High school Essay Example for Free

High school Essay In the last semester of junior high school, I left home for my study experience in Sydney. Though I initially had a hard time because of language barrier, I later made friends with my interesting enthusiasm and friendliness. Thereafter, I also studied abroad in Canada, an experience that helped expand my general perspectives in life. Here I also faced some unpleasant and embarrassing racial prejudice but my approach with positive view of life won over many as friends. High schools experiences helped me pull through the long and arduous time when I served in the military. The two years and nine months of military service transformed me into an individual with strength, patience, and will power. During grueling training I bit down and became even more involved. The training was usually exhausting, but the feeling of pride do instilled in us a sense of confidence and will power. As our unit was placed along side American troops near the military perimeter, many American officers and soldiers came to visit our unit. One day I was summoned by the battalion commander as an interpreter, and ever since then my area of specialty changed from a counterattack gun to the role of an aide to the battalion commander. Life there was not one for soldiers but for executive ranks in the battalion and was full of hardships for a mere soldier like myself. Again, I developed good relationship with many in the executive ranks with my characteristically enthusiastic personality. I fully utilized my influence to act as a negotiator between the two groups when conflicts arose. I was able to overcome jealousy of fellow soldiersand we laterrelied on each other for mutual relationship. I still fondly look back to the fulfilling memories of how my small help brought back liveliness to our days in the battalion. The cherishment of these memories and the continuation of personal development are made possible by the help of my family, who have always been by my side and have always been my greatest supporters. I strongly believe that my wonderful personality comes from my family. I have been born into the happiest family in the world, and grew under the world’s most outstanding parents. My conservative father taught me the importance of leadership, responsibility, and diligence through daily activities I do in life, and my mother personally showed me endless love. My brother equally gave me an unwavering support, revealing to me those things that are important in my life for consolidation. The memories I have from my past experiences make up my life, and they are the motivation that cheer me to continually forge ahead in life. My family, friends, and even the people that I say hello to whose names I don’t even know are all part of my network and my life. I have thus learned from unforgettable experiences and strongly convinced that a positive viewpoint lends happiness in life. With confidence and pride I look forward to writing

System to Control Cars Anti-lock Braking System

System to Control Cars Anti-lock Braking System Giving reasons for your answer based on the type of system being developed, suggest the most appropriate generic software process model that might be used as a basis for managing the development of the following systems: A system to control a cars anti-lock braking system You could use Incremental or Spiral process models as safety is critical so you need a method that a lot of checks and balances at each stage. Incremental development is broken down into increments with each increment delivering part of the required functionality, where the user requirements are prioritized and the highest priority requirements are included in early increments however once the development is started, the requirements are frozen but can be used in later increments. Spiral process is represented as a spiral rather than as a sequence of activities with backtracking where each loop in the spiral represents a phase in the process. There are no fixed phases such as specification or design but loops in the spiral are chosen depending on what is required. Both Incremental and Spiral would achieve the goal of managing development for the cars anti-lock braking system however incremental development would be the most suited since it takes the allows for checks and balances throughout the life of the development. A virtual reality system to support software maintenance An evolutionary model seems to be an ideal solution for a virtual reality system, as the development team has two methods first is the exploratory development which works well with customers and to evolve a final system from an initial outline specification. Second is the throw-away prototyping with this method the objective is to understand the system requirements if the requirements are not fully laid out. A university accounting system that replaces an existing system Waterfall has formal structure to manage the process however the drawback is that it is difficult to accommodate changes after starting. But in the waterfall model you would go through a series of step to manage the large requirements, design and implementation requirements. Requirements analysis and definition System and software design Implementation and unit testing Integration and system testing Operation and maintenance An interactive system, running in kiosks in train stations, for railway passengers that find train times In this scenario the best approach would be evolutionary model using a throw away prototyping to find the requirements then switching to a waterfall model for a structured design and implementation. References Ian Sommerville, (2010) Software Engineering (8th edition), Chapter 4, 5 Pearson Education Lecture Notes (2010) Laureate Online Education University of Liverpool Seminar 1 Introduction to Software Engineering Study Lecture 1 Software Engineering, à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ All right reserved, 2002-2010

