Did the corporate demon ever come talk to you?† â€Å"Not yet. I haven’t had a chance to talk with the gang to see if he’s been making the rounds.† I eyed the Macy’s bag, dying to know what was in it. Dante kicked it behind him. â€Å"What are you going to tell him?† I shrugged. â€Å"I don’t know. I’ll tell him what I know about Seattle, and as far as recommendations†¦well, I don’t know.† I could no longer trust Grace, and Mei’s role was still a mystery. Dante noted my change of feelings but not the reasons. â€Å"From what you’d said before, I thought you were a fan of Grace and that other demoness.† â€Å"Mei,† I supplied. â€Å"I don’t know. It’s all just wearying.† Eager to shift away from the subject, I pointed at the bag. â€Å"Are you going to tell me what’s in that?† He gave me one of his mocking grins. â€Å"Why do you think it has anything to do with you?† â€Å"Because there’s no way you’d shop at Macy’s for yourself. You dress only marginally better than Carter.† Dante shook his head, wearing a long-suffering look. â€Å"Fine, fine. I’ll keep it for myself.† He picked up the bag and headed off down the hall. After a few moments, I followed and tackled him in the doorway to my bedroom. â€Å"Come on! Give it up.† I snatched the bag away, but my victory was small since he didn’t put up a fight. I opened it up and gasped at what I found. Folds and folds of shimmering purple fabric, silk the color of new spring crocuses. Hesitantly, I lifted it out of the bag, revealing a long, ankle-length robe. I looked up at him in astonishment. â€Å"What’s this?† â€Å"You’re the one with years and years of higher learning,† he pointed out, looking extremely pleased with himself. â€Å"You tell me.† I held it up, gauging its height. It looked just about perfect. â€Å"It’s gorgeous. What’s the occasion?† â€Å"I was tired of hearing you bitch about that ratty one you’ve got. And tired of seeing it, to be honest.† He ignored my glare. â€Å"Besides, you’ve had a, uh, difficult time lately. Even for you.† I thought back to other things, like the flowers and breakfast. All the attempts at dinners. â€Å"Dante-â€Å" He pressed a finger to my lips. â€Å"Look, be quiet a second. I’m not blind. I can tell how much all of this is stressing you out. And fuck, if I could get my hands on that bitch demon†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Anger glinted in his eyes, and he took a moment to shake it off. â€Å"Anyway, you can keep making your jokes or whatever and keep doggedly doing your best to sleuth away and find Jerome, but you’re running yourself into the ground. You’re depressed. You’re distracted. When we talk, it’s like your mind’s somewhere else. Same with our sex life.† I opened my mouth to argue, but I wasn’t sure what to say. He was right. I had been distracted, but a good part of that-particularly during intimate activities-hadn’t had anything to do with Jerome. It had been Seth on my mind. Dante kept speaking before I could get a word out. â€Å"See, now, you’re going to apologize. Because that’s what you do-but there’s no need, succubus. If anyone gets some selfish time right now, it’s you. In another week or so, things’ll be back to normal, and I’ll be the selfish one.† Something in my heart twisted. Everyone said he was scum, but in the end, it turned out I was the untrustworthy one. I averted my eyes. â€Å"So where’s the robe fit in?† â€Å"Something to cheer you up. Since your wardrobe’s been trimmed.† â€Å"Dante, you’ve been getting me a lot of stuff lately. You don’t have to throw money at me-money you don’t have-to make me feel better.† â€Å"If I didn’t have it, I wouldn’t ‘throw’ it,† he remarked dryly. â€Å"And anyway†¦I’m not really the kind of guy who does, like†¦the candles or the moonlit beaches or recites poetry.† I grimaced. â€Å"I don’t mind staying away from beaches for a while.† â€Å"But,† he continued, â€Å"I know you well enough to know that mochas and silk make you smile, and that, at least, is something I can do.† My heart twisted further, and I reached out to catch hold of his hand. I understood what he was saying. It wasn’t in his nature to do over-the-top romantic gestures, but material purchases were something he could handle, and it was the only way to show me he cared. My guilt redoubled because no matter what he said, I knew he was tight on cash. Yet, my actions and fixation with Seth were worrying Dante enough that he felt he had to do something. I was driving him to it. â€Å"You’re sweet,† I said. â€Å"But don’t worry. It’ll be our secret.