ADHD Medication and Children Essay -- health, disorders

Not being able to keep still, talking out of turn, and non being able to resist temptation are many another(prenominal) traits of a child under the age of twelve also, the symptoms of a child diagnosed with minimal brain dysfunction. Though there isnt a test to determine whether or not a child has ADHD many psychiatrists are quick to incline that the child may have this behavioral disorder even though they could save be acting like children. Not only are psychiatrists too quick to diagnose theyre also quick to prescribe medications that have gritty risks of causing behavioral changes and disruption of the chemical balance within the brain. Children under the age of twelve should never be diagnosed and/or prescribed medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Many people dont even know what attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ADHD is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders for children. It causes children to be hyperactive, act without thinking, have trouble focusing, and have problems paying attention to instructions. Since many children have these symptoms without having ADHD, Kingsley explains in more elaborateOf course, all kids (especially younger ones) act this way at times, particularly when theyre anxious or excited. But the difference with ADHD is that symptoms are present over a longer period of time and occur in different settings. They impair a childs ability to function socially, academically, and at home. (Kingsley, MD) This could cause a problem with parents and children uniform especially when the child becomes enrolled in school considering that school requires a lot of attention. There are three different types of ADHD Predominantly Inattent... ...ol and Prevention, 17 Jan. 2014. Web. 04 Mar. 2015.Medications exploitation Them Safely. KidsHealth. Ed. Yamini Durani. The Nemours Foundation, 01 Nov. 2011. Web. 03 Feb. 2015.Paddock, Catherine, PhD. Michigan State University. Nearly one million children in U.S. potentially misdiagnosed with ADHD, Science Daily. Science Daily, 17 August 2010. Web. 05 Mar. 2015. Psychiatric Medication for Children and Adolescents Part one-third Questions to Ask. Psychiatric Medication for Children and Adolescents Part III Questions to Ask. American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Nov. 2012. Web. 03 Feb. 2015.Robinson, Lawrence. ADD / ADHD Medications. ADD/ADHD Medications Are ADHD Drugs serious for You or Your Child? N.p., Sept. 2013. Web. 02 Feb. 2015.Shute, Nancy. Neurologists Warn Against ADHD Drugs To Help Kids Study. NPR. NPR, 14 Mar. 2013. Web. 05 Mar. 2015.

Song Of Solomon :: essays research papers

From Beginning to End     Toni Morrison begins her novel Song of Solomon in a very unconventional way. Instead of introducing a setting or characters, she retells an incident that without elevate reading is for the most part incomprehensible. As readers we notice later on in the story the references made throughout the book that relate back to the preliminary pages. Some of the main themes such as oral traditions, naming, and especially flight argon introduced in the first six pages and are further developed in a very similar format throughout the book.     One of the outstanding themes, oral tradition, is used to retell events throughout the book in a look consistent with the beginning. On the first page we are introduced to an insurance agent by the name of Robert Smith. We shortly there after(prenominal) learn that he will " tent flap" form the top of Mercy Hospital. On the Wednesday of his flight a group of fifty people gather a round the building to witness this event. While hold for his "flight" or jump a woman in a contralto voice begins to sing the words "O Sugarman done fly outside(a)/ Sugarman done done for(p)/ Sugarman cut across the sky/ Sugarman gone home&8230"(6) This lady simply describes Robert Smiths flight "home" which we later learn is in truth him committing suicide. Much later on in the book Milkman is listening to a group of children singing "O Solomon done fly away/ Solomon done gone/ Solomon cut across the sky/ Solomon gone home."(3) In this song Sugarman, or Robert Smith, is replaced by Solomon, or the Great Grandfather of Milkman. The song describes his "flight" from Shalimar, his home town, and the events that happened after his "flight." In general, oral traditions are used in this book to retell past events for both our understanding and for the characters. They take the form of song, story, and fairy tale and are very important to the meaning of the story because they are a major medium of narration.     Naming is utilized throughout the book for the purpose of creating identification and symbolization for the characters and places. On page four a brief description is given about the history of Mains Ave., or non Doctor Street., as called by the Southside community. It is called Not Doctor Street. because a prominent black doctor had once lived there, and the people living there always referred to it as Doctor Street.

All Quite On The Western Front Essay -- essays research papers

&65279All liquid On The Western FrontWorld War I was a fierce and very disturbing time for numerous people. Duringwar people will stretch their own personal boundaries and limits just to stay alive.Although every solider was someones son, by the end of the war this was not afactor. By thinking of an enemy as less then human, the act of killing someonesson was a little easier on the minds of each soldier. To everyday people it isapparent that the war changes people, but the extent of the change is not so easyto see. This change is symbolized in the movie, All Quiet On The Western Front.At the beginning of the movie, Paul Baumer and his friends were excitedabout the war. Their teacher Mr. Kantorek, had put a theory in their heads thatwar was a patriotic duty. If you loved and wanted to support your country, thengoing to war was a must. With this theory in your head, the act of war is a verydifficult function to handle. Paul realized that war was a horrible place to be. Yesyou were fighting for your country, but at the same time all of your friends andfamily were dying around you. In the end was it really worth it? This was thequestion that ended up on Pauls mind, and was a question that would not besoon to pass away his conscience.Paul was a good boy. He had a good education, was a non-smoker, andhad many friends. His teacher was amazed a...

Comparing A Plea for Gas Lamps and Jekyll and Hyde :: comparison compare contrast essays

A Plea for Gas Lamps and Jekyll and Hyde In A Plea for Gas Lamps Robert Louis Stevenson describes how, with the advent of urban gaslight, a new age had begun for sociality and corporate pleasure seeking. Referring to the lamps as domesticated stars, he describes the new lamplit city emerging gracefully as a jovial public sphere in which soft joys prevail and people are convoked to pleasure. Wolfgang Schivelbush connects such gaslit pleasure directly to commerce. Gaslight offered life, warmth and closeness. This was true also of the relationship surrounded by light and the shop goods upon which it fell. They were close to each other, indeed, they permeated each other, and each enhanced the effect of the other.(153) At the same time, however, the industrial uniformity of gas streetlighting made some(prenominal) uneasy. Like the railway, it represented a dehumanizing, centrally regulated urban infrastructure. With a public gas supply, domestic lighting enter ed its industrial -- and dependent -- stage. No chronic self-sufficiently producing its own heat and light, each house was inextricably tied to an industrial energy producer. . . . To contemporaries it seemed that industries were expanding, sending out tentacles, octopus-like, into every house.(28-29) This dread of uniformity became intensify as incandescent gas lighting, high pressure gas lighting (Robins 142), and finally electric arc-lighting grew more common in urban settings. People became at one time nostalgic for the flicker of gaslight, and the inhuman qualities of street lighting were directly associated with the brightness and uniformity of electric arc-lights. For Stevenson, the immediacy and central control of electric lighting transforms the city into a technological nightmare Our tame stars are to come out in future, not one by one, but all in a body and at once. A sedate electrician somewhere in a back office touches a spring -- and behold . . . the design of the flagitious city flashes into vision -- a glittering hieroglyph many square miles in extent. The monstrosity of the city is defined by this sudden, startling uniformity, which obliterates the its pleasing variety, variant it a vast, but simple design.

Mathematics of Human Vision and Corrective Lenses :: Math Eye Glasses Contacts Contact Lens

Missing figures/tablesIt is a daily ritual...wake up, eat, shower, contacts, class. I do this both morning, however I have never stopped to think, Why?No, non Why am I going to class so early? simply Why do I need these contacts? With this project I volition attempt to explain the basics of vision and corrective lenses, as I, myself, finally charter the reason for sticking my finger in my eye every morning. staple fiber Eye AnatomyThe cornea is responsible for protecting the eye and for refracting incoming light rays.The student is merely an opening that allows light to enter into the eye. Its black color is attributed to the incident that light is not able to exit the eye through the pupil.The iris acts to fudge the size of it of the pupil. In bright light, the iris is dilated in such a way as to reduce the size of the pupil and limit the amount of ingress light. In dim light, the iris adjusts its size as to maximize the size of the pupil and increase the amount of incomin g light.The crystalline lens is a fibrous, jelly-like poppycock that serves to fine tune the vision process by adjusting its shape and indeed the focal length of the system.The ciliary muscles relax and contract to change the shape of the lens.The retina contains rods and cones which obtain the intensity and frequency of incoming light and, in turn, send pump impulses to the brain. Behind the EyeThe four main components of the eye that are responsible for producing an word picture are the cornea, lens, ciliary muscles and retina. Incoming light rays first encounter the cornea. The convex shape of the cornea causes it to refract light similar to a convex lens. Because of the great passing in optical density between the air and the corneal substantive and because of the shape of the cornea, most of the refraction to incoming light rays takes place here. Light rays therefore pass through the pupil, and then onto the lens. A small amount of spare refraction takes place here as the light rays are fine tuned so that they focus on the retina.This is a representation of the eyes lens system. This eye has no eye condition, such as nearsightedness or farsightedness, and the lens is drawn in its relaxed position. The light rays are focused appropriately on the retina. The thickness of the cornea is 0.449 mm, the standoffishness from the cornea to the lens is 2.Mathematics of Human Vision and Corrective Lenses Math Eye eyeglasses Contacts Contact LensMissing figures/tablesIt is a daily ritual...wake up, eat, shower, contacts, class. I do this every morning, however I have never stopped to think, Why?No, not Why am I going to class so early? but Why do I need these contacts? With this project I will attempt to explain the basics of vision and corrective lenses, as I, myself, finally learn the reason for sticking my finger in my eye every morning.Basic Eye AnatomyThe cornea is responsible for protecting the eye and for refracting incoming light rays.The pupil is merely an opening that allows light to enter into the eye. Its black color is attributed to the fact that light is not able to exit the eye through the pupil.The iris acts to control the size of the pupil. In bright light, the iris is dilated in such a way as to reduce the size of the pupil and limit the amount of entering light. In dim light, the iris adjusts its size as to maximize the size of the pupil and increase the amount of incoming light.The crystalline lens is a fibrous, jelly-like material that serves to fine tune the vision process by adjusting its shape and therefore the focal length of the system.The ciliary muscles relax and contract to change the shape of the lens.The retina contains rods and cones which detect the intensity and frequency of incoming light and, in turn, send nerve impulses to the brain. Behind the EyeThe four main components of the eye that are responsible for producing an image are the cornea, lens, ciliary muscles and retina. Incoming light ray s first encounter the cornea. The bulging shape of the cornea causes it to refract light similar to a convex lens. Because of the great difference in optical density between the air and the corneal material and because of the shape of the cornea, most of the refraction to incoming light rays takes place here. Light rays then pass through the pupil, and then onto the lens. A small amount of additional refraction takes place here as the light rays are fine tuned so that they focus on the retina.This is a representation of the eyes lens system. This eye has no eye condition, such as nearsightedness or farsightedness, and the lens is drawn in its relaxed position. The light rays are focused appropriately on the retina. The thickness of the cornea is 0.449 mm, the distance from the cornea to the lens is 2.