Teenage Girls, the Media and Self-Image Essay -- Television Females Se

Teenage Girls, the Media and Self-Image The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder. -Virginia Woolf Youth is beauty, money is beauty, hell, beauty is beauty sometimes. It's the luck of the draw, it's the natural law; it's a joke, it's a crime. -Ani Difranco The teen magazines began appearing in the fifth grade. They seemed to show up overnight, out of nowhere. At lunch or between classes, groups of girls would cluster around the desk of the mature eleven-year-old who brought in the latest issue of Seventeen. Page by page, they explored the intricacies of how to unlock the secrets of boys, makeup tips to accentuate a girl's natural beauty, and quizzes to help one find her celebrity dream date. In the span of a few weeks, every girl had a subscription to her very own teen magazine; teachers were forced to establish rules limiting the times and places that such magazines could be read. When the magazines first showed up on the scene, I was as curious as any other girl-what did these barometers of pop culture decree concerning this month's new trends? For just twenty dollars a year, we could be told how to dress and act. It was as if we were suddenly given an invitation to join the mysterious world of our older peers, full of the excitement and glamour of teenage experiences. Originally, the content of these magazines had no direct bearing on our lives; I spent my free time playing dolls or G.I. Joe with my little brother. The boys still believed we were infected with a rare strain of cooties; they had a way to go before maturing into the young men the magazines displayed, the objects of affection who would one day take us to the movies in convertibles or st... ...: NYU P, 1996. Early, Gerald. "Life with Daughters: Watching the Miss America Pageant." Encounters: Essays for Exploration and Inquiry. Ed. Pat C. Hoy II and Robert DiYanni. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000. 224-38. Geller, Jaclyn. "The Celebrity Bride as Cultural Icon."Encounters: Essays for Exploration and Inquiry. Ed. Pat C. Hoy II and Robert DiYanni. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000. 277-281. Griffiths, Vivienne. Adolescent Girls and Their Friends: A Feminist Ethnography. Aldershot: Avebury, 1995. LeCroy, Craig Winston and Janice Daley. Empowering Adolescent Girls: Examining the Present and Building Skills for the Future with the Go Grrrls Program. New York: Norton, 2001. Mann, Judy. The Difference: Growing Up Female in America. New York: Warner, 1994. Miss America Organization, The. The Miss America Organization. 27 Oct. 2001. <http://www.missamerica.org>.

Grapes Of Wrath Essay -- essays research papers

The Grapes of Wrath   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath, a remarkable novel that greatly embodied the entire uprisal of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s. The usage of imagery and symbolism help to support his many different themes running through the course of the novel. His use of language assisted in personifying the many trials and tribulations which the Joad family, and the rest of the United States, was feeling at the time. This was a time of great confusion and chaos because no one really knew what the other was going through, they were all just trying to hold their own. To display the many sides of the depression Steinbeck developed the use of intercallorie chapters, and he also manipulated them to posses many other functions; all of these adding to the many images and themes which he was insistent upon getting across to his readers, using a vast collection of techniques. One of Steinbeck’s favorite uses of language was the use of imagery. He used colors, animals, and people as his main sources of imagery. The most reoccurring images of color were red and grey. He used this to develop the reader into sensing the harshness, and yet the incredible dullness of the scenery, using red as the sun and grey as the land, at times interchanging. â€Å"In the grey sky a red sun appeared, a dim red circle that gave a little light, like dusk; and as that day advanced the dusk slipped back toward darkness, and the wind cried and whimpered over the fallen corn†(5). Steinbeck used his color imagery to display the almost separation of the two different worlds between the land, symbolically and literally.â€Å" †¦the grey country and the dark red country began to disappear under a green cover†(3). His use of red and grey represent the slow wearing away of the land and its people. â€Å"The surface of the earth crusted, a thin hard crust, and as the sky became pale, so the earth became pale, pink in the red country, and white in the grey country.† This shows the way the earth was washed out and dimming under the abuse of the cotton farming, which stripped the land. Later in the story, Steinbeck continued his use of simple color imagery, typically describing the sun, dust and light. â€Å"†¦there was a layer of dust in the bed, and the hood was covered in dust, and the headlights were obscured with a red flour. The sun was setting w... ... Joads were taking to California was similar to the journey that the Jewish people made to the promised land, however California did not hold the opportunity that was promised, and many people left. Jim Casey is often compared to Jesus Christ, leading his 12 deciples to the promised land. For one he did not lead the family-Ma Joad did. He also was not leading them out of a belief in himself of anyother mystical idea. He just joined them for the ride. Another thing is, is that although Jim Casey died for his cause he did not preach anything remotely similar to Jesus Christ, unless that was the point-he was supposed to represent a neo-Jesus, and did not do his pilgrimage the same way. Basically, while their were many symbols along the way for the story to be taken as a allegory, it seems silly that it would be due to the fact that it would take away the powerfulness of the book. Many readers do not want to have to take the journey of the Joad’s and flip it all around and rui n it so that it becomes allegorical to others. It seems better and much more effective to society that The Grapes of Wrath is an allegory to life’s journeys and is a powerful representation of the time period.

