Paradise Road- Creative Essay

I didn’t have to, but I did. It was an order, what other choice did I have? I was merely a low level officer; the power was in Hiroto’s hands. She broke the camp rules, outside dealings, but did she? It was medicine to save innocent women, innocent women who have been caught up in a war for power, which has resulted in the women becoming the powerless, and me the powerful. Each day I have to dig deep, keep on digging I tell myself, for reasons to be here; pride, family honour, dignity for my people, remember what father said; Japanese are the ones who made the Europeans rich, yet for hundreds of years the Europeans looked down upon us, now it’s Japan’s turn, still, my moral conscience has clouded my mind to the atrocities that I have seen, a short time ago I was a teacher of a class with half Japanese and half European, and they couldn’t see any differences, they looked to the inside, why can’t these officers look to the inside, morality in c hildren is a quality that is needed now, yet I see the children in the camp being bashed by that brute Tomiashi, I want to help, but Japan is now powerful, Japan must prevail. I passed the fuel to Tanaka, my hand trembling, I wanted to latch onto the bottle, throw it away, throw all this away, is this how far we have come, is the power really worth this? Ablaze, my eyes cloud while I have to control myself not to react, I must be strong in front of these European women, the powerful are not weak, they have oppressed me, although I cannot see it, them crying is the first instance of any reminisce of human emotion since I left my teaching job in the village, I didn’t want to leave the students, but the European students had fled with their families and we had instilled in our minds that the powerful nation would prevail, but is power worth this? I feel the confusion and anguish drop over me like a sheet of cold rain that chills you to your spine, this is wrong, this is wrong, but it’s for the great nation, we will be powerful, my stomach feels queasy. Days pass, although I feel no time as my soul feels extinguished, another lady†¦she merel y spoke, she merely spoke I whisper to myself, this is becoming too much, but I tie her to the posts, and insert the sharp bamboo into the ground, she has disrespected the Emperor she must honour the flag, stuff the emperor I say to myself, as I watch this innocent women struggle in the Sumatran sun as she fights to stay upright and avoid being impaled. Let me run over, let me free her, please! I tell my heart, I plead with my heart, but my brain prevents me, it’s for the nation, we will be powerful, but somehow that ideology is not what drives me to watch on, I am emotionless while watching this torture being committed, stuff the emperor, I clench my fists. The choir lady runs over with water, God bless her, humanity! It was not to be, Tomiashi yells and I have to intervene, emotion takes over me, â€Å"I’m sorry† I tell her â€Å"I’m sorry†, now I know that my heart and my mind are as one, no amount of power is worth this, this innocent women should not be here, she should be at home with her loving family, as should I, she’s so beautiful, I miss her, my wife†¦ it is only good luck that it is not her who is baking in the sun, my mind is made, stuff the emperor. Japan loses, Captain Tanaka and the other leading officers talk about the dishonour, the poverty that Japan will now endure, I look out the window of the officers’ quarters, and see the women smiling and cheering while Colonel Hirota tells them the news, they are now the powerful, and I am the powerless, I smile. By Fergus Neal Statement of Intention Upon taking a wider viewing of the film and seeing the obvious conflicts at play, I forced myself to look deeper and see the not so obvious conflicts that are omnipresent in the bystander characters. I chose to write a creative piece from the perspective of one of the guards who only features shortly in the film, has no name, but can be noted for saying a small but intriguing â€Å"sorry† to Daisy when she attempts to give Susan water, as if the emotion is starting to come to effect within him, and in citing this I chose to write a creative piece on his perspective and the inner conflict as well as conflict with the whole situation that he has faced that has culminated in him showing humility and apologizing to Daisy for not being able to allow water to be given to the tortured Susan. I chose to write in a formal way, but with a creative sense of writing present throughout which allowed me to delve deeper and actually place myself in this man’s shoes. My piece is for the audience of my teacher and fellow class mates as they should be able to comprehend the ideas that I am trying to convey through having seen, and understood the key aspects of the film. The purpose of this creative piece is to demonstrate how conflict occurs between the powerful and powerless,  but also how those in power may experience their own internal conflict in looking deeper into power and how it can cause a sense of inner conflict in relation to that person’s values.

