A Lost Friend
In a shimmer of green and silver, the dragonfly hovers a moment beside Pam’s head, almost indiscernible from the darkness but for the orange light from the campfire reflecting on its iridescent wings. The dragonfly disappears from view behind the campfire, and I hear a faint popping noise.
A moment later, the Pam I know is no longer. In place of the smiling, laughing, charismatic girl with perfect posture, I see a stranger. She has folded into herself, nuzzling her nose between her knees and covering her face with her hands, elbows tucked in at her sides. Her sparkling eyes are closed, and her back heaves with each breath. I can almost hear the air rushing in and out of her nose as she tries to calm herself.
It is my seventeenth birthday, and a bunch of my guy and girl friends have come over to celebrate and camp out in the field near my house. But even though people are milling about and the Backstreet Boys’ first album is blaring from the old portable boombox as a reminder of our seventh grade year, my attention is focused on Pam. “Why is she acting this way?” I wonder. “I know she’s compassionate, but this is a little extreme.” Circling the fire, I sit beside her and put my arm around her shoulder. What happened to the Pam I once knew?
Pam grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the door of the eighth grade building at our private school in Maine. We skipped outside and down the steps to the small yard in front of the thin, three-story structure. Snow was falling gently, the first flakes of the season. Pam looked at me and grinned, eyes wide and shining. Without a word, she spread her arms, closed her eyes, turned her face to the sky, and began to spin. Her feet moved in tiny, circular steps, and he...
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...ologetic smile, and walks over to the driveway, where she leans against the side of a car and waits for her mom. She waits there, alone, her back to us, and when her mother drives in, I walk to the car to say goodbye again.
The glass is cold against my hand as I press it to the window. Pam sits inside the car, staring straight ahead. She hesitates, lifts her hand, and without turning to look at me, she carefully places it on her side of the window. If it weren’t for the glass, we would be touching, her hand directly on mine.
I haven’t spoken to Pam since that night. I haven’t even tried. I have thought about calling her, but I don’t know what I would say. I still don’t know what happened to her two years ago, what changed her so dramatically, and I think maybe I’m afraid to find out. The glass that separated us that night is the silence that separates us now.
The financial crisis of 2007–2008 is considered by many economists the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. This crisis resulted in the threat of total collapse of large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments, and downturns in stock markets around the world. The crisis led to a series of events including: the 2008–2012 global recessions and the European sovereign-debt crisis. The reasons of this financial crisis are argued by economists. The performance of the Federal Reserve becomes a focal point in this argument.
The sub-prime mortgage market crisis started in the United States in the fall of 2006 and took hold as a global financial crisis by July 2007. Due to innovations in securitization, the risks from these sub-prime mortgages had to be shared more broadly with investors which essentially led to the ripple effects in the world-wide economy. The mortgages are generally repackaged into a variety of complex investment securities which are bought by institutions to diversify their portfolios. In the case of the U...
The discussion that follows will describe the situation that led to the problem at Lehman Brothers. In addition, the analysis will review what Lehman Brothers sought from the regulators, and why the ultimate decision of the government led to Lehman Brothers’ insolvency. Lessons learned from the federal government in its handling of Lehman Brothers, and speculation of what might have happened if AIG did not receive a bailout, requires thought on what the role of government is in inspiring and maintaining confidence it the market.
Though the CD has a broader frequency range, it requires a player in order for the listener to enjoy one CD at a time or several CDs played from a much larger CD changer that houses up to six discs. The playlist for CDs is tedious and delicate, with programming proving to be arduous, to say the least. It should not be moved, stationary, and without vibrations. hear it. The MP3 player is self contained, and only requires a headset of a set of speakers. It allows the user the convenience of listening to several CDs of music while jogging, working, commuting or relaxing, while playlists are much easier to program. The storage of CDs demands space and specific dimensions to accommodate the handling of the media without scratching or bending. CDs are temperature sensitive, not able to withstand accessive heated environments without melting or warping of the disc. The ritual of CD programming may be a small inconvenience for the audiophile, although not usually required for the most ingenious and prolific performances recorded to be fully appreciated. Just let it play. Yet, even the most avid audio geek would occasionally appreciate the convenience of the MP3 player in a less focused environment for recreational
The day of the first drive time finally came. Everybody was excited to be able to get behind the wheel. Even I was excited. I remember that we drove through neighborhoods. We worked our way up from neighborhoods to freeways and each session was four hours long which was divided into two hours of driving and two hours for observation. At first everything seemed easy, but when I started to get to the freeway driving part that is when everything changed. Although I felt nervous, I was not sure how everyone else in class was feeling. The instructor told us that when we start freeway driving that we would be driving on 59 the Southwest Freeway.
The global financial crisis hit banks’ regulation at its core. As significant portion of this crisis’ responsibility has been attributed to the lack of effective banking oversight, there has been immense pressure on the next Basel agreement to tackle such issues in order to avoid future crises, or at least decrease their severity. In essence, the Basel accords mainly intend to gauge the level of capital required to protect banks against risks related to their assets. As a result, the latest accord, Basel III, has substantially increased the capital requirements of banks and introduced other features as an effort to increase the soundness of the banking system. The banking industry, however, has proclaimed that it would promote mainly negative outcomes throughout the global economy due to higher required capital ‘set aside’. In light of this contentious dynamic, this essay strives to give a balanced overview of the issues at stake, and to critically analyse the arguments advanced in the article attached to this document. As a result, it highlights Basel III’s potential positive and negative effects when fully implemented, as well as several credit rating agencies’ shortcomings, which were mainly exposed due to the financial crisis. Finally, it concludes by arguing that the article lacks essential information, and the banking industry’s reactions signal an attempt by a powerful industry to maintain its exorbitant privileges.