International Elements of Saddam Hussein’s Conflicted Iraq: Shifting Allies, Resolute Foes :: Essays Papers

International Elements of Saddam Hussein’s Conflicted Iraq: Shifting Allies, Resolute Foes The Iraqi state has undergone significant change since Saddam Hussein’s rise to power in 1979. As with most nations, global international relations have played a formative role in Iraqi decision-making, just as Hussein’s oft-presumptuous initiatives have affected other nations’ relationships with Iraq. It is widely acknowledged that Hussein has systematically violated the human rights of many Iraqi citizens. In this sense, the current U.N. and U.S. military pressure on Iraq has a viable humanitarian platform in addition to economic motives. However, as war looms progressively nearer, it is advisable to evaluate the efficacy of comparable past efforts in order to make prudent decisions for the future. In the pursuit of a more acute comprehension of Iraqi international relations, this paper traces the political history of modern-day Iraq with an emphasis on foreign relations as influenced by Saddam Hussein’s leadership. The modern Iraqi state had its beginnings as part of the massive Ottoman Empire. Iraq did not exist as a state under Ottoman rule; rather, where modern Iraq is now, there were three â€Å"vilayets,† the districts of Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul. Due to the sprawling nature of the Ottoman Empire, coupled with a somewhat tenuous conquest, the vilayets had a remarkable amount of administrative and economic autonomy. The three areas actually had less in common with each other than with other regions well through the middle of the nineteenth century. Basra had strong relations with the Gulf and India, Baghdad was a critical link for Syria and Iran, and Mosul was closely tied to Anatolia and Aleppo (Farouk-Sluglett & Sluglett, 2). However, the second half of the nineteenth century saw Istanbul taking a more passionate interest in exerting greater control over even its most inaccessible territories. Through an amalgam of new Ottoman laws and administrative arrangements, known as the â€Å"Tanzimat,† common reforms and practices were established for all three Iraqi vilayets. The Tanzimat had the predictable effect of increasing cross-wilayet homogeneity. Simultaneously, European commercial interest in the region was rising rapidly. Most notably, Great Britain’s commercial activity in the area skyrocketed during this period. The economic trajectory of the region responded in a gradual shift from the pattern of a subsistence economy toward an export-oriented economy, a trend that was not to be short-lived.

