She’s a Dreamer – Creative Writing

I glanced over my shoulder and felt a presence lurking, looming behind me. I sniffed and for that one moment my worries flew away. Candy floss. It smelt of a sweet, soft, sugary treat that my sisters and I only received on special occasions. I heard a swear word and turned around to find a group of ‘tough' boys behind me, they were speaking in low, deep, gruff voices. I listened in, making sure I wasn't being too obvious. They were chatting about the new roller coaster here at the theme park. The terrifying ride was called The Evaporator; it lasted only seconds but it went up, down, upside down and all around. I glanced up noticing the bloody red sign hovering above a crowd of innocent children and teenagers with a few adults among them. Should I risk going on a roller coaster for the first time in my life, without my mother by my side or should the public around me, mostly consisting of my high school peers, witness me going on the babyish rides with my sisters? I shook my head at the thoughts trekking through my mind and through the corner of my right eye saw my little sister, Lucy almost reading my mind and shaking her head and telling me â€Å"No, No. † But something was telling me the opposite â€Å"Yes, Yes. I nodded my head without any hesitation and I saw the upset on her face. She stomped her feet in protest and I dropped her clutching hand from mine. She glanced at me, her older sister not doing as the little one says, and teardrops dribbled down her cheeks falling of the end of her chin. I had to make this accomplishment, for me. If I had got to the age of 50 and still not boarded a roller coaster carriage then I would be so disappointed and angry with myself. My older sister smiled, a smile aimed in my direction and wiped little Lucy's eye with a rough, green paper towel she had in her rucksack. I smiled back but it soon disappeared. I stepped under the sign and took a deep breath as I joined the queue. As we were herded forward like cattle I thought about my life and what point in life I was at. I glanced over my shoulder again and it seemed my life was passing by. I was the rollercoaster. I was going up, down and all around. I saw the birth of my sister, Lucy, then the birth of my youngest sibling, Emily, the divorce of my parents and finally, most recently my father starting his sentence in prison. I blinked my delicate, beautiful blue eyes and I came out of my†¦ daydream. A bloke directly behind me croaked â€Å"What are you staring at? † I turned back around, ignoring the man's remark. As we were travelling toward the track, I clenched my fist and squeezed my eyes shut, for reasons unknown. I took a deep breath and was spinning, spinning, spinning in circles. I heard crashes, which startled me enough for me to come out of my trance. The crashes had happened both in my spell and in reality. The ‘tough' boys I was eavesdropping on earlier were denting the sign advertising the rollercoaster. My focus was drawn to the word evaporator, the word that had remained undented. It was to do with the word evaporate, I knew that, but I was puzzled at the unusualness of the name. There was just a large group of seven in front of me, and then it was my turn I pondered, as I shuffled forward, nearly suffocating the male in front. They were all being loaded on, three per aisle, as I noticed one girl, roughly three years younger than me, gesture for me to come and sit on a spare seat on her aisle. I shook my head, delaying my turn on The Evaporator. But as I did so, I instantly changed my mind, thinking it was better to get it over and done with. But my reaction was too late. A member of staff was already ushering for any two's. I had staggered my turn for just a few more minutes. The carriage noisily started, sped up and disappeared round the corner. I heard screams of happiness and then they were gone. It was finally my turn as a carriage juttered to a halt and a mixed crowd departed, smiled and laughed to each other as they were shown to the photo pick up point. I was piled on with everybody else but when we all had boarded there were still two empty seats in my aisle. â€Å"Any two's, any two's† was starting to get annoying. A large man and his girlfriend I assume squeezed past the threes, fours, fives and sixes. They were looking very smug and ecstatic about skipping part of the queue. The large man who I christened ‘the elephant' instantly plumped himself down next to me, nudging me as he struggled to fit. â€Å"Are you excited girl, are you, girl, girl, are you, are you? † It took a lot of effort but I managed to pull a fake smile and blocked out the distant memory of dad shouting â€Å"Girls! † at my sisters and I. The elephant gave a huge grin and I wasn't too happy at the smell of his breath hitting my face every time the wind blowed. We jerked slowly forward and I grabbed the harness in fear, he noticed my anxiety and squeezed my leg in a flirty way. I screamed inside at the thought of this maybe 30-year old man squeezing a 13-year-olds leg. His girlfriend was even there. He apologised though I knew he didn't mean it. After we had sped up and were experiencing the ups, downs, upside downs and all arounds I turned to my right to look at him hoping the wind wasn't in my direction or his mouth was near me. But he had miraculously disappeared. I blinked thinking my mind was playing tricks on me. But †¦ no. He must have†¦ Thoughts rushed through my head and the only logical one was he'd FALLEN out. But thinking hard enough about it even that wasn't logical. How would he have fallen out? And wouldn't I have heard something? Was he dead? Or was I dead? Spooky thoughts were taking over my mind. I turned to my right, past the empty seat and the elephant's girlfriend looked at me. She didn't see the emptiness of our aisle to start with but then the empty seat caught her eye. I will never forget the look on that lady's face. It was horrific. Horror and fear must have been rushing through her at 1000 miles per hour at least. The things in the background were completely blanked out as I felt one hundred different emotions for this lady. I'd never felt that way, not even when my father had left me. I tried focusing on a different thought, a happy thought, so I turned round trying to see the three behind us. I strained my neck and was in agony when I finally saw the one, not three bodies in the aisle behind. I blinked. My eyes needed a check up; they were seeing weird, freaky, abnormal things. But however many times I blinked there was still the sight of a young innocent girl crying. Tears pouring, rushing down her face. I knew that there was someone at least one more person on that aisle. It was a man, maybe her dad, I thought as the ride