Five years ago I was an entirely different person, the woman I am today despises who I used to be. I was living between my parent’s house and my ex-boyfriend’s (Jason) grandmothers house at age 26; an overweight, unemployed party animal with no drive, motivation, or intention of ever doing anything different. Jason’s sister, Larae, was my best friend. She was a single parent of 2 children living in the projects and living on welfare. We partied and drank with no responsibilities, and I thought this was the way life was and will always be.
“All im saying is maybe we find a nanny, April.” “why would we find a nanny when we had one and all she was good for was flirting with you!” “ I know, i know but it was give us more time together and she could clean the house and help Ellie with her studies.” “ NO! I'm not hiring a nanny, this daycare is just fine.” “ You never see my side of things April, you always get what you want.” “Michael, i do see your side of things, it's just sometimes they're not the best for the family.” “ Well maybe what's not best for this family is our marriage.” “are you joking micheal?” “Take that back you didn't mean it!” “Maybe i did, we’ll talk more later i have to go to work.” “if you’re going to act like this after work, don't bother coming home!” This fight was the biggest we had ever had. I couldn't believe what he had said to me. I mean was our marriage a mistake? Surly not, he's my soulmate. I thought about it all morning, it's the only thing thing occupied my mind. As i was working, all of my coworkers dragged me into the lounge to watch the news. 2 hijacked planes had hit the twins towers. Michael was there that day writing a paper over some of the workers for their heroicness during a hurricane last month. I knew he was in that building. At 10:45 i got a call from a local hospital. I didn't want to answer thinking he had been pronounced dead but i knew i needed to.
The "subprime crises" was one of the most significant financial events since the Great Depression and definitely left a mark upon the country as we remain upon a steady path towards recovering fully. The financial crisis of 2008, became a defining moment within the infrastructure of the US financial system and its need for restructuring. One of the main moments that alerted the global economy of our declining state was the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on Sunday, September 14, 2008 and after this the economy began spreading as companies and individuals were struggling to find a way around this crisis. (Murphy, 2008) The US banking sector was first hit with a crisis amongst liquidity and declining world stock markets as well. The subprime mortgage crisis was characterized by a decrease within the housing market due to excessive individuals and corporate debt along with risky lending and borrowing practices. Over time, the market apparently began displaying more weaknesses as the global financial system was being affected. With this being said, this brings into question about who is actually to assume blame for this financial fiasco. It is extremely hard to just assign blame to one individual party as there were many different factors at work here. This paper will analyze how the stakeholders created a financial disaster and did nothing to prevent it as the credit rating agencies created an amount of turmoil due to their unethical decisions and costly mistakes.
The Cowon V5 32 GB MP3 Player (Black) is superbly built with a hard rock casing. It has 32GB of raw space which can be used for 9500 songs or 25 hardcore action movies. Apart from all the moving data you can even store 320,000 images. Yes the Cowon V5 32 GB MP3 Player (Black) has distinctive features which are rare in an mp3 player. The Cowon V5 32 GB MP3 Player (Black) has a 4.8inch wide screen which can be used for viewing HD movies. The display is of 800X400 pixel resolution type with 16million WVGA colors. The Cowon V5 32 GB MP3 Player (Black) also has a HDMI port which can be used when you wish to view movies on the big screen. The mp3 player has BBE+ support which is a must for today’s data. The Cowon V5 32 GB MP3 Player (Black) comes with a one year warranty which can be used when the equipment needs an upgrade.
Standing on the balcony, I gazed at the darkened and starry sky above. Silence surrounded me as I took a glimpse at the deserted park before me. Memories bombarded my mind. As a young girl, the park was my favourite place to go. One cold winter’s night just like tonight as I looked upon the dark sky, I had decided to go for a walk. Wrapped up in my elegant scarlet red winter coat with gleaming black buttons descending down the front keeping away the winter chill. Wearing thick leggings as black as coal, leather boots lined with fur which kept my feet cozy.
During my sophomore year in high school, I witnessed all of my older friends brag about driving freely and without supervision, something I had absolutely longed for. Both my parents and were I annoyed with me having to repeatedly ask them for rides; school became more hectic as I had to stay after school or travel to a different destination for certain activities, and I came to the point where I wanted to spend more time with my friends. Life was getting more difficult with me not being able to drive myself and having to rely on others, so my family and I finally
It’s a Saturday morning. My mind races as we approach to the parking lot of the driving school, anticipating the experience of driving for the very first time. It’s hard not being able to express the anxiousness felt during the first footstep into the facility. Thy were all strangers to me, and heres where the first journey begins.
Two years ago, MP3 was just another audio compression format. Today, it's a Net phenomenon that's at the center of an enormous controversy. That's because MP3 makes it possible for people with an Internet connection to bypass record stores (and cashiers) and download CD-quality music by their favorite artists--for free. MP3 is great for
Ah, I remember how she used to be with me all the time. A day did not go by without me going over to play. I remember how we used to play for hours and hours. We played whatever came to mind; it didn’t matter as long as we were together. We were happy.