Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Short Story - 1767 Words

wide round face with a huge smile and short black hair cut straight as if she had a bowl on her head. Like most Flatheads she was reserved. The top accountant, Gertrude, a local girl exemplified all the typical Flathead features, and appeared quite unattractive wearing glasses as thick as the windshield of a car with a complexion reminiscent of the wicked witch of the east. All in all though the bean counters were a pleasure to work with. They pretty much stayed in the back and criticized all the bookkeeping mistakes the desk clerks made during the day. One could say they were the brains of the operation, as they carried out their duties and kept track of all the beans. As Japes became more and more popular with the staff the Flatheads†¦show more content†¦THE STAGE The night shift was now the new domain and he grew determined to make his mark. Several exciting interactions with a host of celebrities thrilled him to the core. Hailing from a small rural community where the only exposure to a celebrity was on television or at the movies only compounded the interactions. The first exciting moment occurred when he greeted Governor Ronald Reagan in the late 70’s while he was campaigning for president. Although not politically inclined, the sheer enormity of the moment proved exciting, a simple hello and a smile was the extent of their meeting. The hotel, located close to a comedy club, frequently highlighted a number of national comedians. The celebrity you see on television is not always the one you deal with in person. Dom DeLuise delighted everyone when checking in, as he would oftentimes practice one of his routines on new desk clerks all just for fun. One of the regular guests, Joan Rivers, traveled with a large entourage wherever she went. Everyone wanted her time as she was at the peak of her career. She could not have been nicer to every server in the hotel, and exceptionally appreciative for all the services she and her group required. Tony Bennet, also a true gentleman, appeared rather reserved for a famous singer and toured with a small crowd. The security department enlightened Japes’ as to why he was so mellow. Apparently, his guest room suite was filledShow MoreRelatedshort story1018 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Short Stories:  Ã‚  Characteristics †¢Short  - Can usually be read in one sitting. †¢Concise:  Ã‚  Information offered in the story is relevant to the tale being told.  Ã‚  This is unlike a novel, where the story can diverge from the main plot †¢Usually tries to leave behind a  single impression  or effect.  Ã‚  Usually, though not always built around one character, place, idea, or act. †¢Because they are concise, writers depend on the reader bringing  personal experiences  and  prior knowledge  to the story. Four MajorRead MoreThe Short Stories Ideas For Writing A Short Story Essay1097 Words   |  5 Pageswriting a short story. Many a time, writers run out of these short story ideas upon exhausting their sources of short story ideas. If you are one of these writers, who have run out of short story ideas, and the deadline you have for coming up with a short story is running out, the short story writing prompts below will surely help you. Additionally, if you are being tormented by the blank Microsoft Word document staring at you because you are not able to come up with the best short story idea, youRead MoreShort Story1804 Words   |  8 PagesShort story: Definition and History. A  short story  like any other term does not have only one definition, it has many definitions, but all of them are similar in a general idea. According to The World Book Encyclopedia (1994, Vol. 12, L-354), â€Å"the short story is a short work of fiction that usually centers around a single incident. Because of its shorter length, the characters and situations are fewer and less complicated than those of a novel.† In the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s DictionaryRead MoreShort Stories648 Words   |  3 Pageswhat the title to the short story is. The short story theme I am going conduct on is â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ by James Thurber (1973). In this short story the literary elements being used is plot and symbols and the theme being full of distractions and disruption. The narrator is giving a third person point of view in sharing the thoughts of the characters. Walter Mitty the daydreamer is very humorous in the different plots of his dr ifting off. In the start of the story the plot, symbols,Read MoreShort Stories1125 Words   |  5 PagesThe themes of short stories are often relevant to real life? To what extent do you agree with this view? In the short stories â€Å"Miss Brill† and â€Å"Frau Brechenmacher attends a wedding† written by Katherine Mansfield, the themes which are relevant to real life in Miss Brill are isolation and appearance versus reality. Likewise Frau Brechenmacher suffers through isolation throughout the story and also male dominance is one of the major themes that are highlighted in the story. These themes areRead MoreShort Story and People1473 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿Title: Story Of An Hour Author: Kate Chopin I. On The Elements / Literary Concepts The short story Story Of An Hour is all about the series of emotions that the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard showed to the readers. With the kind of plot of this short story, it actually refers to the moments that Mrs. Mallard knew that all this time, her husband was alive. For the symbol, I like the title of this short story because it actually symbolizes the time where Mrs. Mallard died with joy. And with thatRead MoreShort Story Essay1294 Words   |  6 PagesA short story concentrates on creating a single dynamic effect and is limited in character and situation. It is a language of maximum yet economical effect. Every word must do a job, sometimes several jobs. Short stories are filled with numerous language and sound devices. These language and sound devices create a stronger image of the scenario or the characters within the text, which contribute to the overall pre-designed effect.As it is shown in the metaphor lipstick bleeding gently in CinnamonRead MoreRacism in the Short Stor ies1837 Words   |  7 PagesOften we read stories that tell stories of mixing the grouping may not always be what is legal or what people consider moral at the time. The things that you can learn from someone who is not like you is amazing if people took the time to consider this before judging someone the world as we know it would be a completely different place. The notion to overlook someone because they are not the same race, gender, creed, religion seems to be the way of the world for a long time. Racism is so prevalentRead MoreThe Idol Short Story1728 Words   |  7 PagesThe short stories â€Å"The Idol† by Adolfo Bioy Casares and â€Å"Axolotl† by Julio Cortà ¡zar address the notion of obsession, and the resulting harm that can come from it. Like all addictions, obsession makes one feel overwhelmed, as a single thought comes to continuously intruding our mind, causing the individual to not be able to ignore these thoughts. In â€Å"Axolotl†, the narr ator is drawn upon the axolotls at the Jardin des Plantes aquarium and his fascination towards the axolotls becomes an obsession. InRead MoreGothic Short Story1447 Words   |  6 Pages The End. In the short story, â€Å"Emma Barrett,† the reader follows a search party group searching for a missing girl named Emma deep in a forest in Oregon. The story follows through first person narration by a group member named Holden. This story would be considered a gothic short story because of its use of setting, theme, symbolism, and literary devices used to portray the horror of a missing six-year-old girl. Plot is the literal chronological development of the story, the sequence of events