progressed. I shut my eyes and wished that that ride would end immediately. The roller coaster drew to an end and I had done it, without my mother by my side. This was a wonderful accomplishment and how my sister would be proud. Little Lucy would be so joyful and pleased her favourite sister was back. Mel, oh how Mel would be so proud for many reasons. She would be tearful and amazed. Emily, Emily would see no difference in the world, just that everyone was happy. When a toddler's family is happy they are happy. Is that right? I think I read it in a book once. As the carriage was getting slower and slower a couple of questions came to my attention. I'd never missed dad, why hadn't I? Mel and little Lucy had, but why not me? I suppose there was an answer to one of the questions. Melanie, being the oldest at 15 would have the clearest and most happy memories of dad. She'd never thought bad thoughts or if she had then she'd never shown them. She was good at covering her emotions and at the right time and the right place; she was good at showing her emotions. But little Lucy she had only been 4 at the time, but I suppose at four you do remember. Those four years of little Lucy's life had probably been the worst. Full of negative memories of dad, times without a good father figure and long distances between them. It's not good that what Lucy remembers is mostly bad or little about dad – she will immediately hate dad or not recognise him if she ever sees him again. That would be awful. I am pleased I have at least some positive memories. I stepped out the carriage and grabbed my bag not noticing how freakily quiet the area was. I ran to the burger bar where Mel had told me they'd be. I looked around squinting and scanning the area. The vision of them not being there will be forever with me. No one was about. I walked up to the kiosk planning to ask a member of staff if they'd seen my sisters. But there was no member of staff. I was scared; where was everyone, there was no one about and I was upset; why would my sisters leave me with no explanation? I looked and looked for maybe three hours not seeing one person anywhere. I hadn't been brave enough to go and look outside the park so I'd completely and purposely not walked past the gates. As I was walking I felt a sharp, ear piercing screaming coming from not a person but from inside me. I'd never felt a similar sensation before. The screaming was of fear and there was a voice; a high toned voice that was saying â€Å"There's something freaky, something real freaky going on here. † As I tried to block out the piercing sound I had a terrifying, terrific, torturing thought that stunned me. Why would I think of such a thing? But that thought went away – thank goodness! – And I thought happier and more realistic thoughts from that point on. Maybe, I'd just been queuing for hours and the park had shut, my sisters would be waiting just outside the gates for me. I wandered the short distance towards the park gates and was surprised to see the gates wide open. I shrugged to myself and nervously walked through the gates not taking into account the sign that said ‘Saturdays Open 24 hours'. The screaming of fear inside me had started yet again. As I turned my head, on the look out, my eyes swivelled trying to see through the darkness of that winter Saturday afternoon and the darkness and gloominess of the situation. I spotted an empty bench, which I persuaded myself to sit on. After I had sat down I had a sudden rush of tiredness and as it got the better of me my head hit the cold, hard, wet, brown surface. I had one clear and one more vivid dream. One I understood yet the other was very irregular. Firstly it was my dad; he was in his favourite outfit holding hands with Lucy and Melanie. Emily was tiredly bumping on his back as he walked towards me. Every one of them had a finger or hand outstretched, stretched in my direction. Each and every one of them was saying my name, over and over. The girls were wearing pyjamas and they were all the age they were when dad went. I was walking towards them but they were getting further away. It wasn't right. It was upsetting, distressing and brought back memories. Bad memories. No one was smiling anymore. As I came out of that horrible dream, another started almost immediately. I was on the same bench but I was sitting bolt upright and I was kind of like a robot. A bus came and it was full. Some of the people on the bus I recognised from the theme park like the â€Å"elephant† from earlier and the young girls dad who was on the carriage behind me. Finally I saw my sisters, Emily, little Lucy and Mel. I suddenly opened my eyes, bringing the dream to an end. But it hadn't. The bus was still there, in front of my very eyes looking beautiful and shiny and not bus-like at all. I could still see some of the people I recognised from the theme park, the â€Å"elephant† from earlier was the young girls dad was Mel, little Lucy and Emily all smiling and gesturing for me to board the bus. I felt a sensation, almost an urge to get on that bus and I started moving quite quickly towards the bus. Just before I was ushered up the steps of the bus I caught a glimpse at where the bus was going and I was shocked to see it was going to â€Å"Heaven! † I'm now an angel in heaven along with my sisters. I still don't really know what happened that day, I came to the conclusion that we must have just collapsed and the entire roller coaster journey was my imagination. It's just a guess though. My mother is still alive and she's starting another family, but I know she misses us. She goes to our graves every other day and puts fresh flowers each time. My father is still in prison. He has another two years to go. My mother visited him for the first time with the bad news that we have passed away, three sisters died in one day. I couldn't bear look at his reactions, I could have easily. Angel's can float, can fly, can go anywhere they want and can see anyone they want, it's an easy life for an angel. My dad's reaction could have even been a happy one, who knows. Only mum. If I could have done two things differently before I died I would have said my goodbyes, even though I'm here in heaven with my sisters it's my other relatives and friends that I wish that I could have said goodbye too. I would have also died more peacefully and I a way that I knew what was happening. Like dying in your sleep. Like Nana did. Emily is 3 now, little Lucy whose not so little anymore, is 9 and finally Mel is 21. I'm 16 and boy, times flied! I'm having a wonderful time with my sisters. I've really got to know them again. Emily and little Lucy always tell me their dreams. That's the funny thing about heaven, you never forget, anything. Not even your dreams.

