Personal Response Essay - Jeffrey Andreoni’s Why Can’t I Feel What I See free essay sample

Personal Response Essay: Jeffrey Andreoni’s Why Can’t I Feel What I See Jeffrey Andreoni states in his article â€Å"Why Can’t I Feel What I See† that happiness was much easier attained by the generation born in the first third of last century than more recent generations. The idea presented to explain this statement is that recently we as a society decided that happiness is to be measured â€Å"in terms of material gain† (3); when really all that is needed for happiness is to create things with our hands. To illustrate this, he compares himself to his grandfather; who was a poor carpenter with very few possessions. I can understand and even relate to Andreoni’s idea of why his grandfather was much happier. Reading his article might have even explained why I personally feel the way I do. Firstly, I agree with Andreoni’s idea that in our recent past, humans began requiring some â€Å"observable proof of happiness† (3), that happiness could only be measured in material gains. We will write a custom essay sample on Personal Response Essay Jeffrey Andreoni’s Why Can’t I Feel What I See or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I believe the media has been a large player in creating this social belief. It is often advertisements that push this idea onto us that more is better; that we should always keep up to date with the latest electronic products and hottest fashion trends. How often do advertisements pitch forth the idea of happiness without having to purchase something? I have personally seen very few of such advertisements. Another idea of Andreoni’s that I agreed with was the idea that happiness comes from creating things with our hands. Although I can only speak for myself, and I cannot definitively confirm his idea, I can confidently say there is a relationship between the two. When my family first moved to Canada I remember spending a lot of time watching my father build furniture for our home. I was mesmerized by how easily he converted raw building supplies into bed frames, wardrobes, and tables. After building up enough knowledge of power tools, I was able to start building my own tree fort at the age of eleven. Two years later, standing fifteen feet above the ground, I had a fort with a waterproof roof, a retractable hammock, and a locking hatch through which only friends could enter. I was very proud of my creation. Unfortunately, two years after its completion, it had to be torn down on the grounds that one of the trees to which it was attached, died and was no longer bearing the weight of the fort. After two years of hard work, my castle had to come down from the trees and be thrown into a pile of rotting lumber. Despite its destruction, I felt no grief or sorrow. I was proud of what I had created, and this pride  continues to bring me happiness today. Although Andreoni’s idea of creating things with our hands is one way of making ourselves happy, I believe there are other things that bring us just as much, if not more, joy. The positive experiences I have had with my close friends have definitely brought me a great deal of happiness as well. Several years ago I went on an RV trip with two close friends across British Columbia; the beautiful scenery combined with the hooliganism that we got ourselves into during the trip will be something I will remember for a lifetime. Just like anything I have created with my hands, I will be able to look back on this experience and get joy from the memories it has created. Generally speaking, I agreed with most of what Andreoni has written about, and I strongly relate to his idea of using our hands. Although I also believe that the methods for attaining happiness are unique to each individual.