Mathematics of Human Vision and Corrective Lenses :: Math Eye Glasses Contacts Contact Lens

Missing figures/tablesIt is a daily ritual...wake up, eat, shower, contacts, class. I do this every morning, however I have never stopped to think, Why?No, non Why am I going to class so early? but Why do I need these contacts? With this project I will attempt to exempt the basics of vision and corrective lenses, as I, myself, finally learn the reason for adhesive my finger in my eye every morning.Basic core general anatomyThe cornea is responsible for protecting the eye and for subjecting incoming light rays.The pupil is merely an hypothesis that allows light to enter into the eye. Its black color is attributed to the fact that light is not able to exit the eye with the pupil.The iris acts to control the size of the pupil. In bright light, the iris is dilated in such(prenominal) a way as to reduce the size of the pupil and limit the amount of entering light. In impenetrable light, the iris adjusts its size as to maximize the size of the pupil and accession the amount of inc oming light.The crystalline lens is a fibrous, jelly-like material that serves to fine credit line the vision process by adjusting its shape and therefore the focal distance of the system.The ciliate muscles relax and contract to change the shape of the lens.The retina contains rods and cones which detect the intensity and absolute frequency of incoming light and, in turn, send nerve impulses to the brain. Behind the EyeThe four main components of the eye that be responsible for producing an image are the cornea, lens, ciliary muscles and retina. Incoming light rays first encounter the cornea. The bulging shape of the cornea causes it to refract light similar to a convex lens. Because of the great difference in visual density between the air and the corneal material and because of the shape of the cornea, about of the refraction to incoming light rays takes spot here. Light rays then pass through the pupil, and then onto the lens. A small amount of additional refraction take s place here as the light rays are fine tuned so that they focus on the retina.This is a representation of the eyes lens system. This eye has no eye condition, such as nearsightedness or farsightedness, and the lens is drawn in its relaxed position. The light rays are focused appropriately on the retina. The thickness of the cornea is 0.449 mm, the distance from the cornea to the lens is 2.Mathematics of Human Vision and Corrective genus Lenses Math Eye Glasses Contacts Contact LensMissing figures/tablesIt is a daily ritual...wake up, eat, shower, contacts, class. I do this every morning, however I have never stopped to think, Why?No, not Why am I going to class so early? but Why do I need these contacts? With this project I will attempt to explain the basics of vision and corrective lenses, as I, myself, finally learn the reason for sticking my finger in my eye every morning.Basic Eye AnatomyThe cornea is responsible for protecting the eye and for refracting incoming light rays .The pupil is merely an opening that allows light to enter into the eye. Its black color is attributed to the fact that light is not able to exit the eye through the pupil.The iris acts to control the size of the pupil. In bright light, the iris is dilated in such a way as to reduce the size of the pupil and limit the amount of entering light. In dim light, the iris adjusts its size as to maximize the size of the pupil and increase the amount of incoming light.The crystalline lens is a fibrous, jelly-like material that serves to fine tune the vision process by adjusting its shape and therefore the focal length of the system.The ciliary muscles relax and contract to change the shape of the lens.The retina contains rods and cones which detect the intensity and frequency of incoming light and, in turn, send nerve impulses to the brain. Behind the EyeThe four main components of the eye that are responsible for producing an image are the cornea, lens, ciliary muscles and retina. Incoming light rays first encounter the cornea. The bulging shape of the cornea causes it to refract light similar to a convex lens. Because of the great difference in optical density between the air and the corneal material and because of the shape of the cornea, most of the refraction to incoming light rays takes place here. Light rays then pass through the pupil, and then onto the lens. A small amount of additional refraction takes place here as the light rays are fine tuned so that they focus on the retina.This is a representation of the eyes lens system. This eye has no eye condition, such as nearsightedness or farsightedness, and the lens is drawn in its relaxed position. The light rays are focused appropriately on the retina. The thickness of the cornea is 0.449 mm, the distance from the cornea to the lens is 2.

Culture and Emphasis Different Cultures Essay

CommunicationVocabulary * Cultural Shock * Cultural Context * High-Context Culture * Low-Context Culture * Individualism * Collectivism * masculine * Feminine Why Study Culture? * Globalization * Rise in intercultural Shock * Avoid Culture ShockCultural Contexts * What is cultural Context? * The relative tenseness distinguishable cultures sharpen on nonverbal communication * High-Context culture * Low-Context cultureCulture Values * What are culture values? Four categories of cultural values * Individualism vs. Collectivism * decentralised vs. Centralized * Uncertainty vs. Certainty * Masculine vs. FeminineContexts, Values and Communication * How do cultural contexts and values impact communication? * What would happen if *A person from a high-context culture is communicating with a person from a person from a low context culture? * A person from a highly laissez-faire(a) culture is communicating with a person from a more collectivist culture? Culture Shock * A state of confusion and distress experience by an individual who is suddenly exposed to a new, strange or foreign social and cultural environ manpowertCultural Shock * The relative emphasis different cultures place on nonverbal communicationHigh-Context Culture * Cultures that place a high emphasis on nonverbal communicationLow-context Culture * Cultures that do not tend to value emphasis on nonverbal communicationIndividualism * Placing a high value on individual accomplishments and individual Collectivism * Place a high value on the accomplishments of a groupMasculine *The traditional social and cultural ideas of male characteristicsFeminine * The traditional social and cultural ideas of female characteristics Objectives * Understand the different reasons men and women communicate * Understand the differences in how and what men and women communicate Vocabulary * Content The subjects or topics covered in verbal communication * Men are more likely to focus their attention on the content of a convers ation, while women tend to be more emotion and relationship focused. Why men and women communicate * Reasons men communicate * Share instruction * Accomplish a task * Reasons women communicate * Build relationships * Develop understanding How men and women communicate *How men and women communicate * Men Verbal messages, value outspokenness * Women Nonverbal messages, Value feelings What men and women communicate * What men and women communicate * Men Topics of expertise, problem solving, content focused * Women Emotions, experiences, relationship focused * Status vs. Support. * Independence vs. Intimacy. * Advice vs. Understanding. * reading vs. Feelings. * Orders vs. Proposals. * Conflict vs. Compromise. Objectives * Identify and explain the barriers encountered in intercultural communication * Understand how to overcome barriers in intercultural communication Vocabulary * Ethnocentrism * Barrier Barriers in Intercultural Communication * Ethnocentrism * assumptive similaritie s * Assuming differences * Focusing on stereotypes. * Different Communication Codes Overcoming communication barriers * Seek information * Ask thoughtful questions and listen * Tolerate ambiguity * Become other oriented

Aristotle and Aurelius Essay

Aristotles Nicomachean Ethics goes to show that he believes that the end goal of all mankind actions is eudaimonia, or happiness by dint of success and fulfillment. Following this concept Aristotle goes on to explain that through virtuosity a human beingness can lead a happy vitality. He defines moral excellence as a disposition to make the correct decisions that lead to the chief good of happiness. A perfect example is when he describes someone who does an action thoroughly as being good, but they are only considered good because of their distinctive activity.The distinctive activity for human beings can be considered our rationale. This is where justice comes into play in the matter, but this translation could also be deciphered as excellence. Human beings do every single thing they do for a former and that reason is to help towards an end goal. Although it whitethorn seem like the end goal might be something good like eating lunch, it is actually a range of mountains to the ultimate good which is being happy.Happiness in Aristotles view is not second-by-second or even minute-by-minute but an entire lifetime. This is because we view happiness as and end goal which we hope to achieve by death and that way you can look back on a individuals life to see if they succeeded in their goal, through virtuous moral roughage and virtuous apt character and through the act of temperance. A life-time of that act can pledge a happy, fulfilling, and successful life.Being virtuous come through two different ways in our actions as said by Aristotle, Excellence being of two sorts, then, the one intellectual and the other of character, the intellectual sort nearlyly both comes into existence and increases as a result of t apieceing whereas excellence of character results from habituation (Nicomachean Ethics, 1103a15). Intellectual virtue comes from teaching, experience, and time while character virtue is formed through the habit of repeated virtuous actions and c onstant practice.This allows for every human being to potentially direct a virtuous moral character for the fact that it cannot be shapeed but only practiced, and not one individual can be natural already virtuous. The only problem with this concept is that there is no exact guideline in which to follow in vagabond to become virtuous and, ultimately, happy. Basically Aristotle explains that you can find virtue in the middle ground of your actions, forexample, he says For to arrive at one of the two extremes is more erroneous, to arrive at the other less so, since it is hard to hit upon intermediate with extreme accuracy, one should take to the oars and sail that way, as they say, grasping what is least knotty of what is available (Nicomachean Ethics, 1109a35) There is no teaching as to why, for example, courage is preferred over cowardice or rashness but that you need to practice being courageous in order to understand the reasoning for being courageous.This is true for all virtuous traits and merits of the human character and by combining the moral and intellectual teachings and habits can you start on the path of a virtuous disposition. The key to virtue is keeping within a balance between the infirmitys. For an excessive vice there is excessive pleasure but also excessive pain and for the opposite there is no pleasure and no pain. The key is in a state of temperance in order to feel the correct amount of pleasure for a healthy lifestyle and choices.Aristotles views show that someone with a virtuous disposition should automatically or naturally choose the best action or behavior in any circumstances without having to rely on reason because the virtuous habit has been already learned. In response to someone arguing against an accidental choice, these views only perceive the deliberate and voluntary choices made by the person of virtue.Also a virtuous moral character will ceaselessly aim for the good while un ripe character will exertion to aim for what is their perception or the apparent good as said in That wish is for the end, we have already said but to some it seems to be for the good, whereas to others it seems to be for the apparent good. The consequence, for those who say that the object of wish is the good, is that what the person making an incorrect choice wishes for is not wished for.. (Nicomachean Ethics, 1113a10).A virtuous person will always do the right thing and will never be surprised by their actions, nor will they do it the right thing with an ulterior motive. Though you cannot pass a happy life just with a virtuous disposition because you still need to act within accordance to virtue, you absolutely cannot live a happy life without virtue. Having virtue in your actions will lead to the final goal of happiness because it far outweighs the happiness found in pleasure, awards or merits. II.Marcus Aurelius was a philosopher-king and emperor of the Roman Empire and was considered of of the more or less influe ntial Stoic philosophers of all time. His greatest work Meditations is an honest portrayal of Aurelius thoughts as they were found in diary form, never meant to be publicized. He wrote these books for himself as a sort of guideline and thought-provoking inner voice. In his works of Meditations, Marcus Aurelius doesnt use arguments as a way to get his point across but rather states his words as truths and seems to be very confident in his uses.It seems he is prying at the meaning of life, the whys and hows of it all on the idea of accompaniment. He is very blunt in his use of understating the human existence in the world and compares them to specks in the grand scheme, but the point of this is to provide a sort of carpe diem lifestyle. By letting yourself let go of the things you cannot control, you begin to gain a better understanding of the things you can control and act accordingly. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him these are obstructions. (Meditations, 17). This quote goes to show how you cannot allow yourself to get angry at another(prenominal) person for what they have done, but to continue your existence and recognize what you need to do. He advises in his writings To shrug it all off and wipe it clean-every innervation and distraction-and reach verbalize stillness. (Meditations, 54) and once you can do that you can realize what is natural.Stoicism being a very popular philosophy in superannuated Rome for it called for a cosmic determinism in relation to human freedom by a parallel will to that of Nature . Aurelius,himself, was a firm worshipper in the Logos, which can be identified as a principle a guiding force for the universe, human beings and all matter. In fact, it is one of the most important concepts in Stoicism for the ancient Romans of the time. The stark and manly belief that every singl e citizen had a duty, whether they were a king or a peasant, were pass judgment to follow it to the best of their abilities.The term utter stillness is used to acknowledge the state of no distractions. By achieving this you can focus solely on remove actions and how to follow your own road by the way of Nature on an unconscious level. Not by thinking about it but by playing naturally should you continue to help others, work for yourself, never stopping but continuing to reply to Natures demands. To do this all under the Logos, in order to find our common sense and avoid the annoying distractions all the while by controlling these actions through your inner unconscious/conscious self. III.The Grecian philosopher Aristotle and the Roman philosopher-king Marcus Aurelius can be compared and contrasted in their similar and different ways of thoughts. First you can compare Aristotles ideas on eudaimonia and Aurelius use of utter stillness to help follow the logos, also the final step of death as the end of ones move around towards a life of fulfillment. Contrastingly, they have different outlooks on purpose of human life and how to lead to the fulfilling of that said life. Stoicism was developed within the framework of Greek theory and philosophies from Plato and Aristotle so obviously there are bound to be many similarities.Both of these men were truly brilliant and ground-breaking in their respective ways of thought and led centuries of intellectuals to look to for more fulfillment and happinesss in their lives. Some big differences between Aristotle and Aurelius were there views on mortality or death. While Aristotle concludes that our lives are inclined to us and as valuable as human beings want to make them, the Stoics view on life is that is shaped by death and that the thoughts, choices and actions are just based on the knowledge of death.Eudaimonia is a subject in which Aristotle and Aurelius were familiar with in their writings about philosophical l ife. Aristotle thought of eudaimonia as an activity done with virtue performed rationally and consciously. Aurelius and the other Stoics insist that the way for eudaimonia is to live a morally virtuous life, in regards to the fact that virtue is good, vices are bad and most everything else is neutral. A popular argument for this where a death in the family would be involved, according to Aristotle, that would rob the most virtuous person of their eudaimonia while the Stoics would consider that neutral.Another interesting fact about Aristotle is how he acknowledges how dumb luck can aid or block the journey for eudaimonia, for example being born beautiful or losing near friends and family. Basically, they agree that eudaimonia is self-sufficient the chief goal in life and that eudaimonia is the most complete end result. Virtue is very important to both philosophers and their ways of thinking and considers it absolutely crucial for eudaimonia. Aristotle and Aurelius can agree that no one is born just virtuous as it must be an act learned.Virtue is believed to be how one can control their emotions for it helps them to stay stable and in moderation. Overall, living life virtuously is living a life full of dignity. Marcus Aureliuss view is a much more justified view because it is more innovational and more adaptable. As the stoicism wants people to better themselves within reasonable goals and change values into something that will bring upon an unconscious change so that they may make better decisions consciously. Aristotle instead relies too much on a proper upbringing and calls the loss of good and friends as a prevention of eudaimonia.Stoics learn to realize what is out of their control and move on to what they can control. Aristotelian views also say that if a person dies early that it is a tragedy and that they were taken away before they reached their prime which in the Stoics eyes, a virtuous person should never be afraid of death because their life is s ufficient when living a virtuous life. The difference continues when viewing the topic of emotions for Aristotelian that emotions are not good nor bad, only bad when expressed inappropriately while the Stoics think the hale point of eudaimonia is to be free from emotion.Finally the stoics dont see a difference between the rich, poor, slaves or free men, because in their views bodily and external things can no impact on their dignity, whereas Aristotle believes that a life based on virtues along with enough material and external goods like freedom, wellbeing, and close friends lead to a life of dignity. Overall, Aurelius and the Stoics have built upon and modified Aristotles view to be more realistic and to try and be more cheerful in leading the best possible life no matter the circumstances.