Monday, December 23, 2019

Analysis Of Willa Cather s Paul s Case - 1009 Words

In Willa Cather’s â€Å"Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament†, a short story set in Pittsburgh and New York, Cather introduces us to the young Paul. Self-centered, delusional, and some may even argue, narcissistic, Paul is fascinated and encapsulated by the fine arts around him. Whether it be in the theater where he ushers, the art gallery at Carnegie Hall, or the hotel he runs away to in New York, Paul is always finding a way to escape what he considers a hopeless and mundane reality back home, through the arts. What’s interesting to note however is the way that Paul relates to the arts, which seems almost dysfunctional. As mentioned previously, Paul uses the arts as a way to escape from his reality, but it never satisfies him in the long term. The arts become like a drug for him, giving him short lived highs and allowing Paul to lose himself in the moment, even giving him periods of depression and withdrawal in between and ultimately leading him to suicid e. It is interesting to ponder why Paul’s relationship with the arts is this way, and through a close read and analysis of the text, one can infer that Paul never plays an active role (except for himself) in the arts. He never analyzes or interprets, he never finds himself intrigued or provoked. He just allows himself to get lost in the splendor of it all, sequentially enabling a depressed and destructive life as opposed to a potentially satisfying and long-lasting one. plot overview- pauls life at home vs where he escapesShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Willa Cather s Paul s Case 1433 Words   |  6 PagesPaul s Case was and still is one of Willa Cather s best stories which reflects the point of view of an underprivileged young man in the old Pittsburg of the 1900s. Willa describes the main character Paul as an overwhelming mystery that no one seems to understand or accept. . Paul s Case is the source of several different themes such as the dangers of misusing money and the addictiveness of art. The theme least analyzed in Cather s short’s is the homosexual nature of the main character which explainsRead More Willa Cathers Paul‟s Case: A Study in Temperament Essay1867 Words   |  8 PagesWilla Cather‟s â€Å"Paul‟s Case: A Study in Temperament† (1905) invites the reader to wonder, â€Å"What really is Paul‟s case?† Cather provides us with ample clues and descriptions of Paul‟s temperament with remar kable detail and insight into the human psyche considering that she had no formal background in psychology and that she was writing when Sigmund Freud was just beginning to publish his theories and was therefore writing by intuitive observation rather than by using a scientific approach. BecauseRead Moredsfsdsfs4469 Words   |  18 Pagespiece of writing written from an author s personal point of view, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of an article and a short story. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. Almost all modern essays are written in prose, but works in verse have been dubbed essays (e.g. Alexander Pope s An Essay on Criticism and An Essay on Man)