Reality in Jean Genet’s ‘the Balcony’ Essay

Jean Genet’s Le Balcon (or The Balcony) is an absurdist play in which the main structure is the â€Å"philosophical battle between illusion and reality† (Savona 1983: 76) and this essay will investigate some of the levels of reality within an absurdist and existentialist context in Genet’s play. The play itself â€Å"offers a spectacularly theatrical exploration of the relationship between fantasy and reality† (Patterson 2005: 32) whilst also seeking â€Å"to negate reality itself† (Innes 2001: 438). Whilst also attempting to transform reality into a fantasy world in which its characters can escape the dismay of daily life, it is â€Å"also designed to be a moving play which†¦ keeps the audience aware that it is a play† they are watching and not allowing them to get lost in the world of illusion, fantasy and desire that the characters are trapped in (Reck 1962: 23). This echoes a technique used as part of Brecht’s Verfremdungseffekt, and by keeping the spectator at a critical distance, they become observers and thus can learn something about their own lives and the world in which they live. The play is set in Madame Irma’s Maison d’illusions (or house of illusions) which to the spectator is clearly a brothel, but not a brothel in the conventional sense. In the brothel, men of everyday walks of life (for example a plumber) act out sexual fantasies with the women that work there. Their sexual fantasies are by no means conventional either, for example the ‘clients’ of the brothel take on the personas of powerful men, namely a bishop, an executioner, a judge and a general. From the exposition of the play, it is unclear that the bishop isn’t actually a bishop as the costume, dialogue and action of the bishop are completely authentic aside from the fact that the powerful characters â€Å"tower over all the other actors as well as the audience† (McMahon 1963: 110). This is visually unrealistic and takes the spectator away from realism right from the onset, yet somehow draws them into this world of illusion. The sexual acts were intended by Genet to contain meaning and not to be realistic. They are merely projections, a series of images of man trapped in a hall of mirrors, not attempting to convey naturalism in the slightest (McMahon 1963: 176) and the characters’ â€Å"performance becomes reflections of reflections† (Innes 2001: 438). As Esslin states in his The Theatre of the Absurd, â€Å"there are no characters in the conventional sense†¦merely the images of basic urges and impulses† (Esslin 2001: 22). Image is of key importance in the play; it is everything â€Å"for the deeper one moves into images the less danger there will be of reality’s coming back to question the veracity of the images† (McMahon 1963: 162). One of the key themes of the play is the escape from reality, and as T. S Eliot wrote â€Å"human kind cannot bear much reality† (1964: 69), one of the fundamental messages Genet is trying to portray in his play. There is a strong sense of the actor merging with the character in The Balcony (Savona 1983: 86), or the character merging with the fantasy characters they attempt to portray in the brothel, or characters they so long to be, even for just an hour or so. This inauthentic relationship between reality and fantasy reflects human nature and life itself – we have all at some point aspired, or even wished that we could be someone else, someone with power or respect. However as McMahon suggests â€Å"there is no aspiration within the motivation of these people to be bishop, judge or general; the limit of their ambitions knows its range, and the cutting off point†¦is the thin line between pretence and reality† (1963: 160). The play takes a turn when the clients of the brothel are forced to take on the characters they are pretending to be for real. It is at this point that the illusion is destroyed and the men of everyday life no longer want the roles they are playing. For them, the roles are now too realistic and there is no escape from them – the relationship between reality and fantasy has become authentic. When the characters are acting out their roles in the real world, they are no longer comforted by their imagination; they are faced with the harsh reality of life, the one thing that they have sought to escape in the first place. This is reinforced by the fact the characters are reluctant to assist the chief of police and be â€Å"dragged from their dream world into the harshness and dangers of reality† (Thody 1970: 186-187). The revolution outside can be seen as a symbol of real life. â€Å"Were it not for the revolution, the various characters could continue to play their games in the enclosed a-historical atmosphere provided for them†¦but the revolution is there, and threatens at any moment to destroy their world of illusion completely† (Thody 1970: 179). During the play, various sounds of gunfire can be heard in the background of the scenes – A threat from the real world outside reminding the characters they have tried to escape life and whilst this may be successful for the hour they are in the brothel, real life is still going out outside. â€Å"Machine gun fire attempts to undermine the magic of illusion created and reflects Brecht’s distancing effect† (Savona 1983: 89). Once again Genet forces the spectator to remember that they are watching a play, but also when we all hide behind the facade of life, or try and escape reality, the real world is still very much at large in the background and we can’t ignore this! â€Å"The theme of illusion reaches its climax at the very end of the action, when Madame Irma comes to the front of the stage to remind the audience that they have, after all, only been watching a play† (Thody 1970: 185). The spectator is suddenly brought back to ‘the real word’ having witnessed actors playing characters, characters playing characters, characters playing people. The audience has taken the journey through Madam Irma’s ‘house of illusions’, and has been presented with a theatrical projection of humanity through many planes of reality. She tells the audience â€Å"you must now go home, where everything – you can be quite sure – will be falser than here†¦You must now go† (Genet 1966: 96). She has highlighted that as humans we have a tendency to hide behind the facade of life, to go along with what we are told and what we see, thus taking life for granted. We then think back to the characters in the play and realise how they are merely projections of ourselves. â€Å"Genet proclaims the illusion of reality and the reality of illusion† (Nelson 1963: 61). For the spectator and the characters â€Å"reality has become indiscernible from illusion† (Nelson 1963: 65) and the audience must ask themselves where does reality end and pretence begins. BIBLIOGRAPHY Eliot, T. S. , Murder in the Cathedral (Fort Washington PA: Harvest Books, 1964) Esslin, Martin, The Theatre of the Absurd, 3rd Edition (London: Metheun, 2001). Genet, Jean, The Balcony (New York: Grove Press, 1966) Innes, Christopher, ‘Theatre After Two World Wars’, in The Oxford Illustrated History of the Theatre, ed. by John Russell Brown (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 380-444. Macquarrie, John, Existentialism (Baltimore: Pelican Books, 1972) McMahon, Joseph H. , The Imagination of Jean Genet (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963) Nelson, Banjamin, ‘The Balcony and Parisian Existentialism’, The Tulane Drama Review, 7:3 (1963), 60-79. Oswald, Laura, Jean Genet and the Semiotics of Performance (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1989) Patterson, Michael, The Oxford Dictionary of Plays (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) Reck, Rima Drell, ‘Appearance and Reality in Genet’s Le Balcon’, The New Dramatists, 29:1 (1962), 20-25. Savona, Jeannette L. , Jean Genet (London and Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press, 1983) Styan, J. L. , The English Stage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) Thody, Philip, Jean Genet: A Study of His Novels and Plays (New York: Stein and Day, 1970).