String Types in Delphi

String Types in Delphi As with any programming language, in Delphi, variables are placeholders used to store values; they have names and data types. The data type of a variable determines how the bits representing those values are stored in the computers memory. When we have a variable that will contain some array of characters, we can declare it to be of typeString.  Delphi provides a healthy assortment of string operators, functions and procedures. Before assigning a String data type to a variable, we need to thoroughly understand Delphis four string types. Short String Simply put,  Short String  is a counted array of (ANSII) characters, with up to 255 characters in the string. The first byte of this array stores the length of the string. Since this was the main string type in Delphi 1 (16 bit Delphi), the only reason to use Short String is for backward compatibility.  To create a ShortString type variable we use:   var s: ShortString; s : Delphi Programming;​ //S_Length : Ord(s[0])); //which is the same as Length(s) The  s  variable is a Short string variable capable of holding up to 256 characters, its memory is a statically allocated 256 bytes. Since this is usually wasteful - unlikely will your short string spread to the maximum length - second approach to using Short Strings is using subtypes of ShortString, whose maximum length is anywhere from 0 to 255.   var ssmall: String[50]; ssmall : Short string, up to 50 characters; This creates a variable called  ssmall  whose maximum length is 50 characters. Note: When we assign a value to a Short String variable, the string is truncated if it exceeds the maximum length for the type. When we pass short strings to some Delphis string manipulating routine, they are converted to and from long string. String / Long / Ansi Delphi 2 brought to Object Pascal  Long String  type. Long string (in Delphis help AnsiString) represents a dynamically allocated string whose maximum length is limited only by available memory. All 32-bit Delphi versions use long strings by default. I recommend using long strings whenever you can.   var s: String; s : The s string can be of any size...; The  s  variable can hold from zero to any practical number of characters. The string grows or shrinks as you assign new data to it. We can use any string variable as an array of characters, the second character in  s  has the index 2. The following code   s[2]:T; assigns  T  to the second character os the  s  variable. Now the few of the first characters in   s  look like:  TTe s str....Dont be mislead, you cant use s[0] to see the length of the string,  s  is not ShortString. Reference counting, copy-on-write Since memory allocation is done by Delphi, we dont have to worry about garbage collection. When working with Long (Ansi) Strings Delphi uses reference counting. This way string copying is actually faster for long strings than for short strings.  Reference counting, by example:   var s1,s2: String; s1 : first string; s2 : s1; When we create string  s1  variable, and assign some value to it, Delphi allocates enough memory for the string. When we copy  s1  to  s2, Delphi does not copy the string value in memory, it only increases the reference count and alters the  s2  to point to the same memory location as  s1. To minimize copying when we pass strings to routines, Delphi uses copy-on-write technique. Suppose we are to change the value of the  s2  string variable; Delphi copies the first string to a new memory location, since the change should affect only s2, not s1, and they are both pointing to the same memory location.   Wide String Wide strings  are also dynamically allocated and managed, but they dont use reference counting or the copy-on-write semantics. Wide strings consist of 16-bit Unicode characters. About Unicode character sets The ANSI character set used by Windows is a single-byte character set. Unicode stores each character in the character set in 2 bytes instead of 1. Some national languages use ideographic characters, which require more than the 256 characters supported by ANSI. With 16-bit notation we can represent 65,536 different characters. Indexing of multibyte strings is not reliable, since  s[i]  represents the ith byte (not necessarily the i-th character) in  s. If you must use Wide characters, you should declare a string variable to be of the WideString type and your character variable of the WideChar type. If you want to examine a wide string one character at a time, be sure to test for multibite characters. Delphi doesnt support automatic type conversions betwwen Ansi and Wide string types.   var s : WideString; c : WideChar; s : Delphi_ Guide; s[8] : T; //sDelphi_TGuide; Null terminated A null or  zero terminated  string is an array of characters, indexed by an integer starting from zero. Since the array has no length indicator, Delphi uses the ASCII 0 (NULL; #0) character to mark the boundary of the string.  This means there is essentially no difference between a null-terminated string and an array[0..NumberOfChars] of type Char, where the end of the string is marked by #0. We use null-terminated strings in Delphi when calling Windows API functions. Object Pascal lets us avoid messing arround with pointers to zero-based arrays when handling null-terminated strings by using the PChar type. Think of a PChar as being a pointer to a null-terminated string or to the array that represents one. For more info on pointers, check:Pointers in Delphi. For example, The  GetDriveType  API function determines whether a disk drive is a removable, fixed, CD-ROM, RAM disk, or network drive. The following procedure lists all the drives and their types on a users computer. Place one Button and one Memo component on a form and assign an OnClick handler of a Button: procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject); var Drive: Char; DriveLetter: String[4]; begin for Drive : A to Z do begin DriveLetter : Drive :\; case GetDriveType(PChar(Drive :\)) of DRIVE_REMOVABLE: Memo1.Lines.Add(DriveLetter Floppy Drive); DRIVE_FIXED: Memo1.Lines.Add(DriveLetter Fixed Drive); DRIVE_REMOTE: Memo1.Lines.Add(DriveLetter Network Drive); DRIVE_CDROM: Memo1.Lines.Add(DriveLetter CD-ROM Drive); DRIVE_RAMDISK: Memo1.Lines.Add(DriveLetter RAM Disk); end; end; end; Mixing Delphis strings We can freely mix all four different kinds of strings, Delphi will give its best to make sense of what we are trying to do. The assignment s:p, where s is a string variable and p is a PChar expression, copies a null-terminated string into a long string. Character types In addition to four string data types, Delphi has three character types:  Char,  AnsiChar, and  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹WideChar. A string constant of length 1, such as T, can denote a character value. The generic character type is Char, which is equivalent to AnsiChar. WideChar values are 16-bit characters ordered according to the Unicode character set. The first 256 Unicode characters correspond to the ANSI characters.

