Near-Earth Asteroids

The majority of asteroids within our solar system reside in the Asteroid Belt, orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. A large number of asteroid groupings, however, have their orbits elsewhere. This includes the Trojan asteroids, which orbit the sun in the Lagrangian points of Jupiter’s orbit; the Apollo asteroids, which cross Earth’s orbit; the Amor asteroids, which cross Mar’s orbit, and the Aten asteroids, which cross Venus’s orbit and approach from within Earth’s orbit (JPL). Vulcanoids have aphelia completely within the orbits of Mars or Venus, but as of this date no confirmed Vulcanoid asteroids have been found (Wikipedia.org). Alindas are in a 1:3 orbital resonance with Jupiter, resulting in a 1:4 orbital resonance with Earth. Most Alindas, due to their highly eccentric orbits and orbital resonance, pass near the inner planets (especially Earth) every 4 years (Wikipedia.org). Many but not all Alindas are also considered Atens.

Mother's Day Milk

“That’ll be $33.00, please,” I say, as I pull my cab up to the Departures Terminal at Denver International Airport.

“Here ya go – keep the change.”

He closes the door, waves at me briefly, and enters the airport. I pull away and head towards the Holding Zone. All taxis, limos, and shuttle vans wait for our next runs at a large concrete lot about a quarter-mile from the terminal. As I pull into the Zone, I breathe a sigh of relief: there are only about thirty other cabs here. I won’t have to wait too long for my next run. Most of the time, there are more than a hundred cabs here.

The Zone is cool. The lot is divided into five lines; we each pull into the back of the line as we enter the Zone. At the front of the line is a traffic-light that flashes red when no taxis are needed, and green along with a number showing how many taxis are needed at the terminal. We park our taxis and wait in line, moving up as the front cabs go to the terminal.

Dead

"You know we shouldn't be doing this."

"I haven't agreed to anything yet. But, thank you anyway," she says as they walk past the scrap of faded crime scene tape blowing in the wind.

How ridiculous, she says to herself, I'm thanking him for allowing me to enter my own home! Brushing a few raindrops off her coat, wishing she could remove the wet wig, she instinctively reaches for the light switch then laughs gently as she remembers there is no electricity now.

Third World Workers Need Western Jobs

In the article, “Third World Workers Need Western Jobs,” Radley Balko pushes forth his argument that exporting jobs from the West to third-world and developing countries increases the quality of life of the citizens of those countries; in particular, the quality of life of the children. Throughout the article, Balko uses several reports and research projects as examples, evidence, and analogies to argue that moving low-paying jobs to developing countries is good for these countries. Unfortunately, primarily due to the way he words his recaps of these reports and projects, he ends up committing several fallacies.

Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave”

In “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato relates a conversation between Socrates and Glaucon, where Socrates puts forth his beliefs on the nature of enlightenment, education, and what makes a good leader. To achieve this purpose, Plato, through the voice of Socrates, describes a cave where people live their entire lives chained up, only able to view a wall upon which shadows created by the movement of people and objects outside the cave are shown. This limited view, according to Socrates, is their reality and truth: they have no awareness of any other way of life much less the nature of the world itself. These prisoners represent the unenlightened and uneducated – the majority of the people.

After a time, one of the prisoners is released and exposed to the outer world, resulting at first in great confusion and physical pain. At first, Socrates states, the released prisoner (the newly educated man) will view the new world through the lens of the old: only able to understand the new in how it relates to the old. Over time, the new reality will become the truth to the released prisoner and the old reality (the cave) becomes small, limited, and false. Once exposed to the larger world and greater understanding of the reality of the world at large, they would pity those left behind and desire to return to their former world and educate the prisoners they left behind. Upon returning to the old world, however, the former prisoner, having lost the skills previously needed in the cave, would not be able to compete with his old comrades as he did before. The imprisoned would view his new knowledge and ideas with ridicule and pity. The imprisoned would believe that the returned prisoner is “proof” that one should not leave, much less even think of leaving the cave.

This represents Socrates’ belief that it is the responsibility of the enlightened man to educate as many others as possible – to pull as many out of the cave as he can. The only way to do this, however, is to retain the skills necessary to live in the cave and return there occasionally. By returning to the old cave occasionally, it also serves the purpose of preventing the enlightened world from becoming a cave, albeit a larger, brighter one. Through this metaphor, Socrates represents his view of the lives and beliefs of the majority of people and uses it to put forth his idea that the best leaders should be able to live in both worlds: that of the educated and that of the uneducated.

Written for Professor Stephenson's English Composition II class at Pikes Peak Community College, 15th June 2004

Research Proposal: Our Backwards Approach to Marriage and Divorce

In several of Robert Heinlein’s future-fiction books, the author puts forth the concept of “Contract Marriage” – where people marry for a set period of time (i.e., 5 years, 20 years, etc.).  While the idea of predetermining the length of a marriage may be unrealistic in our society, the idea of requiring a marriage contract that covers issues such as assets, children, support, the termination of marriage, and premarital counseling is one that should be considered seriously today.