Defense Spending and the Military-Industrial Complex

On December 7, 1941 Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This thrust America into World War II, and for the next four years it dominated nearly every aspect of American life [Bowles, 2011, 3. 7 The World at War (1941-1945)]. This greatly impacted Americans and had a significant impact on African Americans during this time. Although the attack on Pearl Harbor was a devastating period of time, it was a great time for African Americans to assert their independence.They fought in the war, defending their country after how they were treated. They demanded being able to have jobs that were considered â€Å"whites only†. In my belief, they deserved these rights. African Americans were treated unfairly for years and did not have rights but yet still strived to fight for their country. There is no reason why they should not have been treated fairly, if not more like heroes for how brave and noble they were. According to Bowles, â€Å"While t hese men were willing to die for the country, they were not eligible for many of the honors for their service.Though many deserved it, no African American could receive the Medal of Honor, the highest military award for bravery (2011, African Americans at war). This brings me to the long term effects WWII had on our country. Bill Clinton awarded men their gold’s that they deserved 50 years too late. Only one of the men was alive to even receive it. The long term effect is the regret of letting the people who were most brave, die for our country and not receive an award just because of the color of his skin. References: Bowles, M. (2011). A history of the United States since 1865 . (Ashford University ed. ) San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Sailboat Racing Essays - Sailing, Fleet Racing, Sailboat