Commitment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Commitment - Essay Example Unless one have commitment, a particular vision, strong zeal and a passion to create something in ones life he cannot reach his goals and he remains failure one in the society. The strongly committed sports persons will definitely achieve gold medals in the contests and the students get good results in their exams and in their life also. One more thing is only the commitment itself cannot make us a champion when we don't have a proper vision and correct approach. So we can say the commitment is a weapon which we should use in proper way to get the fruits of success. Even though one failed in achieving the goal, the commitment in his soul awakes him and works like a panacea and pats his shoulder and leads him towards his goal. We can understand that the word commitment is not a group of letters, its magazine of bullets, which we can shoot the target with using the arm. Hence, commitment is the rule that is important in an individual's life as well as in the policy of an organisation. 1

Analyse the iconography, conventions and audience expectations (Grant, Essay

Analyse the iconography, conventions and audience expectations (Grant, 2007) of one film genre & access how (and if) they have c - Essay Example Genre tends to make the consumption of a film to be less disordered by providing the audience with a guide on certain films thus providing satisfaction when the guidance rules are followed. Most producers mainly use this approach to attract a certain audience as well as capitalising on past successes by repeating the various generic elements. With regards to the generic conventions they mainly offer the director of the film a framework to work on. Therefore, a genre based approach is best suited for carrying out film analysis (Grant, 2007, p. 43). There are several types of film genres but the focus in this paper will be on Musical/Dance film genre. Musical/Dance films are referred to as cinematic forms which mainly emphasize song and dance practices in a significant manner or full scale scores (Feuer, 1993, p.39). They are mainly films which are centred on the combinations of dance, music, choreography or song. The musical/Dance genre has been regarded as the most unrealistic form o f cinema. Despite this it is a genre that is enjoyable due to the fantastical departures that it exhibits. The act of actually singing in the middle of pouring rain while twirling an umbrella and tapping cannot be regarded as a daily occurrence (Schatz, 1981, p. 34). This according to Gene Kelly in the Singing in the rain film is as normal and as natural as the act of breathing. Another scene is that of Fred Astaire in the Band Wagon when he engages himself in performing an impromptu dance at the shoe shine station. Musical/Dance usually aim at persuading the audience in thinking that what they are viewing on the screen is simply the representation of the characters feelings at that moment as well as what they may do in reality. Musical usually portray the dancing and singing of the characters as their natural inclinations of the character though the audience usually know that in reality this will never happen as it is just a result of events that are choreographed and rehearsed. Wh en it comes to musical conventions the narratives usually halts for the production numbers and the characters break into dance and song. The characters usually perform for the camera after listening to a song that usually comes up abruptly (Grant, 2003, p. 85). The use of the musical/Dance genre is unique in the film industry. The mass persuasion of this genre may look like it will not be able to last for a long period in the America society due to the fact that people are mainly taught to question the superiors and not to follow the leader. Even in the early thirties people had the same tendency of questioning almost everything: their parents, their clergy and even their government. The question that still remains a mystery is the fact that society did not sought to question Hollywood. People spent a lot of money days after days and later on it resulted into the creation of the film industry (Schatz, 1981, p.64). It is the public audience that created and boosted the genres that th ey went to see and not an effort was given by Hollywood. Maybe it can be assumed that it is the musical nature of the films that made them so popular that people all ways went back for more action. People practically took time to go watch the movies so as to get away from the ordinary everyday

