My Best Friend.

Kimi Kobal COMM 103 Dr. Fritz April 25, 2004 My Best Friend My mother gave me the most useful advice for the relationship between my best friend Mike, and myself. "A boy and girl can never be just best friends, because eventually they will fall for each other, maybe not on purpose, maybe not at the same time, and maybe forever." She summed up everything that would happen between us up until the forever. Mike came to my high school when we were sophomores, along with his then best friend Marcus. They transferred to my school to play football and I was instantly attracted to Marcus, so naturally I talked to Mike about it. Little did I know then what the outcome of a small crush on his friend would lead to. Although we have recently grown apart we have really been through it all and it has been the most dynamic relationship I have ever experienced. I am almost positive that we no longer have a title of friends or anything else but I know that I will always be here for him and he will always be there for me. In the beginning of our relationship my attraction to Mike was a social attraction as was his to me. He was in a new school setting and did not know anyone so he wanted to get to know people. I was physically attracted to his friend and wanted to get to know him better so I invited Mike and his friend into my circle of friends. I knew that Mike played baseball

  • Word count: 2486
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Mini biography of my mother

Mini biography of my mother In a dark dingy hospital in the North of England, a baby was born. Her grand arrival into the world was made highly inauspicious for several reasons, the main reason being that a Caesarian section was required. This in itself was not particularly unusual, however her father couldn't be tracked down, and there was no surgeon available. Eventually a surgeon could be tracked down (dragged off the golf course), though he did complain about being dragged from his game of golf on such a nice summer's evening (he was winning). Her father being contacted presented a far larger problem. Since this was before the days of cars and telephones the police were used to find him, and when they couldn't find him the operation had to be performed without his consent. The birth itself took 72 hours and ever since my mother hasn't let anyone rush her. She was born on June 21st 1959, at a time when Marilyn Monroe was still starring in films, when sending a dog into space was thought revolutionary, when dressing to look like a teddy bear was considered fashionable. My mother speaks of these day and the following two decades will deep nostalgia for reasons I cannot begin to fathom. She speaks of it as if it was a golden age, and conveniently forgets events like the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the appalling haircuts. Her earliest memory from childhood

  • Word count: 1764
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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National ID Card

National ID Cards, a Mere Band-Aid? Published in Business Week Online on November 5, 2001, Lorraine Woellert presents an argument that National ID cards are not the answer to advancing security in the United States. In the article titled "National IDs Won't Work," Woellert begins by reasoning why people have the need for increased security. She introduces the idea of a national ID card and explains the inherent benefits of increased security but that the ID cards will in fact put the United States at a greater risk. According to Woellert, a national ID card would violate our freedoms and cost tens of billions of dollars while still being vulnerable to forgery. The author ends with what seems to be the most horrific fault of a national ID card. ID cards may "lull" the public into having an artificial feeling of security, thus creating more opportunity for terrorist attack. I agree with Woellert in that creating mandatory national ID cards generates security problems rather than increasing security. I believe that flaws such as high cost, invasion of privacy, and false sense of security, outweigh the benefits that could become of this ID. Lorraine Woellert claims that almost anyone would be able to obtain a forged national ID because technology is not advanced enough to be impenetrable. This supports her claim that an ID card would not increase security, nor protect the

  • Word count: 1462
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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A critical evaluation of articles written by MacKinnon, Tisdale, and Nussbaum on the subject of pornography.

Adam Kagan 10135577 Sexual Ethics 2 December, 2002 T.A. Maureen PORNOGRAPHY The articles written by MacKinnon and Tisdale offer opposing views on the subject of pornography, while Nussbaum's article attempts to mediate the two views. In this essay, I will reconstruct and give a critical evaluation of each of the three articles, after which I will give my own opinion on the subject: that Tisdale's view on pornography is correct and that MacKinnon's idea of pornography objectifying women is not effectively derived. MacKinnon believes that pornography is the embodiment of our societies social structure, which is focused around male dominance. She defines pornography by saying that "in sexuality, life and art are each other, and therefore in this society of male dominance, pornography is reality; it is male dominance (409)", a definition which she adopts from Andrea Dworkin. Pornography is therefore not a moral issue, it is a political one; it is not about good and evil, it is about power and powerlessness. "In pornography", she says, "women are there to be violated and possessed, men are there to violate and possess them, either on screen or by pen, on behalf of the viewer (408)." It is this definition of pornography that demonstrates precisely how it affects women: it turns them into objects. The social implications of this effect, MacKinnon argues, are very negative and

  • Word count: 1767
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Roland Bathes Analysis

Roland Barthes 'We seem as a species to be driven by a desire to make meanings: above all, we are surely homo significans - meaning makers' (Chandler, D, 2nd 2002:13) Roland Barthes is a clear homo significan as he constantly tried to extract the ideologies behind written language. Roland Barthes was born in Cherbourg, France 1915. He was a French linguist, philosopher and educator. He was greatly influenced by Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Jean-Paul Sartre and Ferdinand de Saussure. Barthes declare that 'Perhaps we must invert Saussure's formulation and assert that semiology is a branch of linguists.' (Chandler, D 2002:20) Which Barthes went on to explore in his works. He was adamantly against the bourgeois society who he constantly tried to expose through his writing. This paper shall look at some of Barthes most influential works on; the signifier and the signified, his Mythologies, Structuralism and Existentialism and the photographic message. Barthes expanded on Saussure's work and stated that every sign has a signifier and a signified; he argued that you cannot have one without the other. This contradicts what Saussure said about arbitrariness as Barthes argues that every sign has a relationship between both the signified and the signifier. Barthes called this 'the third message' referring to the relationship as 'quasi-tautological' (When something is so imprecise it

  • Word count: 1636
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Original Writing: Dystopia

