Methods to improve personal and professional skills

Methods to improve personal and professional skills Methods to improve personal and professional skills Successful jobs and promotions seekers recognize their degrees and work experience are not enough to distinguish them from the crowded field of candidates. Though college degrees, professional certificates and experience help you meet the minimum criteria to apply, once you get the chance to interview your demonstrated communication, self management and behavioral skills combined with your presence is what will distinguish you from the competition. Your level of professionalism will relate directly to the degree to which you will RISE ABOVE THE CROWD! We may be a valued employee but if our skills and contributions dont accelerate over the years, especially in tough time like credit crunch, we may find our self out of a job. Its good that the boss likes you, but when are up against serious challenges to the ongoing success of the company, being a liked, known quantity is not enough. The only way we could find successful carrier by Exploring and evaluate methods to improve personal and professional skills and explore methods to improve them. Moreover, company must visualize our talents and contributions as essential to the companys future success. If we are doing a decent job, our reporting employees like and get along with us, and the job is getting done, well likely coast for a little. Change is difficult even when change would be beneficial the organization. Personal skill is something which is the inner responsibility and self esteem. If we take some aspects of personal skill it can be categorized into the followings: Carefulness: This is what we can say think before acting. This helps with reducing the chance for costly errors, as well as keeping a steady workflow going. [1] Cooperation: It is the willingness to cooperate in a working environment with your colleagues or work mates. Creativity: This is the thinking and imagination or you can say different perception in order to bring something positive in the organisation. It is also called as ‘thinking out of box. Discipline: This includes the ability to complete the task with enthusiastic and determined way without being distracted or bored. Drive: Every business needs people with the drive and ‘to do attitude for their growth. Good attitude: This has been shown to predict counter productive work behaviors, job performance and theft. Goodwill: This is a long term record of the person who has got some well-intentioned remarks on his behalf. Influence: This includes the motivational power to influence people in order to maintain a good working team. A strong leader can influence a mass and carry out them in a way to reap gain. Optimism: Productivity is directly proportional to positive attitude which is the optimism. Order: This show the proper placement of thing in order to retrieve them easily when and wherever it is needed. Safe work behavior: Every organisation needs people with knowledge of self protection and safety rules. These include the general fire alarm and first-aid knowledge. Savvy: This is about knowledge about your co-workers behavior and personality and way of dealing with them. It includes a tendency to read other peoples motives from observed behavior and use this information to guide ones thinking and action. Sociability: This is all about socializing while working in the work place. The more you socialize the better less job tensions and more productivity. Stability: This means a tendency to maintain composure and rationality in stressful work situations. The Professional skills are as followings: COMMUNICATION: It is again can be divided into two parts- Verbal and Non Verbal (or Written). [2] Oral- Public speaking, general conversation, seminars, conferences, presentations, workshops and negotiation. Written- Letters, proposals, reports, speeches, manuals, press releases, articles for periodicals and publications PROBLEM SOLVING: It is the skill needed by the employer in order to work efficiently in times when the situation demands and no one there to help. It also can be taking initiative in case of a problem while others find it hard to tackle. It can be classified as followings: [3] Trouble shooting- Problem identification, problem analysis and problem resolution Personnel- Employee morale and satisfaction, productivity and efficiency, work simplification and work flow improvement Customer and Public Relations- Liaison and coordination, improvement in customer service and satisfaction and client support. Personal and Professional development plan Most importantly it is crucial to remember that personal and professional development need to be intentional if they are to result improve individual and organization effectiveness. Plans should connect individual and institution need to meaningful activities. Outcome associated with those activities should be evaluated. Professional development is incomplete without continue professional development (CPD).This normally assists us to orient our self to the subject and in the course of doing so, CPD is a process by which individuals take control of their own learning and development. This progression is empowering and exciting and can inspire people to achieve their goal and move toward their dreams. CPD core concept is the we (as an employee) is in control, CPD is holistic process and can address all aspects of life and balance between them, regular looking forward how we want to be, reflecting on how we are working from our present position towards the future direction, helps in achieving CPD`s purpose and adds hunger and direction to work and learning. CPD works if we have the support and financial backing of our employer and it also works even if the employer is unconcerned or hostile.