Fast Food Driven Society Essay Example for Free

Fast Food Driven Society Essay In a recent documentary film I’ve seen called, â€Å"Super-Size Me,† it was stated that in the past 20-25 years, obesity levels in America have doubled. Why you may wonder? Many factors contribute to the way we live in our society today, but the main reason for obesity levels being so high is the fast food industry and its effects on everyone it comes in contact with. Anyone who has ever had junk food in their life know its addicting features. Seeing it everywhere you go whether you are at a grocery store, fast food restaurant, or on TV doesn’t help stop the urges in anyone’s case. Fast food is convenient, cheap, and is what the average American family would choose to eat. Obesity is an ongoing problem in the United States today, and if it cannot be stopped, this problem could potentially be passed down from generation to generation. The reason America has allowed this to happen is because of the way society portrays how to live and eat in this world, how Americans have adapted in a way where they heavily rely on fast food for convenience purposes, and the individual’s lack of effort in living a healthy lifestyle. Every woman in America once in their lives has seen or bought a magazine. What do you see on the cover? A skinny, beautiful model or celebrity, and a tagline on how to lose more weight or how to eat healthier in order for you to look more like the picture. Everywhere you go society portrays a certain way woman should look that is acceptable in this world. I strongly believe that one of the reasons that obesity has struck America so negatively is because society has pushed the woman in this country over the edge on how they ‘should’ look. â€Å"For many women, compulsive eating and being fat have become one way to avoid being marketed or seen as the ideal woman: My fat says ‘screw you’ to all who want me to be the perfect mom, sweetheart, and maid. Take me for who I am, not for who I am supposed to be† (Orbach, pg. 452). This quote comes from the article, â€Å"Fat is a Feminist Issue,† and it heavily relates to why obesity is still an ongoing issue in the United States. Susie Orbach strongly explains how fat expresses a rebellion against how women feel powerless because of all of the pressure to look and even act a certain way. Society has even changed the way women should look over and over again throughout the years (pg. 452). This in my opinion puts more pressure on the women because they are constantly changing their image and even their body in order to fit in. This topic alone, has a huge impact on why a lot of people are overweight in the world. Now a days, people want to be what they want and not what society wants. Since society hasn’t given woman and everyone else a break on what they expect from them, obesity has increased and a rebellion on body image is its result. If society would stop stressing how to look and act, people might want to start to do things for themselves and not for the ‘betterment’ of society. In my experience, I can honestly say that being a women in society today is difficult. Yes I do eat what I want when I want, but I do watch my body image. Half of the reason is because it makes me feel better as a person when I look and eat healthy, but the other half is because I know society would qualify me as someone who would fit in. You could say that society has gotten to me, but I do feel great when I eat healthy and when I look healthy. In my nutrition class, I learned that junk food is very low in satiation value, this means that people don’t feel as full when eating them, which tends to lead to overeating. These two factors relate to why people choose to go to a fast food restaurant. Americans don’t realize the negative effects it has on their mind and body. Not only is that a factor, but the taste also plays a huge part too. A lot of great tasting foods are bad for you, which just happens to be the disappointing truth that many people disregard. All anyone wants is to find good food that is affordable in this world right? That is what makes fast food so convenient!! In the article, â€Å"Don’t Blame the Eater,† David Zinczenko makes a good point about fast food. â€Å"Lunch and dinner for me, was a daily choice between McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut. Then as now, these were the only available options for an American kid to get an affordable meal† (pg. 391-392). Everything he stated is true for the average American family, why wouldn’t you stop at a fast food restaurant if you are tight on money and time. When I was a kid, sports was a big part of my life†¦but time and money was also tight in my family because my two younger sisters also played sports. We stopped for fast food whenever was convenient for us on and off the road. At the time, it was almost like I was being treated when we stopped for fast food. Little did I know the only reason we got fast food was because it was affordable and reliable. Even now to this day, it is hard for me not to stop at a fast food restaurant every once in a while. I don’t go as much as I used to, but it is still convenient and it always will be. Just like Zinczenko was saying, whether we like it or not, fast food surrounds us and lures us into its traps. We have the choice to escape it or embrace it. The individual has this decision alone. Society plays its parts in luring, but it is ultimately your own decision in the end. In the article, â€Å"Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating,† Mary Maxfield heavily stresses how it is the individual’s ultimate decision on what to eat and how much of it to eat. I could not agree more with her article, even though society does its job in persuading, it is the individual who is left with the decision because it is their body. Maxfield states, â€Å". what a person eats [rarely] takes primacy over how they eat it†¦.. in essence, we can eat as we always have- which includes eating for emotional and social reasons and still survive or even thrive† (pg. 445). What she is saying is that no matter what social interactions stand in someone’s way, they are the ones who decide what and how much to eat. You must trust yourself, trust your body and meet your own needs (Maxfield, pg. 446). Personally, there are days where I know I need to cut down on the junk food and focus on drinking water and eating foods with nutritional value. That is because I have the motivation and drive to do so. Many Americans do not have this motivation and drive. This is what is increasing the obesity levels in America. People do not know what is too much, and do not know when to stop. So in return, they are putting themselves more at risk for the chronic diseases that obesity has to offer. In the end, the individual has the power to decide what is best for them. If everyone started to make healthy life decisions, obesity levels could slowly start to decrease, and the world could have a more restored environment. We need to start by educating our children about the smart and healthy life alternatives they can make and continue to educate their parents as well. In turn, we can decrease the many factors that have led our country to where it is today†¦. a fast food driven, obese and lazy society.