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Deception Point Page 83 Free Essays

Tolland turned to her. â€Å"You okay? You could have stayed onshore. I told you that. We will write a custom essay sample on Deception Point Page 83 or any similar topic only for you Order Now † I should have stayed onshore, Rachel thought, knowing pride would never have let her. â€Å"No thanks, I’m fine.† Tolland smiled. â€Å"I’ll keep an eye on you.† â€Å"Thanks.† Rachel was surprised how the warmth in his voice made her feel more secure. â€Å"You’ve seen the Goya on television, right?† She nodded. â€Å"It’s a†¦ um†¦ an interesting-looking ship.† Tolland laughed. â€Å"Yeah. She was an extremely progressive prototype in her day, but the design never quite caught on.† â€Å"Can’t imagine why,† Rachel joked, picturing the ship’s bizarre profile. â€Å"Now NBC is pressuring me to use a newer ship. Something†¦ I don’t know, flashier, sexier. Another season or two, and they’ll make me part with her.† Tolland sounded melancholy at the thought. â€Å"You wouldn’t love a brand-new ship?† â€Å"I don’t know†¦ a lot of memories onboard the Goya.† Rachel smiled softly. â€Å"Well, as my mom used to say, sooner or later we’ve all got to let go of our past.† Tolland’s eyes held hers for a long moment. â€Å"Yeah, I know.† 98 â€Å"Shit,† the taxi driver said, looking over his shoulder at Gabrielle. â€Å"Looks like an accident up ahead. We ain’t going nowhere. Not for a while.† Gabrielle glanced out the window and saw the spinning lights of emergency vehicles piercing the night. Several policemen stood in the road ahead, halting traffic around the Mall. â€Å"Must be a hell of an accident,† the driver said, motioning toward some flames near the FDR Memorial. Gabrielle frowned at the flickering glow. Now, of all times. She needed to get to Senator Sexton with this new information about PODS and the Canadian geologist. She wondered if NASA’s lies about how they found the meteorite would be a big enough scandal to breathe life back into Sexton’s campaign. Maybe not for most politicians, she thought, but this was Sedgewick Sexton, a man who had built his campaign on amplifying the failures of others. Gabrielle was not always proud of the senator’s ability to put negative ethical spin on opponents’ political misfortunes, but it was effective. Sexton’s mastery of innuendo and indignity could probably turn this one compartmentalized NASA fib into a sweeping question of character that infected the entire space agency-and by association, the President. Outside the window, the flames at the FDR Memorial seemed to climb higher. Some nearby trees had caught fire, and the fire trucks were now hosing them down. The taxi driver turned on the car radio and began channel-surfing. Sighing, Gabrielle closed her eyes and felt the exhaustion roll over her in waves. When she’d first come to Washington, she’d dreamed of working in politics forever, maybe someday in the White House. At the moment, however, she felt like she’d had enough politics for a lifetime-the duel with Marjorie Tench, the lewd photographs of herself and the senator, all of NASA’s lies†¦ A newscaster on the radio was saying something about a car bomb and possible terrorism. I’ve got to get out of this town, Gabrielle thought for the first time since coming to the nation’s capital. 99 The controller seldom felt weary, but today had taken its toll. Nothing had gone as anticipated-the tragic discovery of the insertion shaft in the ice, the difficulties of keeping the information a secret, and now the growing list of victims. Nobody was supposed to die†¦ except the Canadian. It seemed ironic that the most technically difficult part of the plan had turned out to be the least problematic. The insertion, completed months ago, had come off without a hitch. Once the anomaly was in place, all that remained was to wait for the Polar Orbiting Density Scanner (PODS) satellite to