Environment

It's easy to have an environmentally healthy lifestyle. You just have to look at the things you do and ask yourself whether there's any better way. We've given you a big head start with this list.
Do not use paper towels, paper napkins and facial tissues made from virgin fibres and bleached with chlorine.
Use cloth towels, cloth napkins and handkerchiefs.
Do not buy plastic or foam cups and plates when you have guests or go on a picnic.
Buy a cheap set of washable dishes and silverware.
Do not buy a paper cup of coffee on your way to work every day.
Make coffee at work and drink it from a washable mug.
Do not use plastic utensils or bamboo chopsticks just once and then throw them away.
Use washable utensils when you eat fast food.
Do not eat meat. Raising animals for meat requires a much larger amount of resources than growing vegetables.
Become a vegetarian.
Do not let the supermarket pack your groceries in a paper bag nested in a plastic bag.
Bring your own cloth-bags to the supermarket. They hold more and are easier to carry anyway. You can use these bags at drugstores, etc., as well. Many stores give a discount for this.
Do not drive everywhere.
Walk when going short distances. Take public transit whenever possible.
Do not waste electricity by running your air conditioner all summer.
Open windows and use fans. Wear cool clothing and drink plenty of water.
Do not use just one side of the page for printing or photocopying.
Use both sides of a paper for printing. You'll use half as much paper with no extra work!
Do not dry-clean clothing unnecessarily.
Hand-wash any clothing that can take it.
Do not use chemical fertilizers on your garden or lawn.
Fertilize your plants with household compost.

A Visit to A Zoo

Our school broke up for the winter vacations. One day I went to Vandalur zoo with my friends. The entry was by tickets. We went up several steps to purchase the tickets. Then we entered the zoo.

We walked up and down. A deep canal ran parallel to the footpath. Beyond the canal there were small trees. The cages of the birds were hanging down the branches of the trees. Their multi-coloured feathers gleamed into sunlight.

Next we saw a small water pond with many kinds of birds swimming in it. It was interesting to see new birds in an enclosure. They twittered, chirped and whistled. They presented nature’s voice. It was pleasing indeed to hear them. We saw many birds there - sparrows, nightingales and owls of different colours set in the closed cage. The owls sat with closed eyes lost in thoughts. We bade a silent farewell to those philosophers among birds and walked on.

We visited the tigers, lions and bears shut in cages. We saw some hippos and also a rhino. We heared the loud roar of a lion. One tiger was in a fit of anger. The tiger was strong and handsome. I was reminded of Blake’s lines.

“What immortal hand or eye dare frame the fearful symmetry?”

Then we enjoyed a boat cruise. I enjoyed it most. We also saw many other fauna like crocodiles, snakes, frogs, fish ad a hundred other creatures. They all felt at home in the zoo. Last of all we saw different kinds of monkeys.

We passed many happy hours in the zoo. It was a pleasing experience for all of us.

A Bad Journey

“Travelling is a sort of educations among the younger people”, said Bacon. Perhaps, he had a disappointing journey in his mind. For it gives more experience and enables to develop more courage. Hazlitt, in one of his essays, says that a journey becomes enjoyable if one hopes to get a good meal and a good rest after a tiring journey, and adds that traveling hopefully gives the maximum happiness perhaps he had no experience of a disappointing journey which is more instructive.


It was a day of disappointments. And being an optimist I did not attach much importance to bad omens. First of all the auto I hired to the railway station rattled noisily and emitted more smoke than an ordinary vehicle can. But I had limited time at my disposal, so I decided to travel by it.


After a short distance I was panting like an extremely tired person and came to a sudden stop. It was the first disappointment. Somehow I reached the station jumping into anther auto but I found a long queue at the ticket counter. There were only a few minutes for the train to leave, yet there was no hope of reaching the ticket window. This was the second disappointment. I decided to travel without ticket and pay the fare.


Boarding the train was itself an ordeal. Despite my healthy body I was sandwiched and my luggage was mercilessly trampled upon. Still I managed to wriggle into a corner. There I found some persons smoking cigarettes. And I could not rather stand that smell nor could I move an inch. I covered my nose with my handkerchief, but the bad smell was choking me.


As expected the ticket checker came and I willingly told him about my inability to buy the ticket. He looked him about my inability to buy the ticket. He looked at me with strange eyes and all passengers stared at me. The ticker checker was not going to allow me to travel but I protested and told him that if a passenger was prepared to pay the fine, he could be allowed to travel. After much discussion, I convinced him and heaved a sigh of relief.