Analysis on Deodorant Market of India

K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research food marketing Management deodourant Market of India An Overview ( of import Brand Studied peacenik) Submitted to Professor Kiran Sharma Submitted by Sneha M Zawar PGDM (Communications) Roll no 60 05 August 2012 Contents Overview of Market2 Market Statistics3 Case Study Dove5 History5 downslope5 Segmentation5 Target6 Positioning 6 Unique Sellng Proposition 6 Milestones6 Advertisemnt, Distribution and Selling 6 Price Postioning 7 maturation Prospects7 Competitor Analysis 7Trends of Indian market8 Fall gaps and hope9 Sources and References9 Overview of Market In tropical country wish well India, Deodorants ar considered to be inwrought personal carry off product from grooming perspective, to prevent body odour and make you feel saucy. Assochams recent report shows that Deodorant market of India is poise at 1800 Crore and is expected to grow at 55%, of this roll on market has share of 400 crore Major companies in this segment of personal care are * Unilever with brands like Dove, Axe, Sure, Lux Cavinkare with brand like Spinz * Mc-N-Roe with brands like Wild Stone and undercover Temptation * Paras Pharma (now owned by Reckitt Beckinser) with brand find out Wet Zatak * Coty which has Adidas * Nike * Garnier * J. K. Helene Curtis (Raymond) which has Park Avenue * Godrej has deo with brand name Cinthol * Vini Healthcare with brand Fogg * Beirsdorf with brand Nivea These are all major brands in the mass category. There are many premium brands of Deodorant catering to urban elite but go a minimum percent of market share in India. Market Statistics The Market share in terms of percentage for premium v/s mass deodorant is 2 and 98percent respectively which can be shown in the chart below * The emergence in sales of deodorant sprays from 2006 to 2011 is shown in figure below Premium v/s Mass deodorants Source Euromonitor 2012 division Breakdown of Market Shares of Various Brands Case Study Dov e History * This brand was established in United States in 1959, Dove was souseed in India in 1995 as a brand which catered to urban women with its soap and then in 2004 on roads of brand extension entered deodorant category on the like line of 1/4th moisturising cream. It is the brand which is committed to widening the beauty because they believe that beauty comes in all ages, shapes and size and promotes the brand with non-modelscommercial Tagline legal Protection Better Result Origin * It is a personal care brand by Unilever, It came in India in 1995 and imported and marketed by Hindustan Unilever. * Unilever won scoop out Marketer Award in the year 2004 for its brand Dove Segmentation * Demographic Segmentation Gender Females High Income and middle class women Pyschographic Segmentation It tries to deviate the mind set of average women that she can look beautiful and Its deodorants target the segments on various lines of Soothing and moisturising, prohibitionist silk anti perspirant, Freshness and skin lightning for caliginous beneatharms and beautifying under arms and claims long lasting overboldness. Target It targets females in the age group of 15-40, urban, metropolitian and women of tier 2 cities. Positioning * It is positioned as a brand which nourishes, care and has fantastic market fussyization. It has introduced new varients time to time in order to comply with the changing need of women and comply with market standards, Dry silk which was launched as antiperspirant, then fresh with specialized lemon n cucumber extracts which was positioned as deo which renders long lasting freshness and moisturise whereas skin whitening which was launched recently to compete against nivea which claims to whiten dark underarms Unique Sellng Proposition * It assures 24 hour protection from sweat, It has propagated and penetrated in the personal care market with the promotion campaign Real Woman.This is very unusual to a brand as even its media campaig ning strictly focus on the mantra of making every common woman make feel special and beautiful and includes no models in its advertisement Milestones * Unilever has highest market stake in Deodorant category in India with its brands Axe, Sure, Dove and Lux. * Dove is one of the major brands in female category and is can emerge as a market leader with its unique varients, competitive rates and exquisite fragrance and active ingredients (lemon rotter, silk powder, 1/4th moisturiser, pearl actives, cucumber) Advertisemnt, Distribution and Selling Dove released a marketing campaign in 2008 playing less on super models and emphasising more on real women i. e real people posing camera * Dove regularly uses magazines like cosmopolitian, Femina, Marie claire for advertisemnts * Online advertisemnt has been excessively seen in past 3 years with launch of new varients of Deodorants * Distribution channels for Dove is same as like any other Unilever brand. It is avilable as OTC product in re tail outlets malls in metro and tier-2 cities. Deodorants are also available on online shopping sites where there are special offers and added discounts. Dove deo are sold in 150-175ml containers and special former offers as free dove soap and free face wash were introduced to make its category more price efficient and benevolent to consumers. Price Postioning * Dove deodorants are priced at competitive rates 150ml pack of deo is priced at 160-175Rs * Dove products are priced premiumly as consumer associate price with efficacy but deodorants fall exceptions as the deodorant market of mass category is predominant and to sustain a good market share, Dove has priced its product at competitve range Growth Prospects Deodorant market of India is male dominated, 60% share is of male deodorants and 40% of Women of which Dove has a stake of 8. 5-10% . * Women Deodorant market has grown at approximate growth rate of 40% in last 2 years, with this growth, there is immense potential for bra nd to penetrate in the market Competitor Analysis * Main brands in the female deodorant category are Spinz, Nivea, Eva, Sure, Adidas, Nike and few Secret Temptation and Fogg. * Dove has launched different varients of deodorants to compete with different brands on various lines. Adidas, Nike has antiperspirants and targets high and higher middle class consumer, since the product has high brand value it has got a brand conscious and set customer which is challenge for Dove, to compete with these brands it has got antiperspirants like Dry Silk * Spinz and Eva positions its product for youth on the lines of Freshness and Flamboyance, Dove has very different positioning altogether but it has introduced varients called DOVE FRESH with lemon grass and cucumber extracts which may target females choosing deodorant for fragrance and freshness. Secret Temptation falls in a different category all together and have different target audience mostly college girls as it associates Mischief with the product, DOVES positioning is such that it cannot cater on those lines. * Nivea is chief competitor as both brands target same segment of customer and varients of deodorants of both the brands are positioned on the similar lines, however packaging and advertising of Nivea is more attractive and appealing to women. Trends of Indian marketAn introspect of Indian market and research of product category makes us classify different varients of deodorant on following trends which can be broadly stated as * New Freshness Which caters on the ground of freshness from basic natural to purifying e. g Dove Go fresh, Nivea Fresh Natural, Eva Fresh * Technology Technology supports Efficacy Special active ingredients incorporated to serve specific purpose. e. g Sure Cotton dry, Adidas 3-action, Dove Silk dry, Nivea Dry comfort * Sensitive Specialised deodorants for subtle skin or which claims to be irritation free. e. All Eva deodorants, Adidas Sensitive, Dove sensitive, Nivea Sensitive Bal m. * Skincare Products catered to beautify , care and nourish your underarms. e. g Dove with 1/4th mositurising cream and skin lightning, Nivea Double Effect and smash * All about Senses Deodorant which cater on the line of invigorating some senses and moods on application or usage. e. g Spinz Jazz, Samba, etc, Secret Temptation and Yardley of london. * Age groups Special products catering to specific age groups. e. g Spinz, Eva, Secret Temptation have there product positioned such that it appeals young girls.Fall gaps and Forecast Indian markets tend to follow globally established trends as most of the companies and brands are multinationals. This category has enough scope of penetration and expansion as deodorant have become one of the important personal care product of daily usage. Since deodorants are aerosol products and even anti perspirant ingredients incorporated have shown some side effects on long term usage, there is enough scope for Research and Development of New Prod ucts on the ground of being eco-friendly and clinically safe.Sources and References * www. portal. euromonitor. com, * www. epsearch. net * www. search. proquest. com * www. unilevers. com/personalcare/Dove * www. wikipedia. com * http//www. thedailygreen. com/environmental-news/latest/best-natural-deodorants-47062903 * https//www. google. co. in/search? num=10&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1241&bih=584&q=deodorant+logos&oq=deodorant+logo&gs_l=img. 1. 0. 0j0i5l9. 9569. 17121. 0. 19464. 19. 17. 1. 1. 1. 0. 313. 2551. 5j4j5j2. 17. 0 0. 0 1ac. FI_n6QTjW3U