The Guest

In Albert Camus’ “The Guest,” a mild-mannered schoolteacher finds himself stuck with an unwanted guest and obligation: taking his guest, an Arab accused of murdering his own cousin, to prison. Through this obligation, the schoolteacher, Daru, must deal with concepts of honor, choices, and individual responsibility. Ultimately, Daru decides the choice of whether or not to deliver the man to prison is a decision best made by the prisoner and not himself. The Arab decides to turn himself in to the prison, leaving the reader with the question of why. Although Camus does not give the reader easy answers to the question of why, there are several reasons the Arab chooses the path to prison.

Beauty is in the Eye

In “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self,” Alice Walker relates a childhood accident that altered her perception of her beauty and herself. When Walker was eight, her right eye was damaged by an errant shot from a b.b. gun by her brother, resulting in a large, white cataract on her right eye. From this experience, Walker not only loses her vision in her right eye, her entire perception of herself changes from one of a cute, pretty little girl to one who is ugly and damaged. Through several episodes covering nearly thirty years, Walker explores the changes in her perception of her beauty and what beauty is.

Bowling League Awards

For several years while I lived in Calhan, Colorado, I was a member of the White Trash Wednesday Bowling League at the Calhan Bowling Center (now closed thanks to the economy). At the end of the season, we had a pot-luck awards banquet where everyone drank way too much, prizes for bowling accomplishments were awarded, and everyone who deserved one received a Very Special Certificate. This is the one I received! With the Certificate came a very special Ribbon:

On a more serious note, I did achieve several legitimate bowling accomplishments, and received the badges and pins pictured below.

Here's the funny thing about these achievements: My average was 103. I hit 75 pins over average AND my first 400 on the same night - a night I was notoriously and most uncharacteristically drunk. I mean falling-down, pass-out drunk. I had a bad day, was pissed at the world, and although I rarely drank, decided to have "just one" Long Island Ice Tea. Which became two. Then three... still not entirely sure if I had a fourth or fifth... but I do know I was completely incapable of walking the three blocks back home. Thankfully my friends got me home safely!

The post date of 5/1/2004 for this is an estimate - this definitely occurred in the late Spring of 2004, but I don't remember the exact date.  The above was written 26th December, 2011.

Flat-Rate Tax Flies

There are various different flat-rate income tax plans floating around, in the form of bills, candidate platforms, and public interest group stances, amongst others. The plans vary from a “strict” flat-rate income tax on all earned income - both personal and business - to plans that have flat rates for businesses but varying rates on earned income. There are also proposals for replacing all income tax with a consumption tax (also known as a national sales tax). The most common and feasible proposal is changing the current multi-tiered income tax system of increasing tax rates tied to increasing income (known as a progressive tax rate system) to one tax rate for all individuals, regardless of income.

Questions

"What happened?"

"Kashley, don't be rude!" her father says, scolding.

"It's OK, Trey." I look into her six-year-old eyes, this little blond beauty I have loved for four incredible years. She is not my daughter, but, like her father, she is my closest friend. The friendship between us confuses outsiders, but has a closer-than-family feeling to us.

I realize with surprise that neither she, nor her father, ever asked me about the scars on my face before. But Kashley is six now, with more than the usual amount of curiosity that comes with this age. I should have known that she, like many before her, would eventually ask.

"When I was four years old, I did something very stupid and hurt myself."

Tennyson’s Ulysses

Lord Alfred Tennyson’s “Ulysses” is a lyrical continuation of the quest and life of Homer’s Odysseus. Starting shortly after Ulysses (Odysseus) returns home, “Ulysses” relates the difficulties experienced in adjusting to domestic life, his sheer boredom with the duties of being king, and his hunger for more travel and adventure. “Ulysses” explores the concept of the quest and the meaning of a life worth living, especially a life worth living for a man who had already lived life beyond the norm. Through “Ulysses,” Tennyson demonstrates that the quest is more than just an adventure: it is living life fully.

It’s All Wet

In “The Flow of the River,” Loren Eiseley takes the reader on a symbolic adventure exploring man and nature. Eiseley relates two of his experiences in the outdoors: floating down the Platte River on his back and his short relationship with a talking catfish found frozen in the river. As Eiseley floats down the Platte, he ponders the natural beauty around him and the connection of the natural world and humans that water creates. A frozen catfish, assumed dead, becomes Eiseley’s ultimate metaphor for the correlation of man and nature. Through these experiences with elements of water, Eiseley explores the character of man and nature. Eiseley’s use of symbolism demonstrates that through water, man and nature are the same.