(Megginson, Whitaker,2003) Value of competence framework in an organisation ïÆ'Ëœ Make companies recruitment process more successful by using competencies to establish the crucial match between job candidates and the demand of the role. ïÆ'Ëœ Manage employees performance more effectively by using competencies to provide performance benchmarks and identify those employees with potential. ïÆ'Ëœ Design a more appropriate training and development programme by using competencies to identify learning needs. ïÆ'Ëœ Improve motivation by using competencies to clarify the link between pay and performance. (Amstrong,2000) Value of competence framework in individuals ïÆ'Ëœ It help to develop and define competencies that are a valuable management tool, providing a common language and framework for understanding organizations performance. ïÆ'Ëœ Explore how to select the competency model that best suits organizations need. ïÆ'Ëœ Helps to understand the fundamental components involved in designing an effective competency framework. ïÆ'Ëœ Effectively implement the competency framework to ensure it contributes organization success. ïÆ'Ëœ Helps to overcome the critical challenges that so often effective implementation ïÆ'Ëœ Improve professional experience through discussions. ( Amstrong,2000) Importance of Planning We tend to use any excuse not to get down to work, and one is uncertainty over where to begin; â€Å"Shall I do this or that?† And the uncertainty becomes an excuse for doing something else and in the end we would be running around like headless chickens not knowing what to do next. So its highly imperative to plan in advance so that there will be clear structure of how to execute the particular task successfully. The simple expedient of writing a list of various things to do and the order in which you are going to do them can save a considerable amount of time. Although it is important not be overly ambitious while planning as you can always do something extra at the end if time permits. When you make a list of everything you have to do the following day, your subconscious mind works on that list all night long and when you wake up next day, you will be able to generate more insights and develop strategies to help accomplish the task in hand. It will also help to use manpower , opportunities and resources you need to achieve your goals and complete the assignment successfully. So planning well in advance is necessary and recommended because it eradicates all the doubts and ambiguity regarding the task and helps an individual to forge ahead and complete the task in the best possible way. [6] Stress management techniques Job stress and its related conditions, job burnout, contribute to poor physical and mental health. Employee stress is a source of discomfort and a major concern to managers and stockholders. According to research, a worker stress cost $300 billion annually due to lot of productivity, increase workers compensation claims, and anxiety in general of dread, fear or worry for no immediate reason, and is a symptom of stress. Behavioral symptoms include nervous habits, such as facial twitching, and sudden decreases in job performance due to forgetfulness and errors in concentration or judgment. The control techniques consist of both actions and mental evaluations that help people take change in stress situation. (a) Get social support- Few people can do it alone when experiencing prolonged stress. Receiving social support encouragement, understanding and friendship- from other people is an important strategy for coping successfully with job stress. (b) Improve your work habit- This technique can be used for improving your personal productivity to reduce stress. People typically experience stress when they feel themselves losing control of their work assignments. Conscientious employees are especially prone to negative stress when they cannot get their work under control. (c) Develop positive self talk- Stress resistant people are basically optimistic and cheerful. This kind of positivism can be learned by switching to positive talk instead of thinking about negative thoughts. (d) Demand less than perfection from yourself- By demanding les than 100% performance than yourself, you will fail less frequently in your own perception. Not measuring up to ones own unrealistically high standards creates a considerable amount stress. Few human can operate with zero defects or ever achieve six-sigma perfection. (e) Strive not to neglect aspects of life outside of work- There is a big difference between a negative type of workaholic and a person who simply works hard and long to achieve constructive goals. A negative workaholic usually becomes anxious when not working. When a person neglects other aspects of life outside of work, such as spending time with family, friends and physical exercise, the person is more likely to suffer from stress symptoms such as irritability and lack of focus. [7] References : 1. www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServlet?/pdf/(cited 10 July 2009) 2. www.communicationskills.co.in/t (cited 10 July 2009) 3. Robson , Continuous process improvement: simplifying work flow , p37 4. Continuing professional development, by David Megginson, Vivien Whitaker,2003 5. Performance management: key strategies and practical guidelines‎ by Michael Armstrong Limited preview 2000 6. Goals! How to get everything you want- faster than you ever thought possible, ‘Manage your time well by Brian Tracy, PP 165-166 7. Essentials of management by Andrew J DuBrin,, 7th edition, 2005, pp 18-28. Key questions for the Pragmatist Q1 Shall I be learning to do things with obvious practical links to my job? A1 It is easier to learn from experience when you can actually relate your learning to real life experience. When you have actually gone through the experience, you will be able to pick out and isolate the flaws and rectify it. Q2 Will the learning approach includes lots of practical tips and techniques? A2 After going through all the theory, techniques and concepts, it is imperative to have a reality check and test the practicality of the theories and concepts. it is very useful to learn practical tips and techniques along with the theory. Q3 Will there be ample opportunities to practice and experiment using â€Å"live† problems or good simulations? A3 There will be sufficient opportunities to practice and experiment during your learning but the most important thing is to understand the concept. A single practical experiment could able to solve a hundred theory questions. So even if there is no exact practical solution to a particular problem, you can always correlate it to previous experience and could find out the solution. Q4 Will there be coaching and feedback from a credible expert or role model: ie someone who is successful and can do what is being taught themselves? A4. An experienced person has the wealth of knowledge and expertise which he can share to the budding managers. And at the same time his feedback to a particular solution is equally important. Q5 Will there be an immediate real life application which can be included in my action plans? A5 It will be very useful you could include immediate real life application into you action plan because then It become more easier and the Individual will be able to perform the task in the best possible way. Q6 Will it contribute to the immediate performance of myself and my colleagues by addressing current problems? A6. It will not only contribute to the immediate performance but also have a positive impact on the future performance of an individual or a team by addressing current problems. Personal Development Plan A PDP is just a different name for an action plan which refers specifically to your aspirations regarding personal development. Plans are made every day, but are not always written down and for those reasons PDP are drawn which allows you to set your own personal targets and find the best possible way to achieve them. An action plan will help you to envisage what you are doing and keep track of your achievements. To be totally effective, it must be reviewed at regular intervals to ensure that it is always precise, appropriate and pragmatic. [1] Personal development plan is a key component in the future working practice of all professionals. In the future, educational provision should be based on educational needs assessment. This means that the individual and the organisation must find a method to identify their educational needs and then methods to fulfil those needs for the benefit of the company. These plans are designed to structure educational activity of managers and their teams and to accomplish specific areas of development within the practice. They should take into account the individuals learning needs, the developmental needs of the practice as a whole and the priorities of the company. It consists of the following plan: †¢ Specifying how the learning needs are identified. †¢ The educational activity proposed to meet those needs †¢ How the plan will be addressed. Balancing the development needs of the managers to meet the needs of individual team members is sometimes difficult. Through Professional Development Plan individuals can start to understand why some areas of practice activity are given priority over others and how the decision was made. [2] What skills do you need to develop to do the job better? Are these shortcomings in your management capacities that you need to try to address? Are these projects or special assignments that you could get involved in that could strengthen you skills? Are there formal courses or programs that could strengthen your capabilities? It is especially critical that you do this when you are making key career passages. If you are a first time manager, get in the habit early of asking your boss for feedback and help in developing supervisory skills. Your willingness to seek candid feedback on your strength and weakness and, critically, your ability to act on the feedback send a powerful message. The same fundamental principle holds whether you are becoming a manager for the first time, functional leader, a general manager, or CEO. Whenever you are at a point in your career when success demands a different set of skills and attitudes, discipline yourself to be open to learning from others who ha ve gone before you. Dont restrict your focus on hard skills. The higher you rise, the more important the key soft skills of cultural and political diagnosis, negotiation, coalition building, and conflict management will become. Formal training can help, but development assignments- in project teams, in new parts of organisation, in different functions, in different locations- are indispensible in honing these key managerial skills. For example, no