The Poisonwood Bible Critical Reading Portfolio Entry

The Opposition record book is a book about the reactions that buttocks be made with the burden of collective guilt to be specific, to our complicit guilt as citizens of the United States for the misconduct by our nation in the congo. The Opposition Bible is an aloneusion of an event that triggers the life of a family to be burden with guilt in the congou. The title of the book is what describes the whole book. The Opposition Bible Is an Increased prosecution of westbound colonialism and post-colonialism, an expose f cultural arrogance and self-indulgence.Section II Author The author of the Opposition Bible is Barbara Kingfisher. The Opposition Bible is a departure from Kingfishers previous sham novels, not only in moving politics and to the foreground, but excessively in its setting. Kingfishers rattling spent two years in the Republic of congou tea while her parents served as health care officials. Her life in the congou tea represents a theme that finds a prominent place in the Opposition Bible. Kingfisher actually spent her two years in the Congo at the same measure as the typesetters cases In the book. Around the sasss.While Kingfisher spent time in the Congo the united States had secretly sabotaged the Confess shot at Independences by putting together a coup that resulted in the death of the elect President Patrice Lumbar. angry by what she considered an overwhelming act motivated by greed, Kingfisher then formed the ideas to write a novel exposing and dealing with this crime. It wasnt until thirty years later that she last felt ready, emotionally and professionally, to take on the project of discovering the question of how we can call ourselves united States Citizens, and still deal with our involvement in these rarefying events.Kingfisher worked long and clayey to make the book reveal the truth about what happened because she was dedicated to what she felt was right. Section Ill setting The book took place primarily in the Belgian Congo, which later became Zaire during the story. Certain segments took place in Atlanta and Sundering Island, Georgia, and certain others in the Johannesburg, South Africa and the French Congo. The time period In which the story Is located out Is between 1959-1998. The work was written between 1993-1998, though some of the ideas that formed the book came from the mime Kingfisher spent in the Congo.The setting actually coincides with the Authors time in the Congo which makes it so significant, Kingfisher experience the life of living In a foreign Just Like the characters In the book. Though how their time was spent was completely unlike. The stung Is connected to the thematic concerns because the setting is how the theme was brought about. The characters experienced The impossibility of absolute and unambiguous justice on a global scale leaf and a transfer of faith from God to the natural gentlemans gentleman which dis flows the themes of the book.Though without the places in which the book was laid out, these themes couldnt have taken place. The setting and theme definitely play big rolls in the book 1 OFF The major conflicts in the story can be told on two different levels. Both levels go out how one should react in the burden of guilt, but on a more personal level the guilt that must be dealt through all the events that lead to Ruth Mays death. On the broader level, the women also felt the strong need to handle with the collective western guilt that originates from the crimes of the colonial and post- colonial era.After arriving in the Congo, decisions to stop in the Congo in the face of the mortal threat that Independence brings. The longer they stayed the more challenges that would arise. All this brought out a growing bitterness toward the wrongs by the villages leaders, which erupted in the sentiments over the issues of Leashs participation in the hunt. This in return resulted in the death of the youngest Price daughter, Ruth May. After the tragic accid ent, siege of Orleans and her remaining daughters desert Nathan in sight of redemption from their two levels of collective sin.The imagining daughters moved on with their lives, Lea turned toward a life if political idealism and cultivated hapless while being married to Anatoly. Dada turned her life toward science where she became an epidemiologist. Rachel life was marked by an egoistic and single-minded pursuit of her own pleasures. Orleans become paralyzed in her guilt. Section V Point Of View The story is approached by each of the narrators that speak in first person, which gives us a view of the story from their point of view.The point of view affects how understand the work because it gives a clear understanding of the times that went n as each character experienced each situation. The point of view from the character to the theme is all based on what each character faced while in the Congo and how their story was told. Section VI Characterization There is not a single prota gonist in The Opposition Bible. The story is told in multiple voices free each characters perspective on experiences and events. The women are equally important as each tells a story of learning life a completely newfangled life in the Congo.The characters are removed from their comfort zones and put in a place where no single individual, is any part of their race. Salvation takes on a different meaning from the father point of view while he loses, each woman makes the decision of finding a way to lighten herself. The antagonist of the story is Nathan Price, the father, preacher and husband. After the death of the Price families youngest daughter, Nathan moves into the background, while each woman deals with their own individual demon. Orleans struggles with the guilt of letting her family be taken in to the Congo in the first place.For the three remaining daughters, Rachel battles with Jealously and poor self-image, Dada fights with the image of herself, engine it as a regretfu l and identification of personal responsibility. Though for Lea the demon is the political crisis of the Congo and her own white skin that sets her apart. Section VI Theme The first theme correspond in the book is The sin of Western arrogance. The Opposition Bible is an infected prosecution of Western colonialism and post- colonialism that exposed the cultural as arrogance and greed.Nathan Price served as the personal embodiment of Western hubris, unhesitating in his missionary fanaticism to overturn the ancient traditions of the Congo and replace them with his win religious beliefs. tho nearly all of the non-African characters are marked by this however, that exercised its cultural arrogance most hazardously, feeling authorized to assassinate a foreign nations president and convert him with its own mannequin ruler. The next theme shown in the book is A transfer of faith from God to the natural world.Given that cultural self-importance is represented as the countless sin of the West and old-fashioned forms of Christianity, though it is not surprising to find the belief being presented as the spiritual antidote. Its the idea that the stainless trial world is inspired as a certain respect and modesty in anyone who believes it. It speaks against the attitude that Western thoughts apply to both the natural world and to the human beings who dwell in it. The last theme is The individuality of redemption.Kingfisher actually chooses to have the story told by five separate narrators. This gave each narrator a different answer to the question, how should we live with the burden of guilt, covering the range of Orleans complete paralysis to Earaches calm refusal to even accept the burden. Then in that respect is Lea, who responds tit political involvement?that is, with an active attempt to right the wrongs in the world. Dada on the other hand responds scientifically, with an attempt to understand the world on its most fundamental level.Even Ruth May, whose death is the cause of the more individual level of guilt felt by these four women, represents a point of a wide variety of guilt with an all-accepting spirituality. Even all these responses together arent meant to consume the possible reactions one might take toward guilt. Section VIII Symbols & Literary Devices -Antennas monstrance in the garden is symbolic because of its biblical reference. gardens, in particular the Garden of Eden, play a prominent role in Christian tradition.It is in the Garden of Eden that Adam and Eve where the first man and women, ate from the Tree of Knowledge which then set the future of all generations of human being with genuine sin. There is a clear irony in comparison to Adam and Eve and Nathan. First, Adam and Eve sin by truth and knowledge that is not planned for them. Nathan, on the other hand, sins through his willful ignorance, and his refusal to learn anything about the culture around him. -In the first paragraph of The Opposition Bible it gives us legi on(predicate) literary device, the first one being personification.The personification is forest eats itself and lives forever, this quote helping give an understanding of what life in the Congo will be like for the Price family. The next thing shown is an Alliteration, which is brindled bark, and belly on branch. These two alliterations help the reading understand the different parts of the Congo almost as if they were there. Section X Quotes 1. knave 9- Maybe Ill even confess the truth, that I rode in with the horsemen and beheld the apocalypse, but still Ill take a firm stand I was only a captive witness. What is the conquerors wife if not a conquest herself?This quote appears in Orleans opening remarks, and immediately introduces to us the preponderant theme in The Opposition Bible the attempt to deal with guilt. Orleans guilt is double what the rest of the characters experienced. There is the paralyzing guilt that she feels over the death of her youngest daughter, and also t he overwhelming guilt she suffered because of the crimes committed by the United States against the natives of Congo. When she refers to herself by the conquerors wife, Orleans places herself in an individual position with the guilt she is feeling.She isnt the primary perpetrator of his crimes. The line up perpetrator of the first crime is her husband, Nathan, who placed the entire family in mortal danger. The perpetrator of the second crime is the United States invoking the dependency, responsibility, and even loyalty that a citizen bears to his or her nation. 2. Page 297- The smiling bald man with the grandfather face has another face. Dada makes this comment when she discovers that the President of the United States is planning to overthrow the elected government of the Congo and kill its President.This is significant because these words are spoken by Dada, this captures the growing disillusion with father figures that Orleans and Lea experience firsthand. 3. Page 528-Len the wo rld, the carrying capacity for humans is limited. History holds all things in the balance, including large hopes and short lives. Dads take on the notion of Justice, absolute Justice, at least the rough chassis of Justice that Westerners believe in that is impossible. Some think, for example, that it is unjust that in Africa young babies die of malnutrition and disease.To be correct about this injustice, we send over doctors to feed and cherish them. Though, Dada, undermines the result of this good deed is simply death of a different sort. Overpopulation leads to food shortage and further disease. We cannot change the things of the world that we consider sad and wrong. sooner than despair over this state of concerns, Dada actually stands in awe of it. She finds herself being more passionate for the humans than any others in this global spicy of survival. Actually, its Just for the survival of the vast and the balancing game itself.

Reparations: African Americans Justice Essay

The united States government should abide reparations to African the Statesns as a means of admitting their wrong-doing and making amends. The damages African the Statesns hold sustained from etiolate the Statess policy of thralldom switch been agonizing and inhumane. Therefore, I am in favor of reparations for African Americans. The effect of slavery has been an enduring issue within the African American community. Many of us are cognizant of the harm racism brought to the African American line of achievement, conveyed through slavery, racial segregation and discrimination.African Americans suffered many atrocities, but the greatest damage done to them was the destruction of theyre original identity. African Americans no longer have a native language or any African customs to connect them to Africa. Today, African Americans are connected together because they all share a unwashed foundation-the horrendous experience of slavery-and the great effort to conquer its lingering re sult. (www. AcedemicLibrary. com) Americans should realize the magnitude of slaverys consequences on African Americans as a whole.Blacks were brainwash and stripped of self-esteem and taught to be ashamed of dark color of their skin. Many African Americans have effortlessly tried to advocate Black Pride, seek to re-in lighten self-worth and being proud of our distinct facial and body features, and darker complexions. African Americans had zilch to begin with after the abolishment of slavery in 1865. Slaves were promised a mule/ and 40 acres and they didnt live to receive it nor did generations to follow because the American government has yet to live up to its word.The fruit of the slaves labor was stolen from the land of the free. The victims of the White peoples African slave trade never experienced such freedom. This race deserves compensation for the mistreatment Pongee Bryant it has suffered and continues to endure. Paying reparations to the descendants of African American sla ves would pull in about a tremendous improvement for the advancement of Black America. (Douglass, Fredrick, 1845, Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass). White Americans have profited from education, life experiences, riches that were handed down by their ancestors.As well, African Americans have been handed down the hardship of race-related issues, poverty, and the unknown history of their past. African Americans have constantly been inflicted with the social status of their low-income level in contrast with that of White Americans. America should be ashamed for their mistreatment of a race that did not ask or even desire to reside in this country. Yet, they still wear their ugly face of racism, and discrimination, and only seek to segregate African Americans, as if they were at fault.Americans whitethorn argue Blacks shouldnt be complaining, whining, and to pull themselves up by their boot straps. Well, Martin Luther King once said White America wants us to pull ourselves up from our boot straps, but we dont have any boots. (Shuttlesworth, Fred, 1999, A Fire You Cant Put Out). The U. S. government has a moral responsibility to this race of people to compensate, African Americans because they were denied their heritage, religion, family, and culture. America alleges it is a religious-based country and their faith resides in God.The bible says If a man steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. This country consistently contradicts itself in the way it wants to be perceived. If America has any belief in God, they should whole tone an obligation to compensate the African American descendants of slave ancestors. (Exodus 22, Bible). Pongee Bryant White Americans may argue that the country did enough when it passed the Civil Rights Act in 1960. They may also state America has enough resources and equal opportunity for each individual of every race to succeed.However, there is a huge we alth shift in social status among blacks and whites mostly because of oppression, discrimination and racism toward the modern day contemporary black. Whether anybody wants to admit it, there is still a glass detonator (i. e. ,a status barrier) against African Americans. Reparations would bring African Americans justice and economic power in this country. There are numerous black reparation organizations which could receive the coin and distribute it evenly among African Americans, to incorporate black-owned businesses, home ownership, and better education selective for young and old blacks.These reparation organizations could also invest money into little black-owned businesses, and other industries that would further the African American race, and ensure a rapid growth of African American middle-class and beyond. (Robert J. Brym/ John Lie, Sociology) The exploitation of African Americans in this country took on many forms through decades. The centuries of slavery in this countr y laid the foundation of our current relationship to America. From cotton fields to building Americas most significant buildings African Americans have helped build the wealth in this country.Yet, the African American race has endured the most terrorism from the Ku Klux Klan, lynchings, plantation jails, police torture and murder, and poverty. Slavery was a crime against humanity and it still is in existence in many other ways and forms. America has created a musical arrangement with, voter discrimination, drugs, and drug sentences to keep the African Pongee Bryant American man enslaved. The government should compensate the African American race and put an end to a unending oppression cycle.The government of the United States of America was instrumental in having pressured the German and Japanese governments into the payments of reparations to the people who suffered and survived the crimes and legacy of slavery endured during World War II. The government of the United States has also already paid reparations to the Japanese-Americans who were detained in concentration camps during World War II. America calls herself a fair nation a civilized country which prise civil and human rights, encourages opportunity for and well-being of all her people, and can be trusted by other nations as a county whom honors her word.Well, America promised African Americans 40 acres and a mule and didnt live up to her promise. Americas attitude and silence on reparations reeks of hypocrisy. (X, Malcolm, Biography of Malcolm X). America should also pay reparations to African Americans because they consistently want us to labor for their work and take all the credit. For instance America is at fault for African American doomed and injured men who served and were drafted in the Vietnam War.America put young black men on the front-line of a war they had nothing to do with nor helped contribute to. America wanted a race that was not yet capable of voting but was competent enough t o fight in a war. A race that did not have the option of drinking from any fountain, sitting anywhere on a bus, using any bathroom, however we were fit for fighting. The point is America constantly benefits from African Americans, but refuses to compensate African Americans for their contributions to this country. (www. AcedemicLibrary. com).