Become Legendary Essay

The Kobe and Lebron comparison is now probably the biggest and most controversial talk in today’s sports news. Lebron can go to the hoop with authority, while Kobe is a sleek and flashy all around shooter. Although being two of the best players in the world they are very different in the ways they play the game of basketball. Though both Kobe and Lebron went to the NBA straight out of high school, and being two of the league’s best all around players who are lethal threats which must take an extraordinary game plan to defend. With the association and contrast of the two legends, whether it is by trophies or championship titles, or all around stat freaks, these will be main contributing factors in crowning the best. Kobe Bryant is arguably one of the league’s best all around players of all time. He can drive, shoot, and his finish is one of a kind. His defense is shut down and plays with fouls as a defensive mechanism. Not only is he top class on the floor, but on the free throw line as well. Also being one of the league’s most consistent free throw shooters since entering the NBA. Kobe plays the game as if he invented it; he is one of the world’s most respected and popular players. Kobe has five NBA championships and is a twelve time NBA all star. Kobe Bryant age thirty-two is one of the most decorated players in the history of the NBA, and is a future hall -of -famer. Kobe also has had an unheard of eighty-one points in a single game. Kobe’s down side is that he is not consistently aggressive or hard going to the boards (getting rebounds or dunking). With all that said I feel like Kobe Bryant will ever be remembered as one of the elite players to ever play in the NB A. Lebron James aka â€Å"King James† is a one of a kind, straight out of high school player who took on the league with a head full of steam. One of the most athletic and young freaks the NBA has probably ever seen. He has matured from a young kid to a man in a matter of seasons, while adding a different edge to his game every year. Lebron who is seven years younger than Kobe is a seven time NBA all star, but has yet to win a single NBA championship. Coming out of high school Lebron was the first pick out of the first round  out of the NBA draft. Though Lebron the young hot shot he is seems to receive a lot of criticism because of the recent change in location to south beach. Even though Lebron is such an amazing player, the thing that hurts him the most is his shooting at times. Lebron isn’t just a basketball player; he’s a business man as well with endorsements from companies such as Nike and Sprite. Forbes magazine ranked James as the second most influential athletes in the past decade. This new kid on the block has produced points and shows what he can do every night; he puts points on the board and fans in the stands. Both of these iconic athletes are incredibly amazing in all their unique ways, whether on or off the court. Together they have won two gold medals in the Olympics for the United States. They are both the league’s present day top players who decided that college wasn’t for them. Lebron and Kobe were both first round picks in the NBA draft and the number one ranked player coming out of high school. They both are astonishingly efficient in every aspect of the offensive or defensive side of the ball. Blocking shots and playing hard noised defense is what they do best. With a shot and release like no other they are quick scorers and know how to score from anywhere and in any situation on the floor. They both bring more to the game than just skill but as leaders vocally and emotionally on their teams. Not only are they the leaders on their teams, but are the faces for basketball and the NBA everywhere in the world. In my opinion this is not even that close. James has better numbers across almost every statistical category. In clutch situations such as fourth quarter or overtime, less than five minutes left, neither team ahead by more than five points. Bryant actually has a higher field goal percentage and three-point percentage as well as more rebounds and assists per 48 minutes. James is a superior slasher, finisher, and defender as well as being stronger and more athletic. Bryant may have a killer instinct, but James has a mean streak of his own. With his unbelievable three point plays and up tempo offense. When all is said and done, Lebron James may go down as a better NBA basketball player than Kobe Bryant, but who knows, these guys are neck and neck.