matter what type of situation you are entering, it can be useful to put together a 90- day plan and to get buy-in from your boss. Usually you will be able to devise a plan after a couple of weeks in the new job, when you have begun to connect with the organisation and to get the lay of the land. Your 90-day plan should be written, even if it just consists of bullet points. It should specify priorities and goals as well as milestones. Critically, you should share it with your boss and seek buy-in for it. It should serve as a contract betwee n the two of you about how you are going to spend your time, spelling out both what you will do and what you will not do. To begin to develop your plan, divide the 90 day into three blocks of 30-days. At the end of each block, you will have a review meeting with your boss. [3] In development programmes, there is an emphasis on personal development and planned learning from experience. Personal development programme is carried out by individual with guidance, encouragement and help from their managers as required. A personal development plan sets out the actions people prepare to take to learn and develop themselves. They take responsibility for formulating and implementing the plan, but they receive support from the organisation and their managers in doing so.Personal Development Programme consists of following stages 1. Analyse current situation and development needs What am I good at? a. Communication Skills b. Sincerity and Hardworking attitude c. Creativity What do I need to work on? a. Personal Organisation b. Leadership Skills c. Decision Making What could help me along? a. Taking responsibility for the activities of others during work experience. b. Setting priorities and meeting deadlines. c. Organising various activities and events. What could stop me? a. Lack of resources (money/time). b. Lack of concentration and focus. 2. Set Goals- These could include improving performance in the current job, improving or acquiring skills, extending relevant knowledge, developing specified areas of competence and preparing for changes in the current role. The most appropriate way or organising work is to set short term goals, medium term goals and long term goals. 3. Prepare action plan- The action plan sets out what needs to be done and how it will be done under headings such as outcome expected, the development activities, the responsibility for development and timing. Reference 1. www.learning-forces.org.uk//PERSONAL%20DEVELOPMENT%20PLANS2.doc, (cited 22 August 2009. 2. Personal Development and Practice Professional Development Plans in Primary Care Sector, by Derek Gallan, Glyns Buckle, 2001, pp 3-12. 3. The first 90 days: critical success strategies for new leaders at all levels By Michael Watkins, 2003, pp120-143. 4. A handbook of Human Resource Management Practices By Micheal Armstrong, 2001, pp 571-580.

Heracles as a Paradox in Women of Trachis Essay -- Women of Trachis Es

Heracles as a Paradox in Women of Trachis Using the portrayal of Hercules in Sophocles' tragedy Women of Trachis, a puzzling image of the Greek hero emerges. Most of the myths of Heracles portray him as a fierce warrior, tamer of beasts and a master of everything he attempts. This myth however, shows honorable traits juxtaposed with very negative aspects of the same man. Heracles is a paradox because even though he is a very great man and ideal hero, in some ways he is savage, highly emotional and even vulnerable. Sophocles' version of Heracles' life, or at least part of it, made Heracles look less like a Greek hero and more like an ordinary Greek warrior. There are a few exceptions though. For one, Zeus was his father. Not many of the children of gods were thought of as ordinary. All of them had some terrific power or ability like Hercules. Secondly, his ability to fulfill his assigned tasks in the way in which he does shows in no uncertain terms, he is more than a common man is. Lastly, Hercules is granted immortality as a reward for impressing the gods on Mount Olympus. This final item is of special importance because it itself is a paradox. Was Hercules a Greek hero or was he a God? These things all lead me to see Hercules the man clearly but his relationships to things outside his heroic motif are a puzzle. Let us start by identifying the purpose of identifying Hercules as a hero. There are eight identifiable traits that must be present in order to declare somebody a Greek hero. The first point is divine birth. Hercules being a son of Zeus meets this requirement. He is threatened almost immediately by a jealous Hera but saved by his own strength and fearless valor. His up bringing was by an outsider, actually ... ...ignity but Heracles refused to admit his end was coming. All the times he left for a task he went in search of fame but "not to die." (Sophocles, Women, l 159-60) Then why did he think to leave his will with Deianira? It was obvious the tablet described the way his land should be divided up amongst his children so why was he still not ready for his fate? It is because Heracles thought of himself as a hero and could not imagine the gods fate him to death. All these contradicting sides of Heracles makes him a more interesting figure in ancient texts but they also create quite confusion. Why after all the evil, horrid things he did would the gods make him immortal? Heracles truly is a paradox. Works Cited: Sophocles. The Women of Trachis. Trans. Michael Jameson. Sophocles II. Ed. David Grene and Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957.