You Suck: A Love Story Chapter 8

Chapter EightShe Walks in BeautyJody moved down Columbus Avenue with long, runway-model strides, feeling the windblown fog coppice by her desire the chill ghosts of rejected suitors. What she could never teach Tommy, what she could never re on the wholey share with him, was what it matte up desire to move from being a dupe afraid of attack, the shadow around the command, the footsteps behind to being the hunter. It wasnt the stalking or the rush of taking down prey Tommy would understand that. It was walking down a dark passageway, late at night, knowing that you were the most powerful creature on that point, that there was absolutely nothing, no one, that could fuck with you. Until she had been changed and had stalked the city as a vampire, she never cognize that virtual(prenominal)ly every moment she had been there as a woman, she had been a humble bit afraid. A man would never understand. That was the antecedent for the dress and the shoes not to attract a minion, b ut to throw her sexuality issue there on display, dare some underevolved male to earn h over-the-hill of the mis fulfil of breaking her as a victim. Truth be told, although it had come down to confrontation solely once, and thus shed been wearing a baggy sweatshirt and jeans, Jody enjoyed rush ass. She also enjoyed every bit as ofttimes honorable knowing that she could. It was her secret.Without fear, the City was a great sensual carnival. at that place was no danger in anything she experienced, no anxiety. Red was red, yellow didnt mean caution, smoke didnt mean fire, and the mumbling of the four Chinese guys standing by their car save around the corner was just the click and twang of empty swinging dick talk. She could hear their hearts speed up when they saw her, could smell sweat and garlic and hit man oil coming transfer them. Shed learned the smell of fear and imminent violence, too, of sexual arousal and surrender, although shed have been baffling-pressed to de scribe any of that. It was just there. corresponding color.You knowTry to describe blue.Without mentioning blue.See? in that respect werent a lot of people out on the street at this time of night, but there were a few, spread up the length of Columbus barhoppers, late diners just wrapping it up, college boys heading down to the strip clubs on Broadway, the exodus from Cobbs Comedy fraternity up the street, people giddy and so into the rhythm of laughing that they imbed one another and everything they saw hilarious all of them vibrant, wearing glorifications of healthy beg life, trailing heat and perfume and cigarette smoke and gas held through long dinners. Witnesses.The Chinese guys werent h build upless, by any means, but she didnt depend theyd attack her, and she felt a twinge of regret. One of them, the one with the gun, yelled something at her in Cantonese something sleazy and insulting, she could tell by the tone. She spun as she walked, smiled her biggest red carpet s mile, and without breaking stride, give tongue to, Hey, nano-dick, go fuck yourselfThere was a lot of bluster and shuffle, the smart one, the one with fear coming off him, held his friend Nano-dick back, thus saving his life. She must be a cop, or just crazy. Somethings wrong. They clustered around their tricked-out Honda and huffed out great breaths of testosterone and frustration. Jody grinned, and detoured up a side street, away from traffic.My night, she said to herself. Mine.Now off the main drag, she saw only a single old man shuffling ahead of her. His life aura looked like a burned-out bulb, a spot of dark gray around him. He walked stooped over, with a dogged determination, as if he knew that if he stopped, he would never start again. From what she could tell, he never would. He wore baggy, wide-wale corduroys that made the sound of rodents nesting when he walked. A wisp of breeze off the Bay brought Jody the acrid smell of failing organs, of stale tobacco, of despair, of a deep, rotting sickness, and she felt the elation leave her.She slipped comfortably into the new slot the night had made for her, like tumblers of a lock slipping into place.She made legitimate that she made enough noise so that he could hear her approaching, and when she was beside him, he pa apply, his feet still moving in tiny steps that turned him to the side, as if his repulse was idling.Hi, she said.He smiled. My, you are a lovely girl. Would you walk with me?Sure.They walked a few steps together before he said, Im dying, you know.Yeah, I kind of figured, Jody said.Im just walking. Thinking, and walking. more often than not walking.Nice night for it.A little cold, but I dont feel it. I got a whole pocketful of painkillers. You motivation one?No, Im good. Thanks.I ran out of things to think about.Just in time.I wondered if Id get to kiss a attractive girl once before the end. I think that would be all Id want.Whats your touch on?throng. James OMally.James. My name is Jod y. Im pleased to meet you. She stopped and offered her hand to shake.The pleasure is all mine, I assure you, said James, bowing as best he could.She took his face in her hands, and steadied him, then kissed him on the lips, softly and for a long time, and when she pulled away they were both smiling.That was lovely, James OMally said.Yes it was, Jody said.I suppose Im finished now, James said. Thank you.The pleasure was all mine, Jody said. I assure you.Then she put her arms around his slight frame, and held him, one hand cradling the back of his head like an infant, and he only trembled a little when she drank.A little later, she bundled his clothes together under her arm, and hooked his old wing tips on two fingers. The frame that had been James OMally was spread in a powdery-gray pile on the sidewalk, like a negative shadow, a bleached spot. She brushed it flat with her palm, and wrote, Nice kiss, James, with her fingernail.As she walked away, an hourglass trickle of James traile d out of his clothes behind her and was carried off on the chill bay breeze.The guy working the door of the Glas Kat looked like a raven had exploded on his head, his hair plastered out in a chaos of black spikes. The music coming from inside sounded like robots fucking. And complain about it. In rhythmic monotone. European robots.Tommy was a little intimidated. Sploded raven-head guy had better fangs than he did, was paler, and had seventeen silver rings in his lips. (Tommy had counted.)Bet its hard to whistle with those in, huh? Tommy asked.Ten dollars, said Sploded.Tommy gave him the money. He checked Tommys ID and stamped his wrist with a red slash. Just then a group of Japanese girls dressed like tragic Victorian baby dolls breezed by behind Tommy, waving their wrist slashes like theyd just returned from a joyful suicide foundery instead of hummer cloves on the street. They, too, looked more like vampires than Tommy did.He shrugged and entered the club. Everyone, it appeared, looked more like a vampire than he did. Hed bought some black jeans and a black leather capital at the Levis store while Jody was off finding something hideous for her mother for Christmas, but evidently he should have been looking for some black lipstick and something cobalt- or fuchsia-colored to weave into his hair. And in retrospect, the flannel shirt may have been a mis impart. He looked like hed shown up at the sacrificial mass of the imprecate ready to fix the dishwasher.The music changed to an ethereal female chorus of Celtic nonsense. With a techno beat. And robots complaining. Grumpy robots.He tried to listen around it, the way Jody had taught him. With all the black light, strobes, and black clothing, his newly heightened senses were overloading. He tried to focus on peoples faces, their life auras, look through the haze of heat, hairspray, and patchouli for the girl hed met at Walgreens.Tommy had felt alone in a crowd before, even inferior to everyone in a crowd, but now he felt, well, different. It wasnt just the clothes and the makeup, it was the humanity. He wasnt part of it. Heightened senses or not, he felt like he had his nose pressed against the window, looking in. The problem was, it was the window of a donut shop.Hey Someone grabbed his arm and he wheeled around so quickly that the girl nearly tumbled over backwards, startled.Fuck Dude.Hi, Tommy said. Wow. Thinking, Ah, jelly donut. It was the girl from Walgreens. She was nearly a foot shorter than he, and a little skinny. Tonight shed gone with the waifish look, wearing striped stockings with holes ripped in them and a shiny red PVC miniskirt. Shed traded in her Lord Byron shirt for a tank top, black, of course, with dribble red letters that read got pipeline? and fishnet gloves that went halfway up her biceps. Her makeup was sad-clown marionette black tears drawn streaming down both side of her face. She crooked her finger to get him to bend down so she could shout into his ear ov er the music.My names Abby Normal.Tommy spoke into her ear she smelled of hairspray and what was that? Raspberry? My name is Flood, he said. C. Thomas Flood. It was his pen name. The C didnt rightfully stand for anything, he just liked the sound of it. Call me Flood, he added. Tommy was a stupid name for a vampire, but Flood ah, Flood there was disaster and power there, and a hint of mystery, he thought.Abby smiled like a cat in a tunny cannery. Flood, she said. Flood.She was trying it on, it seemed to Tommy. He imagined that shed have a black vinyl binder at school and shed soon be writing Mrs. Flood surrounded by a heart with an arrow through it on the cover in her own blood. Hed never seen a girl so obviously attracted to him, and he realized that he had no experience in dealing with it. For a moment he flashed on the three vampire brides of Dracula who try to seduce Jonathan Harker in Stokers classic novel. (Hed been studying all the vampire fiction he could get his hands on since meeting Jody, since it didnt appear that anyone had written a good how-to appropriate on vampirism.) Could he very deal with three luscious vampire brides? Would he have to bring them a kid in a slip the way Dracula does in the book? How many kids a week would it take to advance them happy? And where did you get kid sacks? And although he hadnt discussed it with Jody, he was pretty sure she was not going to be happy sharing him with two other luscious vampire brides, even if he brought her sacks and sacks full of kids. Theyd need a bigger apartment. One with a washer and dryer in the building, because thered be a lot of bloodstained lingerie to be washed. Vampire logistics were a nightmare. You should get a castle and a staff when you got your fangs. How was he going to do all of this? This sucks, Tommy finally said, overwhelmed by the enormity of his responsibilities.Abby looked startled, then a little hurt. Sorry, she said. You want to get out of here?Oh, no, I didnt me an I mean, uh, yes. Let us go.Do you still need to get your heroin?What? No, that matter is interpreted care of.You know, Byron and Shelley did opiates, Abby