Glimpses of Heaven Imagine one day you decided to take up the battle of the bulge. The unsightly, soft, squishy extra pounds of fat you have been carrying around for the past ten to fifteen years finally drive you to do something. Back in your younger years, you were a runner. Gliding almost effortlessly over miles of sun warmed asphalt, natural endorphins giving you the feeling that all is right in the world. The stresses of marriage, children, and bills have kept you away from that feeling for years. Too many movies with extra butter popcorn, too many warm, ooey gooey brownies, and that super soft, cozy couch calling your name. Well, you have decided that now is the time for a change. Digging through the rear of your closet, you find your old trusty pair of running shoes. This will be great, you think to yourself as you dust them off, and grunt with effort while trying to lace them up. Odd, you don’t remember it being that hard to get them on, but back then your belly wasn’t in the way either. With music blaring from tiny earbuds crammed into your ears, you are off. Heading down the road from your house. You have mapped out a two mile loop for yourself, figuring two miles would be plenty hard enough to start with. Every step is pure agony, your muscles, or lack there of, are screaming in protest. Struggling to take each ragged breath, you feel as if your chest is on fire. Pure will power is all that is forcing you forward. This running stuff is harder that you remembered. Only half of a mile has gone by, and you are already seeing stars from lack of oxygen. Suddenly there is the most intense, searing pain in your chest. You start to grab at your shirt, but the blackness is already closing in. Your body falls limp on the s... ... middle of paper ... ...th Experiences and the Temporal Lobe." Psychological Science (Wiley-Blackwell) 15.4 (2004): 254-258. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. Gefter, Amanda. "The light in the tunnel." New Scientist 208.2792/2793 (2010): 03. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. Kotler, Steven. "Extreme States." Discover 26.7 (2005): 60-67. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. Morse, Donald R. "NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES: MODERN EXAMINATION, DEFINITION, HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS, PERSONAL, TYPES, USUAL STAGES, CASES, RESEARCH, POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS." Proceedings (Academy of Religion & Psychical Research) (2004): 113-132. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. Nemri, Karin. "FROM HELL TO HEALTH TO HARMONY: MY STORY." Journal of Spirituality & Paranormal Studies 30.(2007): 23-31. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 28 Mar. 2011.
In the book Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina, education, and the lack there of, plays one of the largest roles in the character's lives. At this time in West Virginia, where the book is set, many children had to leave school and actually go into the coalmines, as Rondal Lloyd did, or work on the family farm. Racial ignorance is also a key element Giardina confronts in the novel. The characters, chief and secondary, equally cultural and racially bland, pass on their beliefs and therefore help to maintain the continuous circle of inequality that carries on even today. Political knowledge, at least on the national and state level, is also lacking within the little town of Annadel. With this knowledge coupled with her own experiences from growing up as an immigrants daughter in the same coalfields as her novels characters, Denise Giardina tries to explain the function of education and ignorance in not only the coalfields of West Virginia, but throughout the entire world.
In week one, I immediately found myself interested and alert as I tried to absorb as much as possible from Examined Life. It was difficult to find a balance between taking as many good notes as possible, with making sure not to miss anything these eight philosophers had to say. I took to heart many of the thoughts and ideas that were shared throughout the film. The first that struck a cord with me was that it is not necessary to find meaning. At first that sounds contrary to philosophy at its core, because I find that is usually what we ponder; the meaning of whatever it is we are thinking, doing, or discussing. I realized that sometimes it is fine for things to just be, and not know why. Much of the film has to do with how we think, and what we do in private. Collectively, through these moral and ethical acts (or lack of them) we can impact the public. Also by sharing these thoughts and concepts with the public in the documentary, it can affect our thoughts and actions in our private lives; I know it has at least for myself.
The Sweet Hereafter is a Canadian film that is an adaptation of the novel that is also called The Sweet Hereafter that was written by Russell Banks. The sweet Hereafter the Canadian film was written and directed by Aton Egoyan in 1997. Aton gained a lot of attention at the Sundance Film Festival for his earliest works. A few years later he broke out into the public with one of his most famous works, Exotica that was made in 1994. Later in 1997 is when The Sweet Hereafter got him major attention and received two academy award nominations. The Sweet Hereafter was the shift he said he needed from original film making to adapted screenplays because it allowed him escape form the thematic deadlock that he obsessed over. The Sweet Hereafter was a change of pace for Egoyan that made him an even more incredible producer and writer.
On March 26, 1997, in what has become known as one of the most noteworthy mass suicides in history, thirty-nine men and women affiliated with the Heavens Gate cult took their own lives by ingesting a combination of Phenobarbitals mixed with applesauce and alcohol. Each was dressed all in black, their faces covered by a purple shroud. Those who wore glasses had them neatly folded next to their body, and all had identification papers for the authorities to find. The house was immaculate, tidier even than before the victims had moved in. It was as if, in preparing for their death, they were heeding the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.” And while their abrupt end may seem rather strange, the way they lived is even more perplexing.
American Fitness Magazine. (2004, September/October). Out of Control. Retrieved February 10, 2005, from EBSCOhost database. [Journal article]
William Shakespeare, one of the most famous play writers, wrote at least 27 different plays in his lifetime. One of the genres he specialized in was comedy, which in Elizabethan time, meant a play that ended happily for all characters. It is believed that one of his most popular comedies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, was written and performed for a wedding party to which Queen Elizabeth herself attended. This only seems appropriate with the entertaining themes of love, magic, and dreams. By examining the title, dreams can be seen as the most important theme as it incorporates both love and magic. In William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, dreams are a reflection of reality.