The Myth Of The Family :: essays research papers

The Myth of the Model Family THOSE OF US WHO grew up in the 1950s got an image of the American family that was not, shall we say, accurate. We were told, Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver, and Ozzie and Harriet were not just the way things were supposed to be—but the way things were It's probably good that life wasn't like the television shows in the '50s—we wouldn't have many women now. Take a look at the ratio of boys to girls on the most popular family shows. Ozzie and Harriet had two boys, no girls. Leave It to Beaver had two boys, no girls. Rifleman had one boy, one rifle, no girls. Lassie had one boy, one dog (supposedly a girl, but played by a boy), and no girls. My Three Sons had—well, that one's obvious. Bonanza had three grown-up boys. Although Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in real life had one boy and one girl, on I Love Lucy they had one boy. The only shows with daughters were The Donna Reed Show (one boy, one girl) and that lighthouse to womanhood—despite its title—Father Knows Best (one boy, two girls). Grown to maturity, that's a late-1960s dating population of fifteen men to three women. Almost all the households were mama-papa-kiddies: the nuclear family. (The exceptions were My Three Sons and Bonanza: Steve Douglas [Fred MacMurray] and Ben Cartwright were widowers.) There were no prior marriages, no children from prior relationships, no threat or even thought of divorce, and the closest thing we saw to physical abuse was Ralph Kramden's, "One of these days, Alice, one of these days . . . to the moon!" There were no infidelities, no drinking problems, no drugs (not even prescription tranquilizers), no racism (How could there be? With the exception of Hop Sing and Ricky Ricardo, there was only one race; even the Hispanic gardener on Father Knows Best was named Frank Smith). There was no dropping out of school, no political discussion (much less political differences), no unemployment (except for Ozzie's early retirement), no severe economic problem (except for a crop failure on Lassie, when they had to sell all the livestock, including Lassie; but just befo re being carted off, Lassie pawed the ground and struck oil, and everything was okay again. Except for Lassie, who looked as though the Exxon Valdez had dumped its forward holding tanks on her).

F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby :: essays research papers

The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Great Gatsby is a symbolic novel of the disintegration of the American dream in an era of extraordinary prosperity and material excess. On the surface, we see that it is a story about the love between a man and a woman but the overall theme is the collapse of the American dream in society. We find that every character in their own way is searching for their American dream but as a result, their desire for wealth and pleasure, caused them to find themselves lost in the corruption of the aristocrat society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Daisy is one of the characters that is trying to search for her American dream but the readers don’t really notice this because it seems that Daisy has everything already – wealth, a husband, love and family. It is everything she could possibly want but as we get to know Daisy, the reader sees that there is something else Daisy desires besides wealth and luxurious material. â€Å"I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.† - Pg 21. Daisy’s America dream is to be this â€Å"beautiful little fool† she envisions. Daisy is beautiful and it is told through the characters that she is charming and beautiful but they could see right through her. They knew what she wanted in life and the fact that she was void of any loyalty or care. Daisy sought after this image of being this â€Å"beautiful little fool† so that she could hide her selfish ways and put on this fake faà §ade so the other characters would see she is innocent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout the novel, Daisy acts snooty and stuck-up around the other characters as if she is better then them. She also acts very child-like when she cries over â€Å"beautiful shirts.† â€Å"They’re such beautiful shirts,† she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. â€Å"It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such – such beautiful shirts before.† – Pg 98. From this it shows that she only cares about luxurious material. Through her actions, we see that Daisy is not this girl that we should sympathize or look up to as â€Å"great† compared to Gatsby. â€Å"Even if we are cousins. You didn’t come to my wedding. I wasn’t back from the war. That’s true. She hesitated. Well, I’ve had a very bad time, Nick, and I’m pretty cynical about everything.