As I reached my destination, I was thanking god. I was thinking that I would meet my uncle and aunt with a broad smile and their hospitality would make me forget the ordeals of the journey. I was dreaming of it, while the rickshaw-puller was pulling the vehicle in a half sleep manner. To my great disappointment, I found that my uncle and aunt had gone to Chennai for a month and the house was locked. This was the greatest disappointment. I did not have much money for return trip. I did not want to recall this disappointing journey further because that makes me extremely sad. That was A Bad Journey.

Hamlet

The appearance of madness and the reality of sadness are common occurrences after an unexpected experience of sorrow. The protagonist appears mad while the antagonist stays reserved and in control even with the guilt of killing his own brother. The appearance of sadness and madness play a role with select characters. Select characters, Hamlet and Claudius, in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, portray characteristics of a villain, while one acts as a villain with manipulation and murder, the other ponders over villainous acts. Without Claudius influence on Hamlet’s revenge, none of the deaths would have occurred, thus making Claudius a deadlier villain than Hamlet.

A feeling of sympathy can be felt towards Hamlet but it is hard to sympathize with Claudius. Sadness, madness, anger- these appositives describe the feelings of Hamlet (sp6). King Hamlet’s death by poison influences Hamlet’s appearance of madness creating an even greater heartache in the royal family. “That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound in filial obligation for some term to do obsequies sorrow,” this explains Hamlet’s appearance of excessive grief (1.2.27). Because of Claudius’ villainous deed an even greater level of madness arises when a ghost visits Hamlet and the guards beside him, informing them that Claudius is the culprit of the murder of King Hamlet. This creates Marcellus’ idea that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (1.4.100). Hamlet now forges a revenge plot in which he will kill Claudius and anyone who attempts to stop him; though Hamlet creates a diabolical plan to kill Claudius, he never pursues it and keeps his revenge plan to himself (sp1). “The play’s the thing wherein [he’ll] catch the conscience of the King;” Hamlet’s first attempt of revenge he does not complete (2.2.119). This differs from Claudius’ thought process because once he contemplates a devilish plot, he pursues it and completes it. This constant refusal of villainous acts by Hamlet benefits the constant building of hatred towards Claudius throughout the play. Through the consistent refusal of pursuit of villainous acts demonstrated by Hamlet, Claudius proves to be the greater villain.

Claudius is a far greater villain than Hamlet not only by physical murders, but also by manipulation. Claudius usurps the throne by murdering King Hamlet thus gaining power of the throne. Claudius mainly uses Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to try and squeeze information out of Hamlet. Claudius manipulates select people in order to get them to perform wicked acts, while Hamlet contemplates over performing such deeds. Guildenstern admits he was sent to spy by stating ‘”my lord [I] was sent for”’ (2.2.101). Polonius says to Claudius he “assure[s] good [his] liege [he] hold[s] [his] duty as [he] hold[s] [his] soul,” because of Claudius’ manipulation Polonius will obey him (2.2.85). Claudius is the focal point for the domino effect of deaths within the royal family and noble citizens of Denmark. Because of Claudius’ manipulation of Polonius, Ophelia and Hamlet separate with Hamlet stating ‘“If thou dost marry I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry”’ (3.1.131). This manipulation of Polonius leads to Polonius’ demise for he is killed by Hamlet after Polonius is hiding behind the arras. Claudius is the only one to blame for this because he manipulates Polonius into doing sly things in order for him to gain more information in return. Claudius is also an excellent liar; he uses Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to attempt to extract information from them by instructing them to tell a small lie in order to obtain a greater amount of information in return. Claudius uses a multiple variety of skills in order to perform villainous deeds which ultimately lead to the demise of him and others. Through multiple acts, Claudius proves to be a far greater villain than Hamlet.

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet demonstrates the true goals of a villain: revenge and murder (sp3).The protagonist and the antagonist both have a villainous goal, antagonist, murder; protagonist, retribution (sp2). Readers must dive into the character to truly understand the madness of the situation in the royal family of Denmark. The dramatic conclusion clearly demonstrates how villainous acts of sadness and madness can destroy a dynasty.

Analysis of The Mother by Gwendolyn Brooks

For this assignment, I chose the poem "The Mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks. This poem is generally about abortion and the feelings a mother has. It's about the remembrance of the children aborted and the little things children do that the mother will miss. Many images are conveyed throughout this entire poem. When Brooks mentions "the singers and workers that never handled the air" it gives off an air ofsadness. You get the feeling that Brooks is trying to convey, to the mother, a sense of longing for those little things mothers are know to be good at. This is shown in the line, "you will never wind up the sucking thumb or scuttle off ghosts that come" .Then when she starts to address the child saying, "you were born, you had a body, you died." its hard not to feel some sadness or even a feeling of injustice.
All the incidents that I mentioned in the previous paragraph are among the many