said. Laudanum. It was like cough syrup.Then, for no reason that he could think of, Tommy said, Those scamps, they loved to get wrecked and read ghost stories from the German.That is so fucking cool, Abby said, grabbing his arm and hugging his biceps like it was her newest, bestest friend. She started pulling him toward the door.What about your friend? Tommy said.Oh, someone made a comment about his cape being gray when we first got here, so he went home to redye all of his blacks.Of course, Tommy said, thinking, What the fuck? Out on the sidewalk, Abby said, I suppose we need to find somewhere private.We do?So you can take me, Abby said, stretching her neck to the side, looking more like a stringless marionette than ever.Tommy had no idea what to do. How did she know? Everyone in that club would have scored higher on the are you a vampire? test than he would. There needed to be a book, and this sort of thing needed to be in it. Should he deny it? Should he just get on with it? What was he going to tell Jody when she woke up next to the skinny marionette girl? He hadnt really understood women when he was a normal, human guy, when it seemed that all you had to do was pretend that you didnt want to have sex with them until they would have sex with you, but being a vampire added a whole new aspect to things. Was he supposed to conceal that he was a vampire and a dork He used to read the articles in Cosmo to get some clue to the female psyche, and so he deferred to advice hed read in an article entitled Think Hes Just guise to Like You So Youll Have Sex with Him? Try a Coffee Date.How bout I buy you a cup of coffee instead, he said. We can talk.Its because I have small boobs, isnt it? Abby said, going into a very practiced pout.Of course not. Tommy smiled in a way he thought would be charming, mature, and r eassuring. Coffee wont suspensor that.As Jody pushed the bundle of clothes into the storm sewer, a silver cigarette cheek slid out of the chapiter pocket onto the pavement. She reached for it and felt a light spite no, that wasnt it. It was a warmth that moved up her arm. She kicked the clothes into the opening and stood under the streetlight, turning the silver case in her hands. It had his name engraved on it. She couldnt keep it, like she had the folding money from his pockets, but she couldnt throw it away either. Something wouldnt let her.She heard a buzz, like an angry insect, and looked up to see a nor-east Open sign flickering above a shop called Ashers Secondhand. That was it. Thats where the cigarette case had to go. She owed it to James. After all, hed given her everything, or at least everything hed had left. She quick-stepped across the street and into the shop.The owner was working the counter at the back by himself. A thin guy in his early thirties, with a look of pleasant murkiness not unlike the one shed first noticed on Tommys face. Normally, this guy would be prime minion material, or at least based on her minion enlisting of the past he would, except apparently, he was dead. Or at least not alive like most people. He had no life aura around him. No healthy pink glow, no crusty brown or gray corona of illness. Nothing. The only time shed ever seen this before was with Elijah, the old vampire.The shopkeeper looked up and she smiled. He smiled back. She moved to the counter. While he tried not to stare at her cleavage, she looked more closely for some life aura. There was heat, or at least there appeared to be some heat coming off him.Hi, said the shopkeeper. Can I assistant you?I found this, she said, holding up the cigarette case. I was in the neighborhood and something made me think that this belonged here. She set the case down on the counter. How could he have no life aura? What the hell was he?Touch me, she said. She held out her hand to him.Huh? He seemed a little frightened at first, but he took her hand, then quickly let go.He was warm. Then youre not one of us? But he wasnt one of them either.Us? What do you mean us? He touched the cigarette case and she could tell that this was exactly why she had brought it here. It was supposed to be here. Whatever part of James OMally had been left in that cigarette case had led her here. And this thin, confused-looking guy was supposed to have it. He took what was left of people all the time. Its what he did. Jody felt some of the confidence shed felt earlier exhausting away. Maybe the night wasnt hers after all.Jody backed away a step. No. You dont just take the weak and the sick, do you? You take anyone.Take? What do you mean, take? He was furiously trying to push the cigarette case back to her across the counter.He didnt know. He was like she was when shed awakened that first night as a vampire and had no idea what she had become. You dont even know, do you?Kno w what? He picked up the cigarette case again. Wait a second, can you see this thing glowing?No glow. It just felt like it belonged here. This poor guy, he didnt even know. Whats your name? She asked.Charlie Asher. This is Ashers.Well Charlie, you seem like a priggish guy, and I dont know exactly what you are, and it doesnt seem like you know. You dont, do you?He blushed. Jody could see his face flush with heat. Ive been going through some changes lately.Jody nodded. He really would have been perfect as a minion if he hadnt been some bizarre supernatural creature. Shed just gotten used to the idea of vampires being real, and it took some serious blood drinking to drive that reality home, and now there were other other things? Still, Jody felt bad for him, Okay, she said. I know what its like, uh, to find yourself thrown into a status where forces beyond your control are changing you into someone, something you dont have an owners manual for. I understand what it is to not know. But someone, somewhere, does know. Someone can tell you whats going on. And hopefully they arent just fucking with you, she wanted to add, but thought better of it.What are you talking about? he asked.You make people die, dont you Charlie? She didnt know why she said it, but as soon as she said it, she knew it was adjust. Like when all her other senses had been dialed to eleven, she could sense something new, like noise on the line, and it was telling her this.But how do you ?Because its what I do, Jody said. Not like you, but its what I do. Find them, Charlie. Backtrack and find whoever was there when your world changed.She shouldnt have said that, she knew it as she was saying it. Shed just handed him an item that had been owned by someone shed taken not twenty minutes past. But even as regret for passing out incriminating evidence hit her, she also realized that she had left Tommy out there to wave in the wind just like this guy. Even if it was only for a few hours, Tommy had no idea how to go about being a vampire truth be told, he hadnt really been that good at being a human. He was just a doofy guy from Indiana and shed abandoned him to the merciless city.She turned and ran out of the shop.Cocoa? Tommy said. You look cold. Hed given her his jacket out on the street.Hes so gallant, Abby thought. He probably wants me to drink cocoa to get my blood sugar up before he sucks the life from my veins.Abby had lived much of her life waiting for something extraordinary to happen. No matter where she had been, there was a world somewhere that was more interesting. Shed progressed from wanting to live in a fantastic, kawaii-cute moldable world of Hello Kitty, to being a Day-Glo, Manga lollipop space girl in platform sneakers, and then just a couple of years ago she had moved into the dark gothic world of pseudo vampires, suicidal poets, and romantic disappointment. It was a dark, seductive world where you got to sleep really late on the weekends. Shed been tru e to her dark nature, too, trying to maintain an aspect of exhausted mopeyness while channeling any enthusiasm she felt into a vehicle for imminent disappointment, and above all, suppressing the deep-seated buoyancy that her friend Lily said shed never shed when shed refused to throw away her Hello Kitty backpack or let go of her Nintendog virtual beagle puppy.He has virtual parvo, Lily had said. You have to put him down.He doesnt have parvo, Abby had insisted. Hes just tired.Hes doomed, and youre cute, and hopelessly perky, Lily taunted.I am not. Im complex and Im dark.Youre perky and your e-dog has i-parvo.As Azrael is my witness, I will never be perky again, said Abby, her wrist set tragically to her forehead. Lily stood with her as she threw her Nintendog cartridge under the tire of the 91 midnight express bus.And now she had been chosen by a real creature of the night, and she would be true to her word she had shed her perkiness. She sipped her hot chocolate, and studied the v ampire Flood across the table. How clever, that he could appear as just a simple, clueless guy but then, he could probably take many shapes.I could be a slave to your darkest desires, Abby said. I can do things. Anything you want.The vampire Flood commenced a coughing fit. When he had control again, he said, Well, thats terrific, because we have a lot of laundry piled up and the apartment is a wreck.He was testing her. Seeing if she was worthy before bringing her into his world. Anything you desire, my lord. I can do laundry, clean, bring you small creatures to quench your thirst until I am worthy.The vampire Flood snickered. This is so cool, he said. Youll do my laundry, just like that?Abby knew she had to tread carefully here, not fall for his trap. Anything, she said.Have you ever gone apartment capture?Sure, she lied.Okay, you can start tomorrow first thing. You need to find us an apartment.Abby was horrified. She hadnt really tried on the idea of leaving her old life so quick ly. But all that would mean nothing when she became immortal, and ran with the children of the night. But her mom was going to be pissed. I cant move in right away, my lord. I have personal matters to put in order before I make the change.The vampire Flood smiled, his fangs barely visible now.Oh, its not for you. Theres another. He paused and leaned across the table. An elder, he whispered.There was another? Was she to become the sacrifice to a whole coven of the undead? Well, whatever. Lily would be so jealous. As you please, my lord, she said.You might want to chill with the my lord stuff, Flood said.Sorry.Its okay. You know this all has to be completely secret, right?Right. Secret.I mean, Im okay with it, but the other, the elder, she has a terrible temper.She?Yeah, you know, an Irish redhead.A Celtic countess, then? The one who was with you at Walgreens?Exactly.Sweet Abby blurted out. She couldnt help it. She immediately tried to hide her latent perkiness by biting the edge of her cocoa cup.Youve got chocolate, here. The vampire Flood gestured to her lip. Kind of a marshmallow mustache.Sorry, Abby said, wiping her mouth furiously with the back of her fishnet glove, smearing her black lipstick across the side of her face.Its okay, said the vampire Flood. Its cute.Fuck Abby said.