Sailboat Racing Essays - Sailing, Fleet Racing, Sailboat Sailboat Racing I was recently reading an article in a sailing magazine that had asked its readers to write in with the number one reason they go sailboat racing. The results, supplied by a few hundred people, were not surprising to me. The overwhelming reason people named was the stimulating mental challenge racing provides. Other reasons - the physical challenge, the team-sport experience, the social value and the chance to get away - were all rated about equally, and a clear second to the mental side. Sailboat racing offers unmatched competitive challenge in this regard. Tactically, under old rules or new, a good-sized fleet race provides more possible moves and counter-moves than a chess match between two world champions. But then if you superimpose the tactical game onto air and water - then immediately you're crunching some serious strategy scenarios. This can be aided by in-depth observations and a knowledge of hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, oceanography and meteorology. Those same sciences also play into the constant opportunity to improve your boatspeed, if you can remember to think about both things at the same time. When you add basic sports psychology and the head games sailboat racers play you get an idea of how complex it can be. (For example, your game plan is to go to the left side of the course, you get a bad start, tack away, and then convince yourself that the right side might just be better afterall.) Psychology also applies to crew interaction. How well you communicate, how well you work together, and how well you treat each other is a critical and ever-changing facet of any race. There is one more, overriding reason why the mental challenge of sailing blows away anything else in terms of complexity. Moment by moment you have to take each different aspect of sailboat racing and prioritize it. You must choose where to focus your mental energies. In one moment, trying to gain a quarter boatlength, all your energy is on sail trim, steering and speed. But in the next, if you can pick up on the slightest windshift, you can quickly gain 100 yards or even half a mile. Despite the unparalleled brain work offered by racing, many people race less than they'd like. The cost of gear and preparation is a factor for some, but in most cases the number one reason is that people are short on time. Perhaps a couple of suggestions to get around the time obstacle is firstly to consider looking for races where the time commitment is less - racing short courses instead of long, or competing closer to home than usual. Second, recognize that racing is not only fun but healthy as a change of pace from your busy shoreside life. Sailing can provide that shift for you physically, spiritually and even mentally.

Convert Pascals to Atmospheres Unit Conversion Problem

Convert Pascals to Atmospheres Unit Conversion Problem This example problem demonstrates how to convert the pressure units pascals (Pa) to atmospheres (atm). Pascal is a SI pressure unit that refers to newtons per square meter. Atmosphere originally was a unit related to the air pressure at sea level. It was later defined as 1.01325 x 105 Pa. Pa to Atm Problem The air pressure outside a cruising jet liner is approximately 2.3 x 104 Pa. What is this pressure in atmospheres?Solution:1 atm 1.01325 x 105 PaSet up the conversion so the desired unit will be cancelled out. In this case, we want Pa to be the remaining unit.pressure in atm (pressure in Pa) x (1 atm/1.01325 x 105 Pa)pressure in atm (2.3 x 104/1.01325 x 105) Papressure in atm 0.203 atmAnswer:The air pressure at cruising altitude is 0.203 atm. Check Your Work One quick check you should do to make sure your answer is reasonable is to compare the answer in atmospheres to the value in pascals. The atm value should be about 10,000 times smaller than the number in pascals.

Business report on A service experience for local consumers Essay

Business report on A service experience for local consumers - Essay Example The analysis revealed that there are some problems with customer service, product fit, promotional efforts, parking, employee involvement, and parking of Starbucks. Surprisingly, the packaging is the only aspect where there are no objections at all. The recommendations proposed in this report include first, offering discounts, coupons, free benefits, rebates, premiums, lotteries. Second, increase the volume of promotional activities. Third, train and manage employees in such a way that they could associate themselves with the company. Fourth, at off peak one employee must greet the customers at the door and the other must help customers with their parking problems. Table of Contents Introduction 4 Discussion 5 Target Market of Starbucks 5 Pricing 6 Promotion 7 People 8 Product 9 Process 10 Physical Evidence and Place 11 Recommendations 12 Conclusion 12 References 14 Appendices 15 Appendix # 1 – Questionnaire 15 Appendix # 2 – Respondent # 1 18 Appendix # 3 – Resp ondent # 2 19 Appendix # 4 – Respondent # 3 20 Appendix # 5 – Respondent # 4 21 Introduction It was in March 1971 in Seattle, when three people Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker decided to open their coffee shop with the name of Starbucks (Bussing-Burks, pp. 26-34, 2009). The name came from their favorite novel Moby-dick but at that time they did not realized that this name would remain restricted to Seattle, but it is going to rule the hearts and minds of millions of people all around the world (Pride & Ferrell, pp. 36-38, 2007). With 2010 revenue of more than 10.71 billion US dollars, Starbucks is the biggest coffee house on the planet earth. With its 16,858 stores in more than 50 countries, Starbucks is one the corporations that have been able to survive when its fellow brands were failing due to revelations of corporate scandals, manipulations, socially irresponsible behaviour but despite going through all this, it was able to make it through to what it i s today (Armstrong et al., pp. 312-317, 2009). Currently, Starbucks is operating almost 23 stores in various parts of Australia. This report is an attempt to explore, investigate, and critically examine the service experience of the Starbucks shop at 201 Elizabeth St, Sydney, New South Wales. The report would first start by drawing lines to highlight the target market of Starbucks in Australia. The report has collected its data from four different people that fit in the picture of Starbucks’s target market and have who have recently been to Starbucks. The data collection method was primarily through an interview questionnaire, which is a part of this report under the heading of Appendix # 1. Furthermore, the responses of these people, in form of the brief bullet points and notes are also there in the appendix section. This report would be profound importance of to the Starbucks executives of Australia. For the past few years, Starbucks has been struggling in Australia to prod uce the same results that it has been showing in rest of the world. It was in the year 2000, when Starbucks entered the Australian market with hopes that it would capture the market and become the market leader as it is in the US and many other parts of the world. Important here to note is that this was the time when Starbucks was touching its peak. â€Å"Open a store a day and beat the competitors away† was the policy of the company (Michelli, pp. 255-256, 2007). However, Starbucks soon realized that this model is not producing the intended results and in mid 2008,