Hope? He laid there, cold and confused. His long brown hair matted to the split ends that had become stiff and frozen with a white crisp layer all over. Disgraceful cloths covered his body, all one colour now but before his joyful and vivid personality shined through. Although his trainers were on, his feet touched the ground when he walked. So many years of walking on hard ground had slowly worn them away. An odious cent lingered in the small room, some from the boy and some from the feces that covered the stone floor. The room sat bare, nothing but the boy had been inside. No windows, no door just a simple abundant hole present in the room. Although the hole was so big, nothing but the boy passed through. The hole led into a tunnel that became progressively smaller, the boy did not have to struggle however he was so minutely thin now. The glacial wind swept up the tunnel, whistling as it recoiled from side to side of the aluminium metal lining the tunnel. As the boy rapidly made his way through the tunnel the air began to diminish in temperature and it became hard to breathe. As he did, the sub-zero air stung his lungs, hastily he breathed out to reduce the pain. On hands and knees, he continued his pursuit to leave the tunnel. The skin on his hands began to rip off but he was impervious to the pain. As the temperature continuously dropped, more and more skin was

  • Word count: 844
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Critically Assess The Argument That Pornography Is Harmful To Women.

Critically Assess The Argument That Pornography Is Harmful To Women. Pornography, unlike any other media representation of sex and sexuality, has become within postmodern society a cultural category of significance (McNair1996: 1) The traditional imagery of seediness has been lost somewhat and replaced by a society that uses highly sexual imagery within the advertising industry, the music industry and also as a theme for many late night mainstream TV shows. This shift in attitudes towards the use of sexual and erotic images in today's society raises certain questions that need to be answered. What is pornography and how is pornography defined? If pornography is harmful then who does it harm and in what way? In order to fully explore the question is pornography harmful to women it is important to first define what pornography is and look closely at the different arguments around defining it. Pornography is in the main understood as being photographs or video images of explicit sexual acts. So despite the fact that there are some differences of opinion on the definition of pornography most people would appear to agree that its content is sex. Although it has been claimed that 'what pornography is really about, ultimately, isn't sex but death. (Sontag 1982: 105) that said, to most commentators images to be defined, as pornographic not are

  • Word count: 3483
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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This paper will chronologically outline my "becoming deviant" and break it down using a step-by-step framework of Matza's theory.

Introduction Everyone has done at least one thing in their life that they deem to be 'deviant.' I've done so many things that I think of as being 'deviant' in fact, that it was hard to choose just one activity to write about for this paper. It is important to remember however; that an activity that one person may deem to be 'deviant' may be something completely acceptable for another person. Such is the case with the event in my life that I have decided to talk about - a one-night stand (to be explained) that I had during my first month at McGill University. After looking at David Matza's theory of "becoming deviant," I realized that this situation fit the theory to a tee. This paper will chronologically outline my "becoming deviant" and break it down using a step-by-step framework of Matza's theory. A little background I moved to Montreal in August of 2002 to attend McGill University. I had no idea what to expect. It was my first time living away from home, and I had just arrived in a new city that was full of crazy people and crazy places. The first week of organized school orientation is known as Frosh Week, which includes activities (mostly parties loaded with alcohol) that are meant to help new students meet friends. Of course, I thought this was great. Finally I could have some real freedom away from my mother! Step 1: Being Willing - conceivability and the

  • Word count: 1831
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Creative writing - The Gift.

The Gift All my life I had always wanted a friend who I could have all to myself. Someone who would always devote all of their attention to me. It wasn't until my sixth birthday that I found such a friend. I spotted him in a large metal cage in the cat room lying on his back, drooling. He grinned, as only a cat can, exposing his toothless gums and cat food breath to all as he uttered a pathetic "meow". I was immensely impressed with this orange heap of fur that rubbed against the cage and I neared the fascinating creature in an attempt to make friends. I was afraid that somehow he would sense my anxiousness about how incredibly marvellous he appeared to be even though he was obviously lacking in traditional cat beauty. Bright green eyes stared into my small blue ones and begged for a touch, just one touch, like a death row inmate wishing for letters from anyone, just anyone to pass the time. My hand neared his head which I soon found out was dirty and oily from being neglected and I gently pressed my fingers between his striped ears. Purring, he squirmed for more, rubbing his head back and forth against the cage bars and "meowing" when I would stop for even a second. He was unlike the other cats in the cat room that day, a unique face and eyes like a lion, staring me down. The other cats just played blissfully, unaware that I held the key to their freedom. This

  • Word count: 967
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Valerie Kats - "Love comforth like sunshine after the rain". These simple but meaningful words have been the intensity for persistence in my grandmother's life.

Valerie Kats "Love comforth like sunshine after the rain". These simple but meaningful words have been the intensity for persistence in my grandmother's life. As I sit in front of her, looking at her paper-like delicate hands holding an old photograph, tears begin to descend from her face as she begins to remember one of the most dreadful events of what one might call the most pleasant episodes in a mothers life. That event turned into a catastrophic and bitter end to an innocent man's life, that man was her son. She has told me the story before and how she survived it, but every time I hear it, it sounds like the first. Perhaps the reason for this being is the nature and the graphic imagery that invades my mind when I picture it. My grandmother was a woman who appreciated the simplest offerings of life, so when the day of her son's birthday came, she was filled with rapture. Being a woman of faith, she disregarded any minor details that were not going as planned. She thought, being the compassionate and remarkable mother that she is, she might surprise her son and meet him after work. This was only a few blocks from her house so she dressed quickly and headed there. Her heart was filled with bliss as she thought about him and how lucky he had made her feel to have him as a son. Upon arrival she noticed how the water had turned into slippery ice sheets that created the

  • Word count: 761
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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