The Vampire Diaries: Dark Reunion Chapter Sixteen

Bonnie never could quite remember how the next few seconds went. She heard Stefans cry that just ab disclose settlemed to shake the earth beneath her. She saw Damon start toward him. And then she saw the flash.A flash give care Klauss lightning, scarce not blue-white. This one was gold.And so beadlike Bonnie felt that the sun had exploded in front of her eyes. All she could make out for several seconds were whirling colors. And then she saw something in the oculus of the clearing, near the chimney stack. Something white, shaped like the ghosts, only more fast(a) looking. Something small and huddled that had to be anything simply what her eyes were telling her it looked like.Because it looked like a slender naked miss trembling on the forest floor. A girl with golden hair.It looked like Elena.Not the glowing, candle-lit Elena of the spirit world and not the pale, inhumanly splendid girl who had been Elena the vampire. This was an Elena whose creamy skin was blotching pink an d showing gooseflesh under the spatter of the rain. An Elena who looked bewildered as she slowly raised her head and gazed around her, as if all the familiar things in the clearing were unfamiliar to her.Its an illusion. Either that or they gave her a few minutes to say good-bye. Bonnie unbroken telling herself that, but she couldnt make herself believe it.Bonnie? said a voice uncertainly. A voice that wasnt like wind chimes at all. The voice of a frightened puppyish girl.Bonnies knees gave out. A wild feeling was growing wrong her. She tried to push it away, not daring to even examine it yet. She just watched Elena.Elena touched the grass in front of her. Hesitantly at first, then more and more firmly, quicker and quicker. She picked up a leaf in fingers that seemed clumsy, put it d confess, patted the ground. Snatched it up again. She grabbed a self-coloured handful of wet leaves, held them to her, smelled them. She looked up at Bonnie, the leaves scattering away.For a moment, they just knelt and stared at each other from the distance of a few feet. Then, tremulously, Bonnie stretched out her hand. She couldnt breathe. The feeling was growing and growing.Elenas hand came up in turn. Reached toward Bonnies. Their fingers touched.Real fingers. In the real world. Where they both were.Bonnie gave a kind of scream and threw herself on Elena.In a minute she was patting her everywhere in a frenzy, with wild, disbelieving delight. And Elena was solid. She was wet from the rain and she was shivering and Bonnies hands didnt go through her. Bits of damp leaf and crumbs of stain were clinging to Elenas hair.Elena gasped stern, I can touch you Im here She grabbed the leaves again. I can touch the groundI can see you touching it They might have kept this up indefinitely, but Meredith interrupted. She was standing a few steps away, sodding(a), her dark eyes enormous, her face white. She made a choking sound.Meredith Elena turned to her and held out handfuls of leaves . She undecided her arms.Meredith, who had been able to cope when Elenas body was found in the river, when Elena had appeared at her window as a vampire, when Elena had materialized in the clearing like an angel, just stood on that point, shaking. She looked closely to faint.Meredith, shes solid You can touch her See? Bonnie pummeled Elena again joyfully.Meredith didnt move. She whispered, Its impossible-Its true See? Its true Bonnie was getting hysterical. She knew she was, and she didnt care. If anyone had a right to get hysterical, it was her. Its true, its true, she caroled. Meredith, come see.Meredith, who had been staring at Elena all this while, made another choked sound. Then, with one motion, she flung herself down on Elena. She touched her, found that her hand met the resistance of flesh. She looked into Elenas face. And then she burst into ungovernable tears.She cried and cried, her head on Elenas naked shoulder.Bonnie gleefully patted both of them.Dont you think shed better put something on? said a voice, and Bonnie looked up to see Caroline taking off her dress. Caroline did it rather calmly, standing in her beige polyester slip afterward as if she did this sort of thing all the time. No imagination, Bonnie thought again, but without malice. Clearly there were times when no imagination was an advantage.Meredith and Bonnie pulled the dress over Elenas head. She looked small inside it, wet and in some manner unnatural, as if she wasnt used to clothing anymore. But it was some protection from the elements, anyway.Then Elena whispered, Stefan.She turned. He was standing there, with Damon and Matt, a minuscule apart from the girls. He was just ceremonial occasion her. As if not only his breath, but his life was held, waiting.Elena got up and took a tottery step to him, and then another and another. Slim and newly fragile inside her borrowed dress, she wavered as she moved toward him. Like the little mermaid learning how to use her legs, Bonnie t hought.He let her get almost all the way there, just staring, originally he stumbled toward her. They ended in a rush and then fell to the ground together, arms locked around each other, each holding on as tightly as possible. Neither of them said a word.Bonnie watched unabashedly, feeling some of the heady joy spill over into tears. Her throat ached, but these were gratifying tears, not the salt tears of pain, and she was still smiling. She was filthy, she was soaking wet, she had never been so happy in her life. She felt as if she wanted to dance and sing and do all sorts of crazy things.Some time later Elena looked up from Stefan to all of them, her face almost as bright as when shed floated in the clearing like an angel. Shining like starlight. No one will ever call her Ice Princess again, Bonnie thought.My friends, Elena said. It was all she said, but it was enough, that and the queer little sob she gave as she held out a hand to them. They were around her in a second, swarmi ng her, all trying to embrace at once. Even Caroline.Elena, Caroline said, Im sorryIts all forget now, Elena said, and hugged her as freely as anyone else. Then she grasped a sturdy brown hand and held it briefly to her cheek. Matt, she said, and he smiled at her, blue eyes swimming. But not with misery at seeing her in Stefans arms, Bonnie thought. Just now Matts face expressed only happiness.A shadow fell over the little group, coming between them and the moonlight. Elena looked up, and held out her hand again.Damon, she said.The clear light and shining love in her face was irresistible. Or it should have been irresistible, Bonnie thought. But Damon stepped frontward unsmiling, his black eyes as bottomless and unfathomable as ever. None of the starlight that shone from Elena was reflected backbone from them.Stefan looked up at him fearlessly, as hed looked into the painful brilliance of Elenas golden brightness. Then, never looking away, he held out his hand as well.Damon stood gazing down at them, the two open, fearless faces, the mute offer of their hands. The offer of connection, warmth, humanity. Nothing showed in his own face, and he was utterly motionless himself.Come on, Damon, Matt said softly. Bonnie looked at him quickly, and saw that the blue eyes were intent now as they looked at the shadowed hunters face.Damon spoke without moving. Im not like you.Youre not as different from us as you want to think, Matt said. Look, he added, an odd note of take exception in his voice, I know you killed Mr. Tanner in self-defense, because you told me. And I know you didnt come here to Fells Church because Bonnies spell dragged you here, because I sorted the hair and I didnt make any mistakes. Youre more like us than you admit, Damon. The only thing I dont know is why you didnt go into Vickies house to help her.Memory sweep over Bonnie. Herself standing outside Vickies house, Damon standing beside her. Stefans voice Vickie, invite me in. But no one had invit ed Damon.But how did Klaus get in, then-? she began, following her own thoughts.That was Tylers job, Im sure, Damon said tersely. What Tyler did for Klaus in return for learning how to reclaim his heritage. And he must have invited Klaus in before we ever started guarding the house-probably before Stefan and I came to Fells Church. Klaus was well prepared. That night he was in the house and the girl was dead before I knew what was happening.Why didnt you call for Stefan? Matt said. There was no accusation in his voice. It was a simple question.Because there was nothing he could have done I knew what you were dealing with as soon as I saw it. An Old One. Stefan would only have gotten himself killed- and the girl was past caring, anyway.Bonnie heard the thread of coldness in his voice, and when Damon turned back to Stefan and Elena, his face had hardened. It was as if some decision had been made.You see, Im not like you, he said.It doesnt matter. Stefan had still not withdrawn his han d. Neither had Elena.And sometimes the good guys do win, Matt said quietly, encouragingly.Damon- Bonnie began. Slowly, almost reluctantly, he turned toward her. She was thinking about that moment when they had been kneeling over Stefan and he had looked so young. When they had been just Damon and Bonnie at the edge of the world.She thought, for just one instant, that she saw stars in those black eyes. And she could ace in him something-some ferment of feelings like longing and confusion and fear and anger all mixed. But then it was all smoothed over again and his shields were back up and Bonnies psychic senses told her nothing. And those black eyes were simply opaque.He turned back to the couple on the ground. Then he removed his peak and stepped skunk Elena. He draped it over her shoulders without touching her.Its a cold night, he said. His eyes held Stefans a moment as he settled the black jacket around her.And then he turned to walk into the darkness between the oak trees. In an instant Bonnie heard the rush of wings.Stefan and Elena wordlessly joined hands again, and Elenas golden head dropped to Stefans shoulder. Over her hair Stefans green eyes were turned toward the patch of night where his brother had disappeared.You wanted us all back together again Bonnie shouted at Caroline, and pulled the scandalized girl into the dance. Meredith, her dignity forgotten, joined them too.And for a long time in the clearing there was only rejoicing.June 21, 730 a.m.The Summer SolsticeDear Diary,Oh, its all too much to explain and you wouldnt believe it anyway. Im going to bed.Bonnie

Immigration Outline Essay

About 40% of wrong immigrants enter legally and then stay d. Crime rate viii. .2011 saw 396,906 deportations ix. 216,698 had been convicted of crimes x. 44,653 convicted of drug-related crimes xi. 35,927 convicted ofdriving under the influence xii. 5,848 convicted ofsexual offenses xiii. 1,119 convicted ofhomicide III. Impacts d. Economic xiv. They pay $7 billion in friendly security e. Law inforcement and expenses xv. costs $90 a day to remark them in detention facilities xvi.Identity theftis sometimes committed by illegal immigrants who usesocial security numbersbelonging to others xvii. f. Enviorment xviii. 45 abandoned cars on the Buenos Aires refuge nearSasabe, Arizonaand decent trash that a volunteer couple filled 723 large bags with 18,000 pounds of garbage over two months in 2002. 132 xix. Illegal immigrants trying to get to the United States via the Mexican border with southern Arizona are guess of having caused eight majorwildfiresin 2002.The fires destroyed 68,413 ac res (276. 86km2) and cost taxpayers $5. 1 million to chip g. National security xx. out of the 48al-Qaedaoperatives who committed crimes here between 1993 and 2001, 12 of them were illegal aliens when they committed their crimes, xxi. seven of them were visa overstayers, xxii. four of the 9/11 terrorists. Were illegal immigrants xxiii. llegal immigrants within the United States fool attempted to carry out other terrorist attacks as well. IV. Democratic view on Illegal immigration h.

