More Discworld to the people

"The Collection of the Discworld-series books from Terry Pratchett deserves to be Christmas Gift of the Year 2010!"

"Oodles of dry wit, imagination and shrewdly observed characters" –IndependentIs there any other thing you could even consider being a better present of the year? I say NO! Pratchett’s work has been given him four honorary professorates, numerous literary awards and made him an Officer to the British Empire. His books have sold in over 50 million copies, in 33 languages. His Discworld series covers many great topics such as sports, banks, the postal service, gods (yes plural), death (the entity), politics, police, and media and foremost people and their quirks. All these subjects and more are gone through in detail in the soon to be 38 book in the Discworld series mixed into a fantasy world with Trolls, Dwarfs, Witches and Wizards, the Incarnations of the gods, Death, Time and Christmas, among other. There is also a lot of different cultures and their interaction with each other. All this is squeezed onto a flat disc riding on a giant turtle swimming in space. Pratchett incorporates wonderfully thought out satire and social observations in all his writing, examples could be how sly a salesman could be or how people are fooled by certain behavior.

His description of characters and their traits are unheard of, it is almost like he is playing with the language and its use, describing a character or a way of thinking always goes in depth in a way you certainly haven’t uncovered before, for example "Let's just say that if complete and utter chaos was lightning, he'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armor and shouting 'All gods are bastards'." Pratchett has a wonderful talent for phrasing his sentences in a manner that says so much more than the words in themselves.Some may argue that there are many writers better than Pratchett but there is not a person as honored and revered for his work targeting the same age group out there. Where else can you find a vampire photographer that almost dies (light sensitivity) every time he takes a photo but goes with the motto "what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger". Where else could you find a phrasing like: "He couldn't help remembering how much he'd wanted a puppy when he was a little boy. Mind you, they'd been starving - anything with meat on it would have done." Pratchett’s sense of dry humor is unrivaled, he always find the small unthread lingual paths and uses and twists them to the limit. Pratchett’s works is also full of satire and very small things he twists out of proportion, "whenever he came close to the fleeing figure some muffled pedestrian got in the way, or a cart pulled out of a cross street. This always happens in any police chase anywhere. A heavily laden lorry will always pull out of a side alley in front of the pursuit. If vehicles aren't involved, then it'll be a man with a rack of garments. Or two men with a large sheet of glass. There's probably some kind of secret society behind this."

What is more important then to expand our minds and imagination?, humans are naturally curious creatures, giving a book to them will not only keep them occupied it will also give them new insights in ways of thinking, and what could be more important in this multicultural world? Pratchett’s books are some of the best in this aspect, ergo this must be the best gift!

Energy drinks

Why do so many young people overuse Red Bull and similar beverages? (causal analysis) /(more stating than analysing) :P

"Do you want a "powerful rush of caffeine?” How about a "feeling of well-being” with "no crash and no jitters?” Maybe you’d like to down some Cocaine, "the world’s most dangerous energy supplement.”"
(Cocaine marketing)

Today there is a big market for energy drinks, usage varies from very low ages such as 8 and the customer base is between 8 and 20 year olds. There are less middle aged users, and very few old users (60+). The question is why are so many hooked on this relatively new product. There is perhaps many different reasons but the one I believe myself to see clearly is addiction.
Most people associate the word addiction with alcohol or drugs, but that association severely and inappropriately limits the extent of addiction in our society. A new general definition of addiction is needed. According to me and to many other psychologists grounds for an addiction are based when a person gets a repeated stimuli and reacts to it, this could be anything. In order to understand the cause of drug addiction, we must first understand what is required for human beings to be “happy”.

Carbonated Water, Dextrose, sukralose, Taurine, Caffeine, Guarana Seed Extract, those are the main ingredients in an energy drink, Water, Sugar, caffeine and Taurine. Some may think that ingredients such as Guarana Seed Extract must be healthy but this ingredient actually just adds caffeine to the drink as it naturally contains almost double the amount of caffeine compared to a coffee bean.

Taurine as an example is frequently found in energy drinks. Taurine, discovered in ox bile in Germany 1827, has not actually been proven to be energy-giving., This substance is also found in any general persons omnivore diet, so it’s not a uncommon energy giving substance as we are led to believe.

Caffeine and sugar are considered the most commonly used psychoactive drugs in the world. Caffeine or (trimethylxanthine) actually acts by suppressing neural activity and also by increasing blood flow through ought the body. The body reacts by “panicking” making the user abruptly more alert and aware. This substance will when regularly used will cause addiction both mentally as you feel the rush and crave it and physically giving withdrawal symptoms including headache, irritability, an inability to concentrate, drowsiness, insomnia and pain in the stomach. The amount of caffeine in energy drinks ranges from none to more than 100 mg per ounce, about nine times the caffeine content in a cup of coffee making this drink ever so addicting. Have you ever said or heard anyone saying that you or they can't function until their morning cup of coffee? That in itself is proof of the big psychological and physical effects of caffeine.