launch. PODS was slated to scan enormous sections of the Arctic Circle, and sooner or later the anomaly software onboard would detect the meteorite and give NASA a major find. But the damned software didn’t work. When the controller learned that the anomaly software had failed and had no chance of being fixed until after the election, the entire plan was in jeopardy. Without PODS, the meteorite would go undetected. The controller had to come up with some way to surreptitiously alert someone in NASA to the meteorite’s existence. The solution involved orchestrating an emergency radio transmission from a Canadian geologist in the general vicinity of the insertion. The geologist, for obvious reasons, had to be killed immediately and his death made to look accidental. Throwing an innocent geologist from a helicopter had been the beginning. Now things were unraveling fast. Wailee Ming. Norah Mangor. Both dead. The bold kill that had just taken place at the FDR Memorial. Soon to be added to the list were Rachel Sexton, Michael Tolland, and Dr. Marlinson. There is no other way, the controller thought, fighting the growing remorse. Far too much is at stake. 100 The Coast Guard Dolphin was still two miles from the Goya’s coordinates and flying at three thousand feet when Tolland yelled up to the pilot. â€Å"Do you have NightSight onboard this thing?† The pilot nodded. â€Å"I’m a rescue unit.† Tolland had expected as much. NightSight was Raytheon’s marine thermal imaging system, capable of locating wreck survivors in the dark. The heat given off by a swimmer’s head would appear as a red speck on an ocean of black. â€Å"Switch it on,† Tolland said. The pilot looked confused. â€Å"Why? You missing someone?† â€Å"No. I want everyone to see something.† â€Å"We won’t see a thing on thermal from this high up unless there’s a burning oil slick.† â€Å"Just switch it on,† Tolland said. The pilot gave Tolland an odd look and then adjusted some dials, commanding the thermal lens beneath the chopper to survey a three-mile swatch of ocean in front of them. An LCD screen on his dashboard lit up. The image came into focus. â€Å"Holy shit!† The helicopter lurched momentarily as the pilot recoiled in surprise and then recovered, staring at the screen. Rachel and Corky leaned forward, looking at the image with equal surprise. The black background of the ocean was illuminated by an enormous swirling spiral of pulsating red. Rachel turned to Tolland with trepidation. â€Å"It looks like a cyclone.† â€Å"It is,† Tolland said. â€Å"A cyclone of warm currents. About a half mile across.† The Coast Guard pilot chuckled in amazement. â€Å"That’s a big one. We see these now and then, but I hadn’t heard about this one yet.† â€Å"Just surfaced last week,† Tolland said. â€Å"Probably won’t last more than another few days.† â€Å"What causes it?† Rachel asked, understandably perplexed by the huge vortex of swirling water in the middle of the ocean. â€Å"Magma dome,† the pilot said. Rachel turned to Tolland, looking wary. â€Å"A volcano?† â€Å"No,† Tolland said. â€Å"The East Coast typically doesn’t have active volcanoes, but occasionally we get rogue pockets of magma that well up under the seafloor and cause hot spots. The hot spot causes a reverse temperature gradient-hot water on the bottom and cooler water on top. It results in these giant spiral currents. They’re called megaplumes. They spin for a couple of weeks and then dissipate.† The pilot looked at the pulsating spiral on his LCD screen. â€Å"Looks like this one’s still going strong.† He paused, checking the coordinates of Tolland’s ship, and then looked over his shoulder in surprise. â€Å"Mr. Tolland, it looks like you’re parked fairly near the middle of it.† Tolland nodded. â€Å"Currents are a little slower near the eye. Eighteen knots. Like anchoring in a fast-moving river. Our chain’s been getting a real workout this week.† How to cite Deception Point Page 83, Essay examples

