Timed Writing Practice

When I was a young child, my parents often took me and my siblings out to Yosemite Falls. I personally always looked forward to these trips, for there was nothing more thrilling for a young boy such as myself at the time than an irreplaceable experience in the great outdoors. However, there was one trip in particular that I found to be a memorable event, although it may not have been the most pleasant.

Naturally, in Yosemite Falls, my family went river rafting. I was a slim, insignificantly-sized child that had no knowledge of swimming, so my mother and father obviously didn't want me doing anything risky near the water without them close by. A rough estimate brought me to the conclusion that the river was deep enough to completely submerge my torso in, despite being a shallow bed. As we were well down the river, my father dropped his hat, and it fell into the shallow depths of the river. I, without thinking, ejected myself from the raft and waded my way towards the fallen hat. Retrieving my father's hat, I powered my way through the "massive rapids" (they seemed massive to a child my size) and made it to the edge of the river, where I was retrieved by my parents, shortly after they brought the raft ashore.

I found this experience to be a representation of new found freedom and courage. A child willing to leave the safety and nourishment of his parents makes a very inspiring representation of independence.

Intermediate Google Search

In order to get specific search results on the Google Web Browser, I first searched in the question. By using the 'Verbatim' search tool, I narrowed down the results from nearly 28 million to less than 50. What also helped was the specification to the time of postage. By removing all posts that weren't within the past 24 hours, results were narrowed down even further. At this point, I began to remove words that were allowed to be within the article I was searching for by using the "-(word)" function. This allowed me to bring down my results to a single website bringing me to an article with all the information required.

Fallen Heroes: Star Wars

In Star Wars Episode III, the main hero, Anakin, follows a dark path that ultimately leads to the demise almost all of his companions, including his beloved wife Padme. Obviously Anakin did not simply run straight through this path, but he took one step at a time. Anakin's decision to execute Count Dooku led him to befriend and learn of new powers from Chancellor Palpatine, which eventually convinced Anakin that he needed to save Palpatine to save his wife's life.

As a faithful warrior of the Jedi Order, Anakin was to follow the way of the Jedi and fight in the name of justice and peace. However, in his duel with Count Dooku, Anakin, with some doubt, executes Dooku by order of the Chancellor. Despite being unarmed and unable to defend himself, Palpatine ordered Anakin to kill Dooku, arguing that Dooku was too dangerous to be kept alive. By defying the way of the Jedi and killing an unarmed target, Anakin took his first step towards the Dark Side.

Throughout the beginning of the film, Anakin begins to befriend Chancellor Palpatine. Throughout their friendship, Anakin is asked of by the Jedi Council to report on Palpatine's whereabouts and actions, something that Anakin believes is an uncivil thing to do as a Jedi. His disappointment in the Council's decisions brings him even more towards Palpatine's side. In addition to this, Palpatine reveals to Anakin that there exists a power that can save people from the grasp of death, conveniently around the same time Anakin starts to have nightmares of his wife dying. Worried for his wife's life, Anakin is absorbed into Palpatine's grasp, hoping he will learn something of this undying power.

When Anakin reports Palpatine to Windu, he is ordered to stay put. Anakin goes against these orders and mobilizes towards the Chancellor's quarters, where he finds Windu with his lightsaber to Palpatine's neck. Out of fear of losing both his friend and his chance at rescuing Padme, Anakin kills Windu before he can land the final blow on Palpatine. This action pushes Anakin over the line, in which he officially crosses over to the Dark Side and is deemed Darth Vader.

Anakin Skywalker is a perfect example of a Fallen Hero. Despite his heroic actions throughout Episodes I and II, Anakin experiences his downfall towards the Dark Side out of fear of losing his wife. Throughout many occasions, Anakin's best judgement is clouded by his priority to keep his wife safe. His clouded judgement eventually brought him to befriend Palpatine, betray Mace Windu, and slaughter the unsuspecting Jedi. Although his priority of saving Padme caused his madness, his anger eventually brings him to take the life of the very person he was trying to protect.

Proposition 31

Proposition 31 creates a two-year budget cycle, twice the length of the current one-year budget cycle. As well as an extended budget cycle, Proposition 31 also requires mandatory performace reviews and assessments of California programs. Furthermore, expenditures of $25 million or more are prohibited, and the overall local government will gain more power.