Good vs. Evil in John Gardners Grendel :: Grendel Essays

Good vs. Evil in John Gardner's Grendel John Gardner's novel Grendel gives the reader a new perspective on the classic "good vs. Evil" plot. From the start of the book the reader can tell that there is something very unique about the narrator. It is evident that the narrator is a very observant being that can express himself in a very poetic manner. The story is one the reader has most likely seen before, the battle between the glorious thanes and the "evil" beast. In this case, however, the "beast" is the eyes and ears of the reader. This, of course, forces the reader to analyze situations in the book in the same way that Grendel does. By using this viewpoint, the author allows his readers to see the other side of the coin. Therefore, throughout the course of the novel the reader is able to understand how important Grendel is in defining the humans. Grendel's first encounter with the human beings that he literally defines is not a pleasant one. After accidentally trapping himself in a tree he is discovered by a group of thanes out on patrol. Grendel expresses absolutely no hostile intentions towards these "ridiculous" (ch.2, pp.24) creatures that "moved by clicks." (ch.2, pp.24) The thanes do not understand what Grendel is and are very uneasy about the whole situation. Like animals they are frightened of anything that is different from what they are used to. When Grendel attempts to communicate they show their ignorance and simple-mindedness. Instead of taking the time to understand the anomaly in their world they panic and decide to destroy it. Without being able to view the story from Grendel's point of view the reader might assume that the humans had every right to attack. Another example of the same type of simple-mindedness is their second premature attack on Grendel. After hearing the shaper's words Grendel weeps, "'Mercy! Peac e!'"(ch.4, pp.50) in the hopes of salvation from the god of these men. The men, in a drunken state, merely misunderstand Grendel's intentions and attack him once again. Instead of killing the men, which would have been an easy task for the giant, Grendel escapes into the night. This action alone defines the men as the "beasts" and Grendel as the victim.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower Novel Analysis

Worksheet: Novel analysis Title: The Perks of Being a Wallflower Author: Stephen Chbosky Genre: Epistolary novel Nationality: American The publication year: 1999 Information about the author: Stephen Chbosky was born January 25th in 1970. He is an American writer and film director, and is best known for The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Stephen was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is of Polish, Slovak, Irish and Scottish descent. Chbosky graduated in 1988 from Upper St. Clair High School. The story: The narrator of the novel is a teenage boy by the alias Charlie.He tells his story through a series of letters he writes to an anonymous â€Å"friend† he heard about at school and thought would be a nice person to write to, based on the fact that he or she reportedly hadn’t slept with someone at a party despite having the opportunity to do so. Charlie explains his fears, problems joys and secrets to this stranger. The story starts by Charlie telling about his anxieties ab out starting High School the next day. He tells about how his life has been after one of his friends committed suicide, and after his favourite aunt, Helen, died. Charlie is a socially awkward boy.He doesn’t really know how to interact with people his age. He is what we call a â€Å"Wallflower†; someone who’s always on the side, observing others, never being in the centre of things. While struggling with insecurities, friendships and his family, a couple of High school seniors, Patrick and Sam, befriend him, and brings him into their little group. His new friends expose him to a new world of sex, drugs, love, patries, death, relationships, friendship, lying, and culpability. Throughout the novel, Charlie is changed from an innocent wallflower whose life was digging his ose in books, to an adventurous person who learns that life should be lived not watched. A sub story to what happens in this book is also that Charlie’s teacher from advanced English class keeps assigning him books to read and then write reports on. He only does this with Charlie. (Being a â€Å"wallflower†: an ability to observe from the sideline and understand things. ) I think the theme of this book is that active participation is better than passive, and that you should live your life and participate and pursue your dreams rather than stand on the sidelines and watch the action. This story also covers topics like adolescence, drug use etc.Some quotes to support my opinion of the theme: â€Å"Do you always think this much Charlie? † â€Å"Is that bad? † â€Å"Not necessarily, It’s just that sometimes people use thought to not participate in life. † â€Å"Is that bad? † â€Å"Yes. † â€Å"Maybe these are my glory days, and I’m not even realizing it because they don’t involve a ball. † I liked this novel a lot because it portrays the confusion of being a teenager, the stigma of being â€Å"weirdâ €  and â€Å"different† than others, how the things that happen to us during childhood have a way of never leaving us and because it tells us that life is to be spent living, not dreaming of it.