Measuring Employee Performance Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Measuring Employee Performance - Assignment Example ht close-up with the company (3) form an inter-departmental team that does the corporate imaging task of the company together (4) be part of an revenue generation force that increases company revenue by 7.5% in the next 2 years, (5) train employees who will take over the role of corporate branding after the employee has left. From the above goals, it can be said that each of them is achievable and relevant to the overall success of the company. For example, the need to identify new target segments means that the manager will be seeking to enlarge the company’s market size since he will not be utilizing what already exists. The second goal will ensure that the goal is both timely and specific. This is because with the strategic plan, the management will know exactly what is expected to be done in order to achieve growth (Aguinis, 2013). The third goal will be a way of promoting efficiency because if the task of corporate branding is limited to the Brands Manager alone, it will be difficult to get the kind of mileage expected. What is more, the fourth goal comes with specificity and time-bound as it tells the exact overall performance outcome expected in quantitative terms. The last goal seeks to promote continuity, which is a major component of effective performance attainment (Cravens, Goad & Stew art,

Annotated Bibliography, Plagiarism, and Research Essay

Annotated Bibliography, Plagiarism, and Research - Essay Example This article shows that the senior officers have a role to play to ensure military personnel conduct and adherence to work ethics. This article is useful in research on the misconduct of army officers as it evaluates why the numerous forms of delinquency occur among the military officers, and in doing so, it puts into consideration the efficacy of training, the impact on the combatant of any improbability of action, group effects and authority malfunctions. In addition, this article also examines the actions to be taken by the seniors against the officers if found guilty of misconduct. Though this article winds up by noting that the â€Å"bad apple† theory explains why some military personnel get involved in misconduct, it fails to explain if training and effectual command can manage this misconduct. Elliot, F., & Elkins, R. (2007, January 7). UN shame over sex scandal. The Independent. Retrieved  December  2012, from http://://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article 2132576.ece According to reports by the United Nations, almost 200 of its military peace keepers have been disciplined for ill-behaviors. According to this article, the known misbehaviors among the military personnel can well be managed by the senior officers. ... According to this article, 64 percent of the misconduct accusations reported linked to sexual abuse and exploitation while almost 25 percent involved prostitution. However, this article shows how the United Nations, through the help of the senior troop officers, has planned to reduce the cases of sexual offense among its peace keepers. This article gives a good illustration of how senior officers play a significant role in the other officer’s misconduct. Warner, C. H., & Appenzeller, G. N. (2011). Linking the professional Ethic and Battlefield Behaviors. Journal of Engaged Leadership, 1(1), 1-9. According to this article, ethical conduct of battlefield soldiers is essential in counter rebellion and constancy operations, where the support of the local populace is vital to mission success. In spite of their infrequency, ethical drops even in their minimal strategic levels can greatly affect the strategic mission. This article notes that a single incident of military personnel mi sconduct can affect the success of the entire unit. In addition, this article portrays that the single most significant aspect in controlling misbehavior is leadership. The senior officers play an imperative role in ensuring that work ethics are adhered to. This article demonstrates this by showing how the mission of the United States army in Abu Ghraib in Afghanistan affected their mission in the country. In this incident, the American Army soldiers killed three innocent civilians. In addition, this article also talks on how the events in Iraq stirred up arguments on the ethics of the American Soldiers. This calls for the commanders to make swift reforms to the army to ensure safety of the