Sugar in itself has big effects on your mind. Sugar perhaps needs no introduction, the highs and lows of sugar usage are a great base for psychological addiction. There are many that feel addicted to food, feeling very low or irritable when not eating regularly. This in truth is an effect of the sugar levels in your blood unable to keep on a constant level, sugar affecting your Glucagon and Insulin levels messing with the bodys energy intake/output and blood sugar levels.

There is also the placebo effect. Rather than having real medical value, a user may still improve or feel like he is improving merely because their expectation to do so is so strong. This cuold for example be the case with Guarana, -do you know what it is?, -no bu I'm sure it's good for me

The question is not how younger people could get so hooked on this substance, the question is how they can stay away from it.

Assignment 5

Peter Barry's "Tackling Textuality – With Theory"

In “Tackling Textuality – With theory” (Barry 2000) Peter Barry explains how literary theory is important when understanding a text. Barry starts by giving examples of how a normal text analysis would be carried out in a non theory environment and then gives his own examples on how one could better this method. He here presents a list of ten steps, where overall structural patterns, micro patterns, similarities in the text, overt or covert material, meaning and significance, genre, look for metaphors, the surface structure, stages and phases and semantic meaning are discussed.
From this base Barry asks the question “where does that leave us?” He reasons that literary criticism never could grow out of these ten defined points but also that they are insufficient.

Using Shakespeare’s sonnet 73 Barry here exemplify this, highlighting the texts religious and historical meaning. Barry here makes use of the themes: literature and history, language, gender and literature and psychoanalysis. With history as a subject Barry shines upon the fact that the reformation set into motion by Henry the Eighth also shut down monasteries and with them the choir-stalls went into ruin, this is not explained by the ten earlier stated rules. Using gender as a subject Barry examines gender based conventions and what signs there are that the text is written by a man rather than a woman. In the language part Barry among other things examines how Shakespeare seems to violate the natural word order and how this affects the text. In the psychoanalysis theme Barry discuss the speaker's strategy of seduction is in this poem trying to analyze the mental processes of the writer.

Barry in the next segment analyzes the text from a deconstructive view where one “read the text against itself”. Using Oread by Hilda Doolittle and Transit by Adrienne Rich as examples Barry using contradictions, linguistics quirks, breaks and omissions within the text looks behind them. Barry using these methods of deconstruction comes to many interesting results, Citing the last analysis of absences and omissions Barry writes “The deconstructive reading seems to enhance the perceived strangeness of this remarkable poem. We are left, then, with a poem that seems to be fighting a civil war with itself.” This goes well with the final message Barry leaves: “Literary theory often intensifies the difficulties of reading, and constantly throws up more problems than it is capable of solving” he also states that “the complexities /../ really are there”. This finishes his work on how to better literal analysis.

Keywords

Textuality, literary theory, close reading, where does it leave us, the relationship between literature and psychoanalysis

1. Style in the context of academic writing is what one could use to set feeling in a text, appropriate in the context you are writing in. Using the correct form and method, formal or non formal. This will not change the basic meaning of the text but rather the flavouring of it. changing syntax, vocabulary and grammar so the text will be accepted by the peers of your choice.

2.
Unformal
May 29 Reveille at 2:15 am. Left for (shooting) ranges at 3 am, returned at 10 am. Left again for ranges with markers at 3 pm, returned at 9 pm, distance to ranges 2 miles. Food here is not very plentiful, not enough to live on. Getting fed up with this place. Same everyday till…

Formal
On May 29th William Falcus had Reveille at 2:15 a.m. He left for the shooting ranges at 3 a.m. and returned at 10 a.m. At 3 p.m. he left for the ranges again, this time with markers and returned at 9 p.m. The distance to the ranges was 2 miles. William Falcus felt that they did not get enough food to live on. He was unhappy that everything was always the same.

exerpts from www.northerngrid.org/ngflwebsite/infantryman/activitiesfomal.doc

Theese are two texts have the same content but are not written in the same style. In the informal part you could use a sentence like "Getting fed up with this place. Same everyday till" this compared to "He was unhappy that everything was always the same", generally the formal writing use face saving, not expressing opinions without a "felt" or something else to soften up the message. "May 29" in the unformal text is transformed into "On May 29th" elongating the sentence with more correct writing. Generally in formal texts usage of slang and abbreviations is kept to a minimum but is and can be used in a unformal text.

3.
Formal
The word police has over the years been derived from an old expression meaning "man of the city". Usage of the term has over time given birth to slang words like copper, bacon and pig. Theese words are often said without men of the law present but some of the slangwords are more commonly accepted making usage allowed.

Informal
Police, or yah, men of the city. Ther's alot of good words for cops, pig, bacon and copper, of course you should be careful, using them when one is around could give you a headache. some of them are allowed to use but make damn sure you are sure you are in the right place and the right company!