The SF Writers Grotto Collective †Interviewing Julia Scheeres

The SF Writers Grotto Collective - Interviewing Julia Scheeres The San Francisco Writers' Grotto - An Interview with Julia Scheeres Last updated: 07/31/2017In the past few weeks, we’ve been exploring different subjects around the writing craft on the Reedsy blog, giving a place for our exceptional editors’ experience and knowledge to be shared with writers. Today, we want to delve deeper into the subjects of creativity and craft, and interview Julia Scheeres. On top of being a bestselling author and a Reedsy editor, she teaches writing at a fantastic storytellers’ collective in San Francisco.This collective, The Grotto, is actually what we focus on most during our chat. Its founding story is an inspiring one. But we also discuss the narrative non-fiction genre (and in particular memoir), approaching agents, and the benefits of traditional publishing. We hope you enjoy the interview! As usual, the transcript is provided below. I’m really pleased to welcome Julia Scheeres to the Reedsy podcast. So, Julia, you’re an NYT bestselling memoir author, as well as an editor on Reedsy and a teacher at the San Francisco Grotto. Why don’t you give us a bit of background on that?Sure! My first book is a memoir called Jesus Land, that was published in 2005 by a very small independent publisher here in the US. And for whatever reason, it became an NYT bestseller and also a London Times bestseller. My second book, published in 2012, was about the Jonestown massacre. So they’re both narrative non-fiction. The first one is of course very personal because it’s a memoir - it’s my story - and the other one is more a work of literary journalism.And you’re also an editor specializing in narrative non-fiction, right?That’s right. I teach memoir and narrative non-fiction, locally here in San Francisco at the writers’ collective I belong to. I also teach through Stanf ord University and I’ve been a visiting writer at different other universities, but I also work with private clients, more and more.Sometimes someone will give me their entire manuscript, and I will do an entire in-depth structural edit; and other times I work as a writing coach, helping the writer develop the story that they’re trying to tell,   and meet with them on a regular basis to go over the work.So tell us a bit about this writing collective that you belong to: The SF Writers Grotto. How did it get started?I joined the Grotto in 2004 when I was writing my first book. It’s a collective of writers that was started by 3 friends, who were kind of lonely writing alone in their apartments, and decided to start a â€Å"collective†. So they rented an apartment in San Francisco, and they worked there together, and had a lot of fun - they were young and unmarried at the time. They would go out for drinks after work - it was kind of a little boys club!Bu t today, after many iterations - we just celebrated our 20th anniversary  - , we’re a collective of over 100 people, who are either members (who have an office at The SF Writers' Grotto), or freelance there, or are fellows. And it’s just a great space! It’s a great space to be with other writers and network. I have my little office there that I share with a fiction writer and it’s wonderful to have a place that you can go into where there’s no messy house, no dishes piled up, no baby clothes strewn about; it’s just purely professional writing. And we all eat lunch together and talk about writing, about agents, we run pitch ideas by each other: it’s a fantastically supportive environment.Yes, I can definitely relate to that. It’s a bit like us startups and our co-working spaces, where we get to work alongside other startups and founders and exchange introductions, talk about our challenges, etc. So when I came across the Grot to, I thought â€Å"that’s a fantastic initiative for writers†! Do you find that being alongside other creative people (not necessarily all authors) also fosters creativity?We’re all writers, or rather storytellers of some sort at The San Francisco Writers' Grotto. And â€Å"telling stories† is what really matters in the end, so often at lunch we’ll discuss the best way to approach a story, possible sources for a story, and more creative points like that. It’s a very rewarding and kind of high-minded place to belong to because these people are obsessed with telling great stories just as much as I am.And the networking is amazing as well. I can write an essay or an op-ed piece and I’ll send out an email to the mailing list: â€Å"who’s got a contact at the NYT op-ed pages?