Saturday, December 7, 2019

GASB Statement 34 and Reporting of Expenditures †Free Samples

Questions: 1.Although Statement No. 34 requires that infrastructure assets be accounted for similarly to other capital assets, it allows for a major exception regarding depreciation. What is that exception? 2.A governments interest expenditure as reported in its debt service fund differs significantly from its interest expense, as reported in its government-wide statements. What is the most likely explanation for the difference? Answers: Introduction This report presents solutions to two questions which discuss major exceptions in reporting of government accounts. First solution discusses the exception regarding reporting of depreciation in infrastructure assets. Second solution presents a possible explanation to difference in interest reporting between two categories of government funds. 1.Solution GASB 34 sets out guidelines for reporting of accounts of all local and state governments in United States of America (GASB, 2018). In majority of cases, long lived assets are required to be depreciated over their lives. This solution explains a major exception in reporting of depreciation of infrastructure assets under GASB statement 34 guidelines. Capital assets are assets that can be used in operations of the business for more than one reporting period and are not intended for sale during normal operations of a company. Long lived assets with useful lives significantly more than majority of capital assets and immovable in nature are called as infrastructure assets. Normally all long lived assets are required to be depreciated over their useful lives. Modified approach of depreciation is applied to certain eligible infrastructure assets. These eligible assets are part of a network or subsystem of network. Under modified approach these infrastructure assets are not depreciated if two conditions are met (Ruppel, 2004). First, these assets are managed by the government with help of an asset management system that has following characteristics. Inventory levels of these assets are maintained up to date by the system. Conditional assessment of these assets is performed by the system and uses a measurement scale by which results are summarised. The system also calculates annual maintenance and preservation expenses of the assets. Secondly, the documentation process regarding maintenance of these assets at pre-defined minimum level is carried out. Professional discretion is required to decide about quantity of documentary evidence which required to be maintained by the system. GASB Statement No 34 species things that are required to be documented, such as given below Conditional assessment is conducted consistently at least once in three years using statistical samples. This assessment is considered to be appropriate and complete if carried out on a regular basis. Observations from these assessments ensure that these assets are being maintained at pre-defined minimum levels. Therefore, modified approach is an exception for recording of depreciation of assets, under it these assets are capitalized if above two conditions are met. 2.Solution: GASB 34 sets out condition for financial reporting of governmental accounts. Interest associated with various long term liabilities is reported differently under different circumstances. This solution provides for the possible explanation for difference in interest reporting between debt service fund and government wide funds Government wide statements are prepared using accrual basis of accounting and report financial performance of the government. They report all expenditures, revenues, losses, gains, assets and liabilities of the government. On the other hand governmental fund financial statements are prepared using modified accrual basis of accounting (Crawford Loyd, 2008). Current financial resources are taken into consideration for preparation of these statements. A cash reserve utilized for fulfilling interest and principal payments requirements on a particular category of debt is referred to as debt service fund. The purpose of such reserve is risk reduction for investors. Debt service fund also helps in reducing effective interest rate. Debt service fund is a part of governmental fund financial statements. Expenditures of debt service funds are reported under other expenditure classification. The main difference between the interest expense reported in the debt service fund and that reported in the government-wide statements is due to different accounting approaches being followed. While reporting the interest in the debt service fund, only cash payment is taken into consideration but the interest amount reported in the government-wide statements also takes into account the accrued amounts. The interest amount reported in the government-wide statements is inclusive of amortized amounts (Bogui, 2008). Thus, there is significant difference between the reporting of interest expenditure between government-wide funds and debt service fund. This solution provides the possible explanation for this difference. Conclusion GASB statement 34 sets the guidelines for reporting of accounts of government. However, there are some exceptions in various reporting procedures. The above two solutions discuss and throw light on the possible explanation of two such exceptions. In first solution, it is concluded that long lived infra assets are not depreciated under certain conditions. Second solution provides the explanation that due to different accounting approaches being followed, there is difference in interest reporting between debt service fund and government-wide funds. References Bogui, F. (2008). Handbook of governmental accounting. New York, USA: Crc Press. Crawford, M. A., Loyd, D. S. (2008). Governmental gaap practice manual. Chicago, USA: Cch. GASB. (2018). Summary of statement no 34. Retrieved from https://www.gasb.org/st/summary/gstsm34.html Ruppel, W. (2004). Governmental accounting made easy. New Jersey, USA: John Willey Sons.