The Vampire Diaries: The Struggle Chapter Twelve

A voice spoke as Elena reached for a can on the store shelf.Cranberry sauce already?Elena prospected up. Hi, matting. Yes, auntie Judith cares to do a preview the sunshine before Thanksgiving, remember? If she practices, theres less chance shell do slightlything terrible.Like for lineting to buy the cranberry sauce until fifteen proceedings before dinner?Until five proceeding before dinner, utter Elena, consulting her watch, and lustrelessness laughed. It was a good sound, and superstar Elena hadnt heard for too big. She moved on toward the check- extinct stand, but afterwards shed paid for her purchase she hesitated, looking abide. planeness was standing by the magazine rack, apparently absorbed, but there was something ab a berth the slope of his shoulders that made her pauperism to go to him.She poked a finger at his magazine. What areyou doing for dinner? she state. When he glanced uncertainly toward the front of the store, she added, decents waiting out in the car shell be there. Other than that its barely the family. And Robert, of course he should be there by now. She meant that Stefan wasnt coming. She still wasnt sure how things were between gym mat and Stefan these days. At least they spoke to each other.Im fending for myself tonight Moms non judgement so hot, he give tongue to. save whence, as if to change the subject, he went on, Wheres Meredith?With her family, visiting some relatives or something. Elena was vague because Meredith had been auntie Judiths cooking?For old propagation sake?For oldfriends sake, said Elena after a moments hesitation, and smiled at him.He blinked and looked a look. How can I refuse an invitation like that? he said in an oddly muted voice. But when he put the magazine back and followed her out he was smiling, too. clean greeted him cheerfully, and when they got folk Aunt Judith looked cheery to see him come into the kitchen.Dinners almost ready, she said, taking the grocery bag from Elena. Robert got here a few narrows ago. Why dont you go straight on back to the dining room? Oh, and call for another chair, Elena. Matt makes seven.Six, Aunt Judith, said Elena, amused. You and Robert, me and Margaret, Matt and Bonnie.Yes, dear, but Roberts brought a guest, too. Theyre already session d protest.Elena registered the words just as she stepped by dint of the dining room door, but there was an instants delay before her mind reacted to them. Even so, sheknew stepping through that door, she somehow knew what was waiting for her.Robert was standing there, fiddling with a bottle of snow-clad wine and looking jovial. And sitting at the table, on the far side of the autumn centerpiece and the t both lighted candles, was Damon.Elena realized shed stop moving when Bonnie ran into her from behind. because she coerce her legs into action. Her mind wasnt as obedient it remained frozen.Ah, Elena, Robert said, holding out a hand. This is Elena, the girl I was telling you about, he said to Damon. Elena, this is Damon ahSmith, said Damon.Oh, yes. Hes from my alma mater, William and Mary, and I just ran into him outside the drugstore.Since he was looking for some place to eat, I invited him along here for a home-cooked meal. Damon, these are some friends of Elenas, Matt and Bonnie.Hi, said Matt. Bonnie just stared because, she swung enormous eyes on Elena.Elena was trying to get a impale on herself. She didnt know whether to shriek, march out of the room, or throw the glass of wine Robert was pouring in Damons face. She was too angry, for the moment, to be frightened.Matt went to bring in a chair from the living room. Elena wondered at his passing(a) acceptance of Damon, and then realized he hadnt been at Alarics party. He wouldnt know what had happened there between Stefan and the visitor from college.Bonnie, though, looked ready to panic. She was gazing at Elena imploringly. Damon had risen and was Before Elena could come up with a response, she heard Margarets high microscopical voice in the doorway.Matt, do you want to see my stool? Aunt Judith says I can persist in her. Im button to call her Snowball.Elena turned, fired with an idea.Shes cute, Matt was saying obligingly, bending over the little mound of snow-covered fur in Margarets arms. He looked startled as Elena unceremoniously grabbed the kitten from under his nose.Here, Margaret, lets show your kitty to Roberts friend, she said, and thrust the fluffy bundle into Damons face, all but throwing it at him.Pandemonium ensued. Snowball swelled to twice her normal size as her fur stood on end. She made a noise like wet dropped on a red-hot griddle and then she was a snarling, spitting cycl ace that clawed Elena, swiped at Damon, and ricocheted turned the walls before tearing out of the room.For an instant, Elena had the satisfaction of seeing Damons night non-white eyes slightly wider than usual. Then the lids drooped down, hooding them again, and Elena turned to face the reacti on of the other occupants of the room.Margaret was just opening her mouth for a steam locomotive wail. Robert was trying to forestall it, hustling her off to find the cat. Bonnie had her back pressed flat against the wall, looking desperate. Matt and Aunt Judith, who was peering in from the kitchen, just looked appalled.I guess you dont adopt a way with animals, she said to Damon, and took her cornerstone at the table. She nodded to Bonnie who reluctantly peeled herself off the wall and scuttled for her own seat before Damon could lay down ear the chair. Bonnies brown eyes slid around to follow him as he sat down in turn. later a few minutes, Robert reappeared with a tear-stained Margaret and frowned sternly at Elena. Matt pushed his own chair in wordlessly although his eyebrows were in his hair.As Aunt Judith arrived and the meal began, Elena looked up and down the table. A bright haze seemed to imposition over everything, and she had a feeling of unreality, but the scene it self looked almost unbelievably wholesome, like something out of a commercial. Just your average family sitting down to eat turkey, she thought. One slightly flustered maiden aunt, confused that the peas will be mushy and the rolls burnt, one comfortable uncle-to-be, one golden-haired teenage niece and her tow-headed baby sister. One blue-eyed(prenominal) boy-next-door type, one spritely girlfriend, one gorgeous vampire passing the candied yams. A typical American household.Bonnie spent the first half of the meal telegraphing What do I do? messages to Elena with her eyes. But when all Elena telegraphed back was Nothing, she apparently decided to abandon herself to her fate. She began to eat.Elena had no idea what to do. To be trapped tike this was an insult, a humiliation, and Damon knew it. He had Aunt Judith and Robert dazzled, though, with compliments about the meal and light chat about William and Mary. Even Margaret was smiling at him now, and soon enough Bonnie would go unde r.Fells Church is having its Founders Day celebration next week, Aunt Judith inform Damon, her thin cheeks faintly pink. It would be so nice if you could come back for that. Aunt Judith looked pleased. And this year Elena has a big part in it. Shes been chosen to represent the Spirit of Fells Church.You must be proud of her, said Damon.Oh, we are, Aunt Judith said. So youll try to come then?Elena broke in, buttering a roll furiously. Ive heard some news about Vickie, she said. You remember, the girl who was attacked. She looked pointedly at Damon. in that location was a short silence. Then Damon said, Im algophobic I dont know her.Oh, Im sure you do. About my height, brown eyes, light brown hair anyway, shes getting worse. Oh, dear, said Aunt Judith.Yes, apparently the doctors cant understand it. She just keeps getting worse and worse, as if the attack was still going on. Elena kept her eyes on Damons face as she spoke, but he displayed only a cultivated interest. Have some more stuffing, she finished, propelling a bowl at him.No thank you. Ill have some more of this, though. He held a spoonful of jellied cranberry sauce up to one of the candles so that light shone through it. Its such a tantalizing color.Bonnie, like the rest of the people at the table, looked up at the candle when he did this. But Elena noticed she didnt look down again. She remained gazing into the dancing flame, and slowly all musing disappeared from her face.Oh,no , thought Elena, as a tingle of apprehension crept through her limbs. Shed seen that look before.She essay to get Bonnies attention, but the other girl seemed to see nothing but the candle. and then the elementary children put on a pageant about the towns history, Aunt Judith was saying to Damon. But the ending ceremony is done by older students. Elena, how many seniors will be doing the readings this year? Just three of us. Elena had to turn to address her aunt, and it was date she was looking at Aunt Judiths smiling face that she heard the voice.Death.Aunt Judith gasped. Robert paused with his fork halfway to his mouth. Elena wished, wildly and absolutely hopelessly, for Meredith.Death, said the voice again. Death is in this house.Elena looked around the table and saw that there was no one to help her. They were all staring at Bonnie, motionless as subjects in a photograph.Bonnie herself was staring into the candle flame. Her face was blank, her eyes wide, as they had been before when this voice spoke through her. Now, those unseeing eyes turned toward Elena. Your death, shoulders, lifting her. Bonnies skin had gone bluish-white, her eyes were closed. Aunt Judith fluttered around her, dabbing at her face with a damp napkin. Damon watched with thoughtful, narrowed eyes.Shes all right, Robert said, looking up in obvious stand-in. I come back she just fainted. It must have been some kind of hysterical attack. But Elena didnt breathe again until Bonnie undecided groggy eyes and asked what everyone w as staring at.It put an effective end to the dinner. Robert insisted that Bonnie be taken home at once, and in the activity that followed Elena found time for a whispered word with Damon.Get outHe raised his eyebrows. What?I said, get out Now Go. Or Ill tell them youre the killer.He looked reproachful. Dont you think a guest deserves a little more consideration? he said, but at her expression he shrugged and smiled.Thank you for having me for dinner, he said aloud to Aunt Judith, who was walking past carrying a drapery to the car. I hope I can return the regard sometime. To Elena he added, Be seeing you.Well,that was name enough, Elena thought, as Robert drove away with a somber Matt and a sleepy Bonnie. Aunt Judith was on the phone with Mrs. McCullough.I dont know what it is with these girls, either, she said. First Vickie, now Bonnie and Elena has not been herself latelyWhile Aunt Judith talked and Margaret searched for the missing Snowball, Elena paced.She would have to call S tefan. That was all there was to it. She wasnt worried about Bonnie the other times this had happened hadnt seemed to do permanent damage. And Damon would have better things to do than harass Elenas friends tonight.He was coming here, to collect for the favor hed done her. She knew without a doubt that that was the meaning of his final words. And it meant she would have to tell Stefan everything, because she needed him tonight, needed his protection.Only, what could Stefan do? Despite all her pleas and arguments last week, he had refused to take her blood. Hed insisted that his Powers would return without it, but Elena knew he was still endangered right now. Even if Stefan were here, could he stop Damon? Could he do it without being killed himself?Bonnies house was no refuge. And Meredith was gone. There was no one to help her, no one she could trust. But the thought of waiting here but tonight, knowing that Damon was coming, was unbearable. She heard Aunt Judith click down the re ceiver. Automatically, she moved toward the kitchen, StefansShe looked at the floor to ceiling windows and at the elaborate fireplace with its beautifully scrolled molding. This room was part of the original house, the one that had almost completely burnt-out in the Civil War. Her own bedroom was just above.A great light was beginning to dawn. Elena looked at the molding around the ceiling, at where it joined the more modern dining room. Then she almost ran toward the stairs, her boldness beating fast.Aunt Judith? Her aunt paused on the stairway. Aunt Judith, tell me something. Did Damon go into the living room?What Aunt Judith blinked at her in distraction.Did Robert take Damon into the living room? Please think, Aunt Judith I need to know.Why, no, I dont think so. No, he didnt. They came in and went straight to the dining room. Elena, what on earth? This last as Elena impetuously threw her arms around her and hugged her.Sorry, Aunt Judith. Im just happy, said Elena. Smiling, she turned to go back down the stairs.Well, Im gladsomeones happy, after the way dinner turned out. Although that nice boy, Damon, seemed to enjoy himself. Do you know, Elena, he seemed quite taken with you, in spite of the way you were acting.Elena turned back around. So?Well, I just thought you might give him a chance, thats all. I thought he was very pleasant. The kind of young man I like to see around here.Elena goggled a moment, then swallowed to keep the hysterical laughter from escaping. Her aunt was suggesting that she take up Damon instead of Stefan because Damon was safer. The kind of nice young man any aunt would like. Aunt Judith, she began, gasping, but then she realized it was useless.She shook her head mutely, throwing her hands up in defeat, and watched her aunt go up the stairs.normally Elena slept with her door closed. But tonight she left it open and lay on her bed gazing out into the change hallway. Every so often she glanced at the luminous numbers of the clock on the nightstand beside her.There was no danger that she would fall asleep. As the minutes crawled by, she almost began to wish she could. Time moved with agonizing slowness. 11 oclock eleven thirty midnight. Onea.m. One thirty. Two.At 210 she heard a sound.She listened, still evasiveness on her bed, to the faint whisper of noise downstairs. Shed known he would find a way to get in if he wanted. If Damon was that determined, no lock would keep him out.The hallway was dark, but her eyes had had a long time to adjust. She could see the darker silhouette make its way up the stairs. When it reached the top she saw the swift, deadly glisten of his smile.She waited, unsmiling, until he reached her and stood facing her, with only a yard of hardwood floor between them. The house was completely silent. crossways the hall Margaret slept at the end of the passage, Aunt Judith lay wrapped in dreams, unaware of what was going on outside her door.Damon said nothing, but he looked at her, his e yes taking in the long white nightgown with its high, lacy neck. Elena had chosen it because it was the most modest one she owned, but Damon obviously thought it attractive. She forced herself to stand quietly, but her mouth was dry and her heart was thudding dully. Now was the time. In another minute she would know.She backed up, without a word or gesture of invitation, departure the doorway empty. She saw the quick flame up in his bottomless eyes, and watched him come eagerly toward her. And watched him stop.He stood just outside her room, plainly disconcerted. He tried again to step forward but could not. Something seemed to be preventing him from moving any farther. On his face, surprise gave way to puzzlement and then anger.He looked up, his eyes raking over the lintel, scanning the ceiling on either side of the threshold. Then, as the full realization hit him, his lips pulled back from his teeth in an animal snarl.Safe on her side of the doorway, Elena laughed softly. It had worked.My room and the living room below are all thats left of the old house, she said to him. And, of course, that was a different dwelling place. One you werenot invited into, and never will be.His chest was heaving with anger, his nostrils dilated, his eyes wild. Waves of black rage emanated from him. He looked as if he would like to tear the walls down with his hands, which were twitching and clenching with fury.Triumph and relief made Elena giddy. Youd better go now, she said. Theres nothing for you here.One minute more those menacing eyes blazed into hers, and then Damon turned around. But he didnt head for the stairway. Instead, he took one step across the hall and put his hand on the door to Margarets room.Elena started forward before she knew what she was doing. She stopped in the doorway, grasping the casing trim, her own breath coming hard.His head whipped around and he smiled at her, a slow, cruel smile. He misshapen the doorknob slightly without looking at it. His eye s, like pools of liquid ebony, remained on Elena.Your choice, he said.Elena stood very still, feeling as if all of winter was inside her. Margaret was just a baby. He couldnt mean it no one could be such a monster as to hurt a four-year-old.Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. She saw Damons hand on the doorknob she saw those merciless eyes. She was walking through the doorway, leaving behind the only safe place she knew.Death was in the house, Bonnie had said. And now Elena had gone to mate Death of her own free will. She bowed her head to conceal the helpless tears that came to her eyes. It was over. Damon had won.She did not look up to see him advance on her. But she felt the air stir around her, making her shiver. And then she was enfolded in soft, endless blackness, which wrapped around her like a great birds wings.