† He brushed his fingers through my hair. â€Å"Not that sweet. Look in the bag.† I did. Underneath the robe, unnoticed by me, was a bottle of bubble bath. I held it up questioningly. â€Å"I thought we could take a bath together.† I laughed. â€Å"That’s almost romantic. You might be closer to moonlit beaches than you think. Although, my bathtub’s kind of small.† â€Å"I know,† he said. â€Å"That’s what I meant about it not being very sweet. Mostly I want to see what kind of interesting positions we can cram ourselves into while naked and in a small space.† â€Å"Well, thank God that in a world gone mad, some people never change.† It turned into a wet, soapy mess, but it was more fun than I expected. No matter what he claimed, the whole feat was semi-romantic. Conversation was easy and light, and we laughed and joked a lot. I almost forgot about Seth-almost. But when things started to get a little hot and heavy, I pulled back. No matter how sexy it was to be wet and naked with someone, it just didn’t feel right if that person wasn’t Seth. What made me feel worse was that Dante was accommodating about my mood. He figured my lack of desire was part of my stress, and so we eventually left the tub as chastely as we’d entered. We toweled each other off and then curled up on the couch and watched TV together while I tried not to feel too guilty about the purple robe wrapped around me. I decided the next day to finally add myself back to the bookstore’s work schedule. I only put me down for part-time shifts until the demon business was settled, but at this point, it seemed unlikely I’d be recalled to Canada again. My limbo status couldn’t last forever if I wanted to keep my job; Warren’s leniency would only last so long. Roman and I had our plans to go to Edmonds at noon, so for my first official day back, I only worked a morning shift. Part of that shift involved coming in before the store was even open, and I welcomed the solitude. The store always soothed me, and if ever there was a time I needed soothing, it was right now. It was short-lived, however, since my other coworkers began trickling in not long after my arrival. Maddie was among them. â€Å"Hey,† she said brightly, popping into my office. â€Å"Is this another check-in or are you back for good?† â€Å"For good, I think. Not that it matters. It looks like everything’s been fine without me.† She grinned and shut the door behind her. â€Å"Oh, we’ve missed you, believe me. No one’s been here to referee my fights with Doug.† I laughed and watched her sit down. â€Å"Well then, I guess I got back just in time. Nice shoes.† Maddie extended her legs and admired her candy apple red pumps. â€Å"Thanks. Nordstrom’s having a sale.† The brown leather Mia heels I currently wore were among my favorites, but after a week now with no shape-shifting, my wardrobe was starting to make me stir-crazy. It was kind of like my hair, I realized. I hadn’t realized how dependent I was on shape-shifting to enhance my appearance. I’d lauded myself for living like a human when in truth, I’d been cheating the whole time. Seeing my wistful look, Maddie asked, â€Å"You want to go downtown for lunch and check it out?† I shook my head with regret. Looking at shoes sounded a lot better than looking at rocks. â€Å"Can’t. I’ve got to meet someone.† â€Å"Ah, well, let me know when you get some time. You know I’m game.† Silence fell, and Maddie shifted uncomfortably. She bit her lip, like she wanted to say something. I started to prompt her, but she spoke first. â€Å"So, what did you think of the condo listings?† â€Å"Oh, they were†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Fuck. I’d never even read through them. Roman and Dante had spent more time looking at them than I had. Which one had Dante mentioned? â€Å"They were great. I really liked that new one-the one where you can still get in on the choices and stuff.† Her eyes lit up. â€Å"Ooh, yeah. I loved that one too. I actually looked them up on the builder’s website. It doesn’t look like there are many left, but there has to be at least one, or they wouldn’t be listed. We should go down there and talk to them in person.