vivid images in this work. Brooks obviously either had experience with abortions or she felt very strongly about the issue. The feelings of sadness, remorse, longing, and unfulfilled destinies were arranged so that even someone with no experience or opinion on this issue, really felt strong emotions when reading "The Mother" .One image that is so vivid that it stayed with me through the entire poem was within the third line. Brooks writes, " the damp small pulps with little or no hair" .
In the last half of the poem (lines 20 to 33), she changes who she is addressing. Instead of telling the mother what she is missing she is now talking to the "child" .When she does this it expresses other emotions. These new emotions are ones of sorrow, love, searching for forgiveness etc. The arrangement of the poem, going from talking to the mother to talking to the aborted child, is appropriate in my opinion. It helps the poem to flow easily and makes it simple to follow. I find most poems hard to picture in my head , but as I read "The Mother" I can imagine the whole situation happening.
In the last lines of the poem the woman attempts to reassure the child that she loved it with all her heart. She says, "Believe me, I knew you, though faintly, and I loved , I loved you
All." Although at times morbid, this is a beautiful poem. It displays true emotions. I can imagine that this had to be a very personal yet difficult poem to write. In order to convey such raw emotions the writer has to be close to this subject in one way or another.
For someone who is pro-choice on the abortion issue, the images that surfaced in the poem gave me an enlightening view of the other side.

The Swirls Of Emotions

Emotions can be classified, according to your personal experience, into three different categories: happiness, sadness, and anger. First of all, there is happiness. Happiness has no limits, for it can be felt at any time, any place and to any person. It cannot be hunted for; it is not obvious, but inscrutable. Happiness is realized by understanding one's self, which is completely a personal experience. For instance, a person may find happiness in one thing, whereas someone else may in another. Happiness is what we let it be, and even though carry the abilty to let ourselves be happy, we rarely do. The second catagory that emotions can be fall into is sadness. Why is the quest for happiness left us more vulnerable and sad? Are we a society of people who are all looking for happiness and disappinted with what we find? In most cases, sadness leaves us in a state of depression and unstableness. When you become sad you feel as though you hate life at the present time and in most instances you cry, become depressed and feel like your sadness will be everlasting. If we were always happy and never expressed our sadness, it would eventually build up and one day we would just explode, and mabye go into a form of deep depression. The last but not least of the catagories of emotion is anger. Quick to rise, and even quicker to lash out, the simple emotion of anger has the power to destroy and create. Anger is not always a bad emotion. Without anger lives would be lost, tyranny would go unopposed, and inhumanities would be quietly accepted. Anger, the most powerful and feared emotion of the soul's repertoire, destroys and created in the same breath. Moving from one person to the next anger is an every present force in our world, and has been since the beginning of time. Anger is a great objective cycle: destroying what it created and creating what it destroys. Various people look at emotions in different ways. Everyday we experience different types of emotions, including happiness, sadness and anger. Every emotion means and is dealt with differently by each and every one of us; we have the choice of how we let them affect our lives.

Speaking of Love

What is love? Love is a very special and meaningful word to each human being. Each human being has his/her own thoughts about love to guide himself/herself to land safely and smoothly into the kingdom of Love. Without this preconceived idea of love, people would be acting like a blind person searching for the light with thousand of obstacles in front of him.

What is Love? I know this question exists in each human being's mind including myself. If not it is still waiting to be discovered deeply in your heart. What do I think of love? For me, I believe love is a priceless diamond, because a diamond has thousands of reflections, and each reflection represents a meaning of love. With love I can accept a person's imperfections without any condition, and able to transfer the way I love myself to another person who I am fancy at. With love I can have the power against loneliness, sadness, and illness, and to be able to change them into my happiness. As well as, having a key to open my heart to look at this world without a mask, to show people who I really am. But on the other hand, my love cannot be a substitute for anything, which means nothing can be substituted for my love. It also means those reflections of the diamond cannot be replaced by any kind of light or reflection, because the untrue reflection will not be a real diamond, and will not be able to spread out its resplendent and meaningful reflection of love to people about whom I care.

What will happen if people live without love? In my point of view, without love I may lose my ability to survive in this world with no hope. Without love I can be defined as a rat living in the sewer, with no chance to see our beautiful land and with no chance to lighten up myself against the darkness. As well as, I may lose many opportunities of enjoyment both mentally and physically, when I do not know what love is.

Do you want to live with love or without love? For me, my answer will be positive. Because I believe love is a special and meaningful diamond, which can spread out the reflection of Love to people generously, as well as sending out the invitation to welcome my friends and people who I love to come to my kingdom of love. Therefore people should not hesitate to own this priceless diamond to enhance your life as the way I enhanced mine.