It was sunny out, but there was a slight breeze blowing the tent around, making it hard to set up. Friday evening was the practice run, where all the riders got the chance to pre-run the course for the race the next day. When the announcer announced that it was my class’ turn to practice my stomach dropped. It felt as if I was going 100 mph and just hit a dip in the road. I felt like it was time to race. I put on my helmet and difficulty strapped the chin strap. It was difficult with my hands trembling. My knees were weak and I felt like I was going to drop my bike when I was starting it. I gave it a good kick and a fair amount of throttle and it fired up. I could instantly smell the fumes of high quality race gas. That seemed to calm me down. I pulled out of the pits and up to the starting line. All of the riders began to start their bikes. The roar of the engines made me nervous. My hands were sweating and my mouth was dry. The official said, “Remember this is just practice, don’t kill yourself.” That relaxed me reminding me that I could just putt around out there having no worries of winning, losing, or most importantly, crashing.
Weight loss, in the perspective of medicine, health, or physical fitness, is a decrease of the total body mass, due to a mean loss of fluid, body fat or adipose tissue and/or lean mass, namely bones mineral deposits, muscle, tendon, and other connective tissue. It can occur unintentionally due to an underlying disease or can arise from a conscious effort to improve an actual or perceived overweight or obese state. The search for the ideal weight loss operation began more than 50 years ago because exercise and diet alone is apparently ineffective in treating people with extreme and excessive obesity. Surgical pioneers expanded modern procedures that at first produced malabsorption then constrained volume intake, and finally combined both systems. Discrepancies, adjustments, and revisions of these innovative procedures, joint with concentrated efforts to go after and file results, have led to the growth and progress of modern bariatric surgery. More current research has the hormonal and metabolic effects of these procedures as the central point of view. Such discoveries at the cellular level will help widen the potential machine of weight loss and co morbidity reduction beyond the customary justification of reduced food consumption and malabsorption.
In the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are many important themes in the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. The billboard was constructed to advertise a business of an oculist, symbolizing the growth of commercialism in America. The eyes watch the main characters as they pass the billboard on their way towards New York City, almost like a godly figure. At the beginning of the novel we see the setting as being described as a very terrible, grey land. As the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg appear over the hills people notice the billboard featuring a colorful blue background and the large eyes that give a sense of a godly figure in the heavens. As the eyes look down below they also see all of the lost morals and disdainful actions people do, thus symbolizing the corruption of the people. At the beginning we only see a billboard, but towards the end, the eyes mean so much more than that.
As I inched my way toward the cliff, my legs were shaking uncontrollably. I could feel the coldness of the rock beneath my feet when my toes curled around the edge in one last futile attempt at survival. My heart was racing like a trapped bird, desperate to escape. Gazing down the sheer drop, I nearly fainted; my entire life flashed before my eyes. I could hear stones breaking free and fiercely tumbling down the hillside, plummeting into the dark abyss of the forbidding black water. The trees began to rapidly close in around me in a suffocating clench, and the piercing screams from my friends did little to ease the pain. The cool breeze felt like needles upon my bare skin, leaving a trail of goose bumps. The threatening mountains surrounding me seemed to grow more sinister with each passing moment, I felt myself fighting for air. The hot summer sun began to blacken while misty clouds loomed overhead. Trembling with anxiety, I shut my eyes, murmuring one last pathetic prayer. I gathered my last breath, hoping it would last a lifetime, took a step back and plun...
The voices in my head become a swelling crescendo. I forcefully grab my head in between my hands as the words echo through my skull. Pain pulsates with every word. I squeeze my temples hard with my palms but the pain is unbearable. Clawing at my face, a scream rips through me; sapping every last drop of energy in my body. Like a rag doll, I collapse onto the cold concrete floor as a growing darkness overcomes me.
organized in chronological ordering of the events that happened in the Bible. But The Garden of Earthly Delights doesn’t show anything sign of this style of ordering. Each panel stood as its own picture that doesn’t follow a sequences of any sort (Garden of Earthly Delights Wikipedia).
Children of Heaven is a film that portrayed a story mainly about a brother and a sister in Iran, and a pair of shoes was the reason why the story happened. The film also connected the urban planning with a plenty of plots, such as a family culture in the communities; distinguished physical setting between poor and rich neighborhoods. In addition, the film described a variety of people’s attitudes when they encounter setbacks. The most significant aspects of the film were the social factors that differentiated distinguished fate, and the embodiment of the family value that displayed precious love. Moreover, the effect of environment, which depicted the unfair.
The aching screams of my legs and feet as I speed down the dusty path. I think to myself, push through it, and don’t give up. I bounce down the path hoping to be done soon. The finish line is calling my name as I race down the chute with the audience cheering me on in the background.
I promptly arrived at the hospital. My hands slid off the sweaty steering wheel as my feet roughly acquainted themselves with the pavement in the parking lot. Arriving at the doors of the hospital, I felt the pulsing of my blood racing through my veins. Bustling to the elevator, I could feel the air wafting me in the face, like a frank train slamming into my body. The tension in the air was so thick that I was suffocating in quicksand. Meeting up with my mom and dad, I could see that they were equally anxious and nervous for their daughter and our family.