† I smiled, feeling horrible about the lie. â€Å"Sure†¦but it may be awhile before I can get a break. We’ll have to do it and the shoe trip at the same time.† Maddie nodded, face kind and sympathetic. â€Å"No problem. I understand.† More silence fell, and I realized it wasn’t the condos that she wanted to talk to me about. That had been a distraction to build up her own courage. â€Å"Maddie, what’s going on?† Her cheery look disintegrated into something much more glum. It was startling. I was so used to her always being in a good mood that the thought of something upsetting her was on par with the laws of physics breaking down. She met my eyes and immediately looked away. â€Å"Oh God. I can’t believe I’m about to bring this up.† I was seriously worried now. â€Å"You can tell me. It’s okay. What’s up?† She sighed. â€Å"It’s Seth.† Oh, fuck. How to cite Succubus Heat CHAPTER 21, Essay examples

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Othello Othellos Honor Essay Example For Students

Othello Othellos Honor Essay Othello Othellos Honor The play Othello exemplifies the themes of jealousy and chicanery.The play begins when Othello, a general in the Venetian army has angered Iago (a member of the army) by appointing Cassio (another army officer) to the lieutenant position.Iago feels that he is more deserving of the promotion than Cassio and decides that he will stop at nothing to get back at both Othello and Cassio.Iago decides that he will get revenge on Othello by using his wife, Desdemona. O beware my lord, of jealousy! It is a greeneyed monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on.That cuckold lives in bliss who, certain of his fate loves not his wronger;yet fondly loves (3.3.165).Foolishly Othello believes Iago and accuses Desdemona of being unchaste. Othello kills Desdemona because he is concerned about the affect that Desdemonass unfaithfulness will have on his reputation. Othello ingenuous nature allows him to be lured in by Iagos lies.He never considers that Iago could in fact be lying to him which would be quite possible because he could have anger towards Othello. Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore!/ Be sure of it; give me ocular proof;/ or, by the worth of mine eternal soul,/ thou hadst been better been born a dog/ than answer my waked wrath! (3.3.356) The only evidence that Desdemona could be having an affair is a missing handkerchief. Othello bases his reasoning on merely the missing handkerchief, which leads him to believe that Desdemona has been lying to him.IfOthello really believed that Desdemona was an honest person, he would have disregarded Iagos comments. However, Othello, more concerned with his own reputation, allows Iagos lies to control him until finally he decides that the only way to redeem his reputation is to kill Desdemona: By heaven, I saw my handkerchief ins hand!/ O perjured woman! thou dost stone my heart,/ and maks t me call what I intend to do/ a murder, which I thought a sacrifice./ I saw the handkerchief (5.2.62). After killing Desdemona though, Othello finds out that Iago has been lying to him the entire time.Emilia tells him, Moor, she was chaste. She loved thee, cruel Moor, so come my soul to bliss as I speak true (5.2.246).After hearing this becomes very sullen and talks about how he threw a pearl away richer than all his tribe (5.2.343). The emotional pain Othello demonstrates after discovering that he has been lied to shows how much he values his reputation or honor. For naught did I in hate, but all in honor (5.2.291).Othello decides that the only way to redeem his honor is to kill himself.And say besides in Allepo once,/ where a malignant and turbaned Turk/ beat a Venetian and traduced the state,/ I took by th throat the circumcised dog/ and smote him thus. (5.2.348) Othello demonstrates how much values his own reputation by declaring himself a traitor and then killing himself. Othello values his reputation and does not respect the reputation of others.If Othello had respected Desdemona for her honesty he would have disregarded Iago and never have murdered Desdemona. He should have realized that Iago has every motive to lie to him.Instead Othello believes Iago because he is afraid of anything that could possibly tarnish his reputation.The consequences for Othellos actions are Desdemonas death, the emotional ruin caused by her death which leads to his own death.