Life Sketch for a Funeral

I was looking at pictures and talking o my mom, she said she remembers him sleeping with Christine on his chest. (Insert letter from Ryan to Christine) Dad was always very supportive of us kids. He did not like cheerleaders, and never failed to let me know that, but he always paid for me to participate because he knew it made me happy. If I happy, he was happy. Mom, Dad, and I moved to Utah in 1993 so Ryan could attend the university of Utah. One of his favorite classes was photography and Lisa remembers taking Christine to the photo lab to spend time with him. In August 1995, the family moved back to Idaho and lived In Mud Lake on the farm.I would ride with Ryan In the stacker, or â€Å"snacked† as I called It. Ryan was taking classes at the SIS extension during that time. Ryan and I-Sis were serving as Primary teachers In their ward there- a calling that Ryan loved because he got to be with kids. That was a good time for our family, and we later moved to Roxbury. On August 1 6, 1996, I got my baby brother, Nathan Grant Hill. Dad spent a lot of time with Nathan as a baby because Lisa was working full-time. Lisa remembers he was so happy to have a son. Nathan spent a lot of time with his Dad in the combine. As he grew up, Neaten loved to go fishing and camping with Ryan.He especially liked the homemade bows and arrows and walking sticks that Ryan would carve for him. Ryan and Neaten went on a week-long hunting trip. Ryan bought Nathan a new bow. They didn't get anything, but they had a good time. Even though they loved the outdoors It wasn't always smooth sailing. Neaten and dad were going down the Alpine Slide together, and hit a curve going too fast, and instead of riding the sled down the mountain, Dad was ruling Nettle's face Instead. Neaten has scars on his head from getting hit with tree branches on the head from dad collecting fire wood.Neaten came out with battle wounds, but they always have a good laugh about it later- well, at least dad laughed at Ante's expense. Neaten and Ryan shared a special connection through their love of sports and music. Ryan only missed one of Ante's football games. When Neaten chose his number, he chose the number 11 because he didn't want to be Just like his Dad, but he knew the numbers 1 and added up to 2, which was his Dad's number. When Nathan started wrestling, Ryan posted on his Backbone account, â€Å"Neaten took first in his first wrestling tournament. I love football, but I goat say wrestling Is intense. He loved to watch Neaten wrestle.Lately, Neaten liked playing a game with his Dad where he would play clips of songs and then ask Ryan who sang It, when It was made, and whether It was famous. If my dad would say the song was popular and my Neaten didn't agree he would come back with â€Å"Nobody's heard this song! † When Christine and Nathan were young, Ryan worked as a snowmobile guide in Park City. He was a great guide and met some interesting people, Including ten calculator Attorney General, Ana Kept In touch Walt many AT them. A few days before Christmas in 1996, Ryan got in a snowmobiling accident that hatred his elbow and broke his forearm and scapula.Uncle Dave can remember sitting on Ryan while they tried to reset his dislocated shoulder and thinking how strong he was even in that condition. The first thing he asked when he was coherent was whether his snowmobile was alright. We can all remember being so grateful to have him home that Christmas. In 1998, Ryan moved back to Utah. That summer and fall, he and Lisa, Christine, and Nathan spent almost every weekend camping in the High Ninths. They loved to camp together. It became a family tradition to camp in Zion's National Park over Easter and then drive into SST. George for the annual Easter egg hunt.It was around this time that Ryan got very interested in food. We can all remember the strange things he liked to eat, like oysters and Kipper Snacks. He loved Tobacco sauce and would add it to everyt hing, seriously- everything. But, he not only liked to eat food, he loved to cook it. He had become an amazing cook. He made turkey and oyster dressing for the Hill Family Thanksgiving a couple of years ago and raised the bar for all Thanksgivings to come. He regularly cooked prime rib dinner for the Erickson family on Christmas Eve. Lisa said he could spend 25 minutes kicking out a steak.He loved to cook, but he especially loved to cook for his siblings. While Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Ryan and Aunt Megan and Uncle Shawn were attending BUY, Ryan would invite them over regularly for Sunday dinner and a game of Sequence, until I decided to choke on a game piece, and dad had to stick his finger down my throat to make me throw up. We will miss his good cooking. Ryan started working for OMG in 2002. This was the start of a very successful career in sales. He quickly moved up and became the top salesperson at the company, which later changed its name to Prosper.Most recently, he was leadi ng a sales team at Property. He was good at what he did and became a leader to those he worked with. His co-workers have commented that he was a great leader, mentor, and boss. People genuinely enjoyed working with Ryan and appreciated his kindness, consideration, and generosity. Even those who had worked with him Just a short time, thought of him as a brother and best friend. Lauren Joined the family on September 4, 2003. Lisa calls Lauren their â€Å"Evolve child. † She