Because the budget cycle increases from one year to two years, the likelihood that a high deficit will form unnoticed increases, since the budget is inspected every two years instead of every year. Proposition 31 will also result in high budget costs for education in order to fund experimental government projects. The adoption of Proposition 31 will make adaptation and improvement for education almost unaffordable and impossible to achieve.

If I was of legal age and I could vote, I would vote against Proposition 31 because it would result in budget cuts for education. Proposition 31 will also create a possibility for exceedingly high deficits due to lack of attention to the budget cycle. There is also the fact that this Propostion gives the Governor the power to cut the budget in the event of an emergency

Canterbury Tales: The Merchant

The merchant's life consists of selling goods to the rest of the population. The merchant lives a middle class life, and would live in a mediocre house (although in this time, a mediocre house could have been considered a luxury. Merchants face the challenge of preventing theft of his goods, as well as competing against other merchants. The merchant makes enough money to not only maintain his home, but his family. He cares not for the rest of the world, unless something would reduce his sales. The merchant lives to sell his goods. As someone who lives life on capitalism, the merchant has no military experience. The merchant values only himself, his family, and his business. The merchant cares not for his customers, but only for the what the customer buys, and if they have what it takes to purchase it. The merchant would sell a sword and shield to a pacifist if he desired such, and he would also sell jugs of rum to alcoholic peasants. Anyone can buy anything with no restrictions, as long as the merchant can provide. Any merchant of business hopes he can achieve higher levels of business, and merchants of the Middle Ages are no different. They all hope they can one day become huge successes in the world of business.

Canterbury Tales: The Doctor

The Doctor in Medieval times was to some people a savior from disease and plague. At the time, to seek the Doctor for medical aid was the best offense to the plague, despite the fact that resistance to the plague was almost futile. Many people respected the Doctor and his services, and through his services he earned recognition as the healer. Doctors in Medieval times wore sinister-looking masks that make people of today wonder how such a trusted individual could wear such a horrifc mask. Because everyone seeks the Doctor's services, he earns a lot of currency and can be considered of the higher middle class.

Image:
http://pencilmonkeymagic.blogspot.com/2009/10/plague-doctor-and-patient.html

Info:
http://www.albany.edu/news/campus_news_5424.php

The American Dream

The American Dream can be defined as the belief that anyone in America can achieve success. But the truth is that the American people are gradually losing their availability to success. It’s becoming more and more challenging for fresh college graduates to get their dream job with America’s current economic state. Not only that, but the generation America is entering is simply too dependent on electronics, perhaps to a point where survival will practically be impossible without them. These factors contribute to the decline in the newest generation’s ability to achieve the “American Dream.”

As America continues to age throughout the early years of the 21^st century, its economic state goes trough recession. This recession in the American economy has caused a decrease in jobs, making occupations harder to come by. Because it’s so difficult to find a job nowadays, many older generation employees have occupied many different workspaces, including those that fresh college graduates wish to occupy. This makes it harder for the latest generation to aim high when job hunting.

In the new American generation, electronics are sold almost anywhere, and can be found in practically every household. This new age has grown dependent on the use of electronics, and electronics haven’t ceased to consume the minds and lives of Americans. In hi article “Is The Onslaught Making Us Crazy?,” Tony Dokoupil shows an example of how electronics have consumed Americans by informing the reader of Jason Russell, an ordinary man that suddenly went temporarily insane over online social media. The newer generation has grown addicted to the latest technology, perhaps even more than Russell. This addiction has contributed to their inability to achieve the American Dream.

Success has become almost unimaginable for the oncoming generation. As someone from the latest generation, I realize that my success will seem much harder to achieve when compared to how my parents succeeded. In addition to this, I, along with many others my age, am also incredibly depended on the use of electronics. For many, electronics also equal to educational handicaps.

Before, the American Dream was something many were able to strive to achieve. Now, it is becoming exactly what it is: just a dream. Eventually the oncoming generations will become so jobless and dependent that the American Dream will practically be impossible to achieve. However, although the situation for the current generation seems bad, the situation for oncoming generations almost seems unimaginably terrifying.