Phi Theta Kappa Certificate

Surviving the Test of Time

In just fourteen short lines, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias” eloquently captures a moment in time and history. Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792-1822, was born into wealth, educated at Eton and Oxford, traveled widely throughout Europe, wrote extensively, and died regrettably young in a boating accident (Wikipedia.org). “Ozymandias”, written in 1818, is believed to have been written “in competition with his friend Horace Smith, as Smith published a sonnet a month after Shelley's which takes the same subject and makes the same moral point” (Wikipedia.org). “Ozymandias” is not considered Shelley’s best work by experts, but has become his most well-known as it has been his most anthologized (Sparknotes.com). The obvious moral of “Ozymandias” is simple: the mighty and powerful are subject to, and victims of, the inevitable forgetfulness of time and history. Less obvious but far more profound is the idea that the work of the artistsans is what gains the respect and honor of history. Through use of theme, structure and word choice, Shelley’s “Ozymandias” shows that it is not the work of the mighty and powerful that stands the test of time, but the work of the artists.

Dark Silence, Light Noise

In “Silence,” Chinese-American author Maxine Hong Kingston relates her childhood experiences in American and Chinese schools. Kingston describes the difficulty she had with speaking English out loud at her American school, which was in sharp contrast to her experience at her Chinese school. Through the use of many comparisons and contrasts primarily relating to her difficulty with the English language, Kingston explores the sharp differences between the cultures, the teachers’ attitudes towards children, classroom expectations, the sound of voices, and her own self-image. While Kingston is unable to speak, she lives in noisy world where her silence is not golden. Kingston’s “Silence” it is not so much about her inability to speak, but about her perceived inability to feel like she fit in and belonged.

Wandall, or Hopefulness

Wandall, or Hopefulness

Translated from the Yiddish of Toomuch Drincks, a good man

of a good town, with additions found in the stalls of the Tipple Inn's men's room.

With apologies to Voltaire.

CHAPTER I

How Wandall Came to the Good Town and met the Mayor and went to Church

There came to the town of Dekadent, in the land of Coolyuras, a world weary wandering woman known as Wandall, who had traveled far and wide in search of a good town filled with good people. Wandall, having heard from far away of this good town, arrived believing her search had ended. A town of golden streets, where good people helped their neighbors and all the high school cheerleaders were blond. A good town, with so little crime it needed but one cop, who worked only part-time.

Summary: Gretel Ehrlich's "About Men"

In “About Men,” Gretel Ehrlich finds the stereotype of cowboys too simplistic.  According to Ehrlich, the popular image of cowboys of being tough and quiet – almost loners – is far from their reality and a disservice.  Ehrlich finds the simplistic, popular image of cowboys, and to a lesser extent men in general, reduces the complex duality of their natures to mere cardboard characters.  Ehrlich further states that the job of a cowboy is far more complex then the movies depict, that it is a job often tough on the body and heart, one with long hours and little pay.  Not only are they “convivial, quirky, and softhearted,” Ehrlich states their lifestyle requires they be “midwives, hunters, nurturers, providers, and conservationists all at once” (Ehrlich 252-253).  For Ehrlich, the unsophisticated, one-dimensional stereotype is a disservice to cowboys at large and men in general.


Written for Professor Sutter's English Composition I class at Pikes Peak Community College, 4th February 2004.

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Update November 18, 2015: The above work was recently quoted in a young man's high school AP English paper.  He forgot to properly quote and cite it.  It wasn't intentional plagiarism, just a simple mistake, for which he has since genuinely apologized for.  He panicked, thinking if my original work above was no longer online, he would not get in trouble, so he reported this post as a DMCA violation so it would get taken down.  Which, of course, is overreacting :)  The original post has since been reinstated and the DMCA claim rescinded, more apologies made and accepted.  

Update June 22, 2017: LOL! It happened again! A student (this time in a community college) copied my summary above in its entirety for a course assignment.  When the professor failed his paper after it was flagged by the college's plagiarism checker, the student claimed my post - which dates to 2004 lol - was a copy of HIS work, and filed a DMCA claim against me!  Needless to say, an administrator at the community college and myself had a very interesting chat that eventually involved this student, appropriate apologies from the student, the DMCA claim rescinded and my original post above reinstated, yet again.

Students, remember, whenever you use the internet to research for your papers to always properly quote and cite them!  I also recommend checking your papers at http://www.plagscan.com/seesources/analyse.php or  http://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/ or any other online plagiarism checker to make sure you didn't forget to properly quote or cite something!

No if’s, and’s, or but’s about it: He’ll be a thorn in my side

So there I was: biting my tongue, gritting my teeth, and it’s only been 15 minutes. He shows up at the classroom exactly at the time class is to start, but with the wrong keys to open the door.  Ten minutes later, we are sitting at our desks but he can’t take roll because he forgot the student list.  Five minutes after that, we quickly discover this professor – this college graduate – can’t spell.