would not go to anyone other than her Mom and Dad. Ryan did not do anything without holding Lauren.Ryan decided to take Lisa to New York for her birthday after Lauren was born, but they could not leave Lauren so they ended up taking her with them. Ryan read to Lauren every night and Lisa thinks this is why she is such a good reader. Ryan always took his time to answer her questions and never rushed to be done reading. That same year, the family made another whirlwind trip to New York for Thanksgiving. When w e decided to go we spent about an hour on the computer, and six hours later they were on a red-eye flight bound for New York City. They stayed and had Thanksgiving dinner at the Plaza.New York was one of the most memorable trips our family took. Going to see all the sights my dad had random facts to share with us. He was always like a walking encyclopedia! When we first got to New York we walked out of the taxi and the Hotel Bellman at the Plaza saw that my mom had 3 children and was pregnant with another. He asked â€Å"Is there nothing better to do in Utah? † Madeline arrived on April 1, 2005. We all knew that Muddy was Ryan's favorite, no matter now much en terra to any It when en got none Trot work, en would ask where Media was and then spend time all night with her.He told Lisa he Just felt like she needed that time with him. Not long after Media was born, Ryan and Lisa were sealed to their children for time and eternity in the Salt Lake Temple on November 19, 2005. The only way I remember this day was because it was the same day that Santa came to the mall that year. It was a beautiful day and one they had looked forward to for a long time. One of my dad's favorite quotes was, â€Å"l never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it. † Making it to this point wasn't easy, but without a doubt it was worth it.It marked how far our family had come. My dad worked with all his soul to get our family there, and because of that hard work we will be together forever. He always knew that was true, and made sure that his children knew that too. Soon after Media was born, Charlie followed. And when we say soon, we mean it- 9 months and 18 days! Charlie was born on January 18, 2006. Grandma Chris calls Media and Charlie the â€Å"Irish twins† because of how close they are in age. Lisa was determined to have all her babies before she turned 30 and she did.There were some scary moments prior to Charlie's birth because of some issues t it his heart, but when he arrived Ryan and Lisa were thrilled because they really wanted another boy. â€Å"Chuck,† as they call him, looks Just like his Daddy. He also has his sense of adventure. The day of the accident, Charlie was riding his neighbor's dirt bike and couldn't wait to show his Daddy how good he could ride. Ryan was a great Dad. He was extremely patient with his children. He would rather be doing something with his kids than anything else. He taught all of his kids how to ride a bike when they were very young.One of their family traditions was participating in he Freedom Festival activities over the Fourth of July in Provo. Ryan sometimes ran the K and the family always attended the Stadium of Fire with Grandma Knells family. But, their favorite thing to do together as a family was to go boating. The happiest times I can remember were out on the lake. Lisa introduced Ryan to boating because the Erickson are avid boaters. Tom recalls teaching Ryan to water ski on one ski. Ryan could ski with two, but was determined not to be outdone by Lisa who already had slalom skiing mastered. Tom spent most of one day trying to get Ryan up on one ski.He tried and tried and would not give up. Tom kept asking Ryan if he wanted to take a break and Ryan Just kept saying, â€Å"Hit it! † No one could ever say that my dad wasn't a hard worker. Needless to say, Ryan eventually got up and he was hooked. He was happy to go boating with Tom and Chris, with or without Lisa. Eventually, Ryan bought a boat for his family and it became their safe haven. They put hundreds of hours on the boat on Lake Powell, Utah Lake, Deer Creek, Carbondale, and others. They boated during the day and at night. We would go out when it was a full moon, and would hook glow sticks to our life Jackets.The only thing you could see was a little light going back and forth, and in my dad's case that light was moving pretty dang fast. Ryan spent many hours taking Christine and her fr iends on the boat. I don't remember a time when I asked him to go out on the lake with my friends and he said no. I know that we drove him nuts most of the time, but he knew that I loved it. He was always extremely patient in helping us learn to ski, something he must have learned from Tom ;). His kids have wonderful memories of their times together as a family on the boat. The last family vacation they took together was lastAugust. Again on ten spur AT ten moment, Lisa cellar to take ten Kilos to calculator. Three hours later, she and the kids were on the road. We would have left earlier, but I had to teach a cheer camp. The second I was done, we were on the road. Ryan surprised them all by catching a flight and knocking on their hotel door at 1 a. M. We were planning on leaving the day after he got there, but He moved the family to a hotel on Huntington Beach and we got an even longer vacation. The kids remember it being the nicest hotel they had ever stayed at. They had a wonderf ul trip and made lasting memories.