† and I’ll usually get an introduction. It’s that type of thing, personal introductions to career-changing contacts.Now, since the Writers ’ Grotto began in 1994 it’s grown up a lot, where do you see the working space going in the next few years?Right now, it’s a little precarious for us in San Francisco, because where we are, in the south of Market District, there’s a lot of startups and technology companies. So our rent keeps going up, it went up by a third last year.So we’re trying to find ways to support ourselves, and to support the fiction writers, who maybe don’t make as much as, say, the magazine writers or the big name writers. So one way that we help support each other is that we offer classes through The Grotto. All classes are taught by working writers who specialize in the area that they’re teaching, who are actually published in the area that they’re teaching.So yes, we’re currently feeling the squeeze of being creative types in a city like San Francisco that’s going through a huge metamorphosis right now. But we’re going to make it work, we’re really determined, because it’s too good a community to let it die.Now let’s talk a little bit about what you teach: memoir and narrative non-fiction. We recently had a blog post on our blog by one of our editors about memoirs, and how it is a very competitive genre where it is hard for first-time authors with a small following to rise. Would you agree with that?No. I think that in the United States it’s easier to be published in memoir. Publishers love memoir because there is a true story behind it. You are a product that they can then get on television or radio interviews: there’s something there, it’s not just made up. That is the appeal of memoir. Of course, it is a crowded market and it’s not easy to get published but if you have an amazing story to tell, or if you are a born storyteller with something insightful to say in memoir, by all means, that would be the route to getting published. It’d be much easi er than fictionalizing your first story into a novel.That makes sense. And it’s the difference of opinions I love to see among professional editors, because, of course, if you specialize in fiction you’re going to think differently and see the market differently from someone who specializes in memoir. Now my last question would be about self-publishing: is it a path you recommend to the memoir authors you work with?I would always try a traditional publisher first. I still see self-publishing as a little bit of a second-class vehicle, because you don’t have the support of a traditional publisher, you don’t have the marketing department, the contacts, the distribution channels, etc.In the US there’s all kinds of independent publishers - not vanity publishers or self-publishing companies - which are great! They do a fantastic job editing and packaging your book. I also tell my students and clients to make sure they’re getting some kind of fee dback. You don’t just write your book and submit it, you first need to get feedback from beta readers and from a professional.That’s an excellent point. A lot of the requests that we receive are from authors looking to go the traditional route, but wanting to strengthen their manuscript before querying agents. Do you think that makes sense?Of course. I mean, you want to submit your best book to an agent, otherwise they’ll turn you down. You really want someone who can critique you and give you constructive criticism. This is what I do with my clients: I read through the manuscript and I see what the narrative arc is, what the character arc is. If it’s memoir, I look at what the larger theme is, and how to best start the book. The first 10 pages I usually spend a lot of time working on, because they’re crucial on grabbing a reader’s attention.Thank you so much for this advice, Julia, and for the presentation of The Grotto!Have you tried writi ng in a writers' collective space? What do you think about the SF Grotto? Let us know your thoughts, or any questions for Julia, in the comments below!

Encapsulation in Computer Programming

Encapsulation in Computer Programming Encapsulation in programming is the process of combining elements to create a new entity for the purpose of hiding or protecting information. In object-oriented programming, encapsulation is an attribute of object design. It means that all of the objects data is contained and hidden in the object and access to it is restricted to members of that class. Encapsulation in Programming Languages Programming languages arent quite so strict and allow differing levels of access to an objects data. C supports encapsulation and data hiding with user-defined types called classes. A class combines data and function into a single unit. The method of hiding details of a class is called abstraction. Classes can contain private, protected and public members. Although all the items in a class are private by default, programmers can change the access levels when needed. Three levels of access are available in both C and C# and an additional two in C#Â  only. They are: Public: All objects can access the data.Protected: Access is limited to members of the same class or descendants.Private: Access is limited to members of the same class.Internal: Access is limited to the current assembly. (C# only)Protected Internal: Access is limited to the current assembly or types derived from the containing class. (C# only) Advantages of Encapsulation The main advantage of using encapsulation is the security of the data. Benefits of encapsulation include: Encapsulation protects an object from unwanted access by clients.Encapsulation allows access to a level without revealing the complex details below that level.It reduces human errors.Simplifies the maintenance of the applicationMakes the application easier to understand. For the best encapsulation, object data should almost always be restricted to private or protected. If you choose to set the access level to public, make sure you understand the ramifications of the choice.

Nike Growth Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Nike Growth Strategy - Essay Example At the time of entering foreign markets such as Japan, Europe, and others Nike Inc used the strategy of opening flagship stores and franchise. Flagship stores proved quite successful for Nike Inc due to its strength of generating compelling products that might excite the target customers. Major befit of franchising is that the company does not have to take the total risk of foreign investment. The franchise owners take all possible risks and also finance the maximum percentage of start-up cost. On the other side, the company takes more than 50% of profit for from the franchisees as their brand value. This is one most cost-effective entry process of any business for foreign market entry. Along with franchising, the company also prefer opening of flagship stores in new markets as an effective entry mode. Though this mode is comparatively more cost and risk associated strategy the company can present strong market awareness and brand presence in the new market. Again, the flagship store mode of entry allows the company to enjoy 100% profit from sold goods in these stores. In 1992, the company under consideration decided to enter India in association with SIEPL or Siera Industrial Enterprise Private Limited. The objective of Nike was to tap the Indian market and to receive royalties. The WestEnd Store of the company is the resultant of partnership with Timera Group which is also a leader in the wholesale and retail manufacturing across the areas of U.S., Europe, and the Middle East.

CS 4 - Strategic Choices Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

CS 4 - Strategic Choices - Essay Example This forms the principal guideline of Coca-Cola whereby it designs its company activities to suit the income and preference changes in the market. It is essential to note that Coca-Cola serves various ages of individuals: Both the old and young person’s utilize the brand. Coca-Cola is widely spread around the world. The activities of Coca-Cola transcend bias even in low-income countries. The countries, under Coca-Cola service stretch from USA, Canada, Europe, Asia and Africa. The company’s headquarters manage a global channel of distribution. In turn, it produces diverse brands out of the traditional domain of soda brands (Hirschey, 2008). Additionally, Coca-Coca integrates its activities in customers, employees, partners and its leadership. As for the partners, the company’s mission regards linking customers, suppliers and the company in a competitive network of entities. Coca-cola, as well, strive to a socially just society through participation in world concer ns and other community’s issues. These community’s issues regard water, sanitation and hunger. Revision of SWOT analysis This regards the strength that Coca-Cola possesses in the beverage competition. In close relation to this, SWOT analysis addresses the loopholes to achieving an edge in beverage market. In addition, it addresses challenges and inevitable threats it faces from the markets and competitive field. The company possesses notable strengths. To begin with, Coca-Cola shares a long history of serving the beverage world. This is contrary to companies that feel out of the competitive field. Each emerging generation of customers are willing to identify with the brand. The brand name is a robust force that traverses across groups and countries. This help in the fact that individuals can easily relate to the brand without relating the same to a specific group’s link (Inkpen & Ramaswany, 2006). The company utilizes an effective advertising method of various t ypes to harness customer base. The company faces a weakness of offering almost similar products just as other beverage companies. Despite its strength, the brand loses out to other popular brands such as Pepsi. Additionally, the company faces the weakness of offering products that medical expertise has analyzed to contain harm to individuals. The larger the quantity of such products, the more risky it becomes to consume. The opportunities for Coca-cola are notable. To begin with, the company can collaborate with other brands to produce different goods. This will serve to minimize anti-market campaigns and competition. In addition, the brand can engage in production of healthy products. The company can also establish a unique taste in their beverages to edge themselves out of the brands such as Pepsi. The company’s threats regards protective measures from other countries. This relates to tariffs and policies. In addition, its expansive activities face the challenge of politica l instability in some of its operation countries (Kapferer, 2012). Strategic choices Coca-Cola has several strategic choices that build on its core strategy of diversity in service. Coca-Cola literally expands into new market territories. The main method it employs to achieve this means of distributive properties. Despite the fact that Coca Cola’s headquarters are in Atlanta, the company owns bottling companies in several countries. The benefit as regards to this strategy relates to

Kingston Communications Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Kingston Communications - Assignment Example Using "Porter's Five Force Model" (http://www.12manage.com/methods_porter_five_forces.html), let us see where the issues may exist for Kingston Communications. Porter's model states that thefollowing forces can affect how business relates to the rest of the marketplace: The problem that Kingston had in converting from what was then a traditional telecoms industry using analogue technology to modern digital technology was that they did not readily have the expertise, technology or the agreements in place with providers such as British Telecom, in order to compete against established companies, such as Skype and recently, Vonage. Since then there have been a proliferation of VOIP providers. Various broadband providers have included VOIP as part of their services, when originally all they provided was a dial-up service to access the internet, and later broadband. There are now several companies on the market providing integrated services, including broadband as an 'add-on' as opposed to a primary service as was the case in the recent past. Examples are Sky Television, Orange mobiles, and even BT have got in on the act, by offering digital services alongside their communications offerings. Therefore, Kingston is not alone in feeling the heat of the com petition, as others strive to win market share. How this has changed from a few years ago, and especially for Kingston Communications who used to have a monopoly on these types of service. Kingston probably recognized this as they acquired companies and organizations that had the technology and the resources available. This would make the transition easier, but it came at a price. The acquisition of Affiniti, the business communications integrator,Information Services providing contact centre and directory services, plus the development of their own broadband services would allow Kingston to compete on a level playing field. 2. Threat of substitutes. With regard to VOIP, a substitute phone serviceis exactly what happened.Once the technology for Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) was developed, it became a real threat, not only to Kingston, but other large telecoms companies such asBritish Telecom (BT).The real threat was in the cost of the service. For example, Skype offer a free telephone service to other Skype users. This is now standard among most VOIP providers. It became obvious to Kingston and other telecom providers that drastic decisions had to be made with regard to their technology strategy. 3. Bargaining power of buyers. With the proliferation of VOIP and integrated providers, the relative bargaining power of buyers in this market is relatively strong, especially for the average consumer. They can now choose between integrated solutions, such as digital TV and VOIP services, or choose a relatively low-cost broadband only solution. The costs of these services continue to decline, as more and more suppliers compete for market share. 4. Bargaining power of suppliers.In the early days of VOIP, perhaps the

Internet and Books Essay Example for Free

Internet and Books Essay In today’s modern world, technology has a great influence on our life and time. Back in the early 19th century, when electronic devices had not been invented, the population could only use printed word such as books, posters, newspapers or magazines, to gather information. Later, in the mid 20th century, the use of computers, televisions and radios helped people to know about the incidents happening all around the world, more easily. Now, in the 21st century, the creation of internet and other devices to access it has helped us to attain gigabytes of information, just with the click of our mouse. The internet has made it possible for us to acquire answers for almost all of the questions that we ask, and has alleviated the access to information to almost every topic imaginable. Firstly, internet helps to save time and effort. All you need to do is type in your question and click SEARCH. It can give an answer to almost every question type in, and it is usually very quick, speedy and fast. On the other hand, using books or other printed texts can waste time, as you need to find the appropriate book and then search for the information you need from it. For example, while searching for a book in the library, you waste time trying to reach there, and even more time trying to find the book you need. Despite this, time is also lost when you try to find the information that is useful to you from the book. Whereas the internet acts as a filter that sieves out all the data you need, in a span of seconds. However it can be argued that using electronic devices can cause distractions and disturbances. Using the internet can divert your attention to some other unrelated site and will cause you to waste time. For instance, you may login to facebook or twitter, or check your mail instead of researching and using the time well. On the contrary, you cannot be easily distracted in a library where silence is preferred, and is filled with people who want to work. But if the internet is used properly, and if the person has a self control over himself the internet has more advantages comparing to printed texts. So in short internet can be a time-saver only if used wisely. Alternatively, the internet can sometimes provide us with unreliable information. It is like a blank page in which people are allowed to post whatever they want, and sometimes even the wrong information. As exemplified by blogs, in which anyone can post their opinions and views on a topic, the internet can be a source of unreliable and inaccurate information as it contains the judgement of different individuals and not the actual facts. On the contrary, printed texts can be a great source of reliable information. Books are written by experienced authors who have researched well about the topic themselves before publishing it. A library can assure you that the book in your hand is dependable and trustworthy. In spite of being unreliable, internet can provide us with up-to-date data. It offers information on the most recent discoveries and inventions, the latest cars or other products and about the contemporary incidents and happenings all around the world. However once a book is published, any recent findings cannot be added to it. There are always new developments in the field of health, science, technology and politics that the library simply cannot keep up with. Therefore, the internet can provide us with the latest news about our modern day developments and can be dependable only if used properly by checking the sources of a particular website. Thirdly, glaring at a screen for a long period of time can cause various eye and back problems. Computer vision syndromes like eye strain and cataracts are caused by glaring at the computer screen for prolonged periods. Millions develop a condition called ‘dry eye’, resulting in gritty, itchy, inflamed eyes, due to staring at the screen for hours. The light from computer screens can cause drastic problems to your eyes, and sometimes even partial blindness. Unlike computer screens, books can be very easy to read as they are just words printed on paper. However there are many solutions to prevent the damage caused to eyes by computer screens. Screen filters can be bought to reduce the amount of light radiation hitting our eyes. There are also many softwares that can transfer the information audibly or with the help of videos, and do not require data to be read. Regular breaks, and turning away from the screen constantly can also help in avoiding eye and back problems. Usually, there is an option to zoom in, which enables people to read easily. Unlike computers, books cannot be zoomed in, when the letters are too small to be visible, causing eye problems as well. So the problems caused by glaring at computer screens or reading the small printed texts in books, can be reduced by taking regular breaks and exercises, as anything in excess is not good for our health. Moreover, a lot of paper is wasted in the creation of books and magazines. Deforestation, being one of the greatest threats that humans are facing today, is increased by the production of paper in books. A few sheets of paper could be worth one tree. Hence the number of trees is reducing day by day. Obviously, trees are vital for our living as they are the natural producers of food. Deforestation not only causes scarcity of food and other resources, but also results in the rise of the earth’s temperature, causing global warming. In contrast to books, modern technology like mobile phones, computers or tablets does not harm the environment to a very great extent. In the case of computers the energy used is electricity, which is renewable and can be created again and again. The internet is a huge database, and more information can be adjoined into it, very easily. However books are created from sheets of paper, and if the number of books increase, then the level of deforestation can increase correspondingly. To reduce the destruction of the earth’s forests by deforestation, paper should be recycled and not wasted. Instead it is much easier to use the help of modern technology that functions with the help of renewable energy, which does not have a great impact on nature. Therefore modern electronics has made it possible to overcome a huge problem to the environment. In conclusion, modern technology has many positive uses; it has made the world a smaller place by allowing us to contact individuals all around the world, many electronic devices are very cheap making it affordable to all and has also allowed people to find out about the news and incidents happening all around the world. But every good has some bad, and the extensive use of technology can be harmful to our health. I strongly believe that modern technology has been very helpful and useful to the human population. It has eased our access to information in very sustainable manner, and has connected the world together.