Counseling theory

Rational-emotive therapy stresses the ability of the clients to think on their own and change by making good judgments and taking action. Rational-emotive therapists believed that the problems of the clients are rooted in childhood and in their belief system, which was formed during childhood. The counseling involves method solving and dealing with emotional problems. The counselor assist the client eliminates self-defeating outlooks and perceive life in a rational manner. According to Patrick PK.(2007) rational emotive therapist believed that cognition, and emotion are not incongruent human aspects but are basically, integrated and holistic. In fact, this aspect is marching with other cognitive-behavioral aspects. Some of the strengths of rational-emotive and its application is its simplicity. Rational-emotive takes into consideration development levels as significant when dealing with patients, moreover, rational-emotive therapy have absence of moral perspectives. Rational-emotive therapy is important for counseling profession.Its effectiveness, short-term aspect and low cost are the reasons for its attractiveness. The reality therapist assist the client controls the world around them and satisfy their individual’s needs. The therapists believe that the client can change their life for the better. The therapy looks at the what and the why actions of the clients. Emotional problem is a result of client’s perception and feelings. Reality therapy is thus based on the aspect that client accept the past and begin to behave in a responsible manner. Reality teaches the client a better ways of living and become more effective in satisfying their needs.2. Existential – humanistic tradition Existential therapy is based on freedom of choice in changing one’s life. The therapists believe that the individuals are responsible in shaping their own life and a need for self- awareness. The therapy focuses at the present and at the future life of an individual. The therapists help the client recognize their freedom and perceive their possibilities of their future. They assist the client recognize their responsiveness of the future events. The therapy is well suited to assist the client make good choices affecting their lives.The theory is based on the following core aspects: contact, open participation of each other and mutual influence; genuineness, to be reliable, harmonious, human and transparent; unconditional positive regard, accepting individual’s being despite of his or her behavior; and empathy; understanding the moment experience of an individual. Other basic aspects of human conditions in existentialist approach include capacity for self-awareness, the freedom and responsibility tension, the identity creation and the establishment of effective relationships and the recognizing distress as living conditions.The existentialists uphold that person ability for self-consciousness provides them freedom possibilities as well as recognizing that they are finite and have limited time. Thus individuals are free to choose the available alternatives in living and have an effective responsibility to shape their personal destinies. The result of our choice is based on the way we live and hence individuals should be responsible in directing their lives. The existential therapy focuses at helping clients to reflect on life, identify alternatives and chose the best alternatives.The therapists aimed at making people become aware of how to acknowledge situations and take control so as to shape their lives by looking for options that can create a meaningful life. 3. Logotherapy and gestalt therapy The main aspects of the logotheraphy are based on its need to consider person in their irreducible wholeness, as subjects endowed with values and presenting existential thematic that cannot be dealt with by purely psychological means. Logotherapy therapy begins with the soul and has a true intuitive consciousness and an invariable internationality towards individual’s values.Hence, during therapy, themes that are relating to the meaning of life are placed at the heart of counseling intervention and human behavior guided to search for meaning and existential truth in all of its diverse manifestations. Therapist therefore contrasts various human forms of irresponsibility and led the clients towards the recognition of various possibilities and freedoms inherent in their choices. The therapy provides specific forms of intervention, which include self-transcendence and self-detachment.Everyone experiences moments in life may be considered normal and not really require any attention. However, individual may cope with this experience by forcing the circumstances but only to become knotted in a mesh. To overcome the situation, this therapy used the dereflection method, based on the intentionality concept. Gestalt therapy conversely incorporates the body and mind aspects, by emphasizing consci ousness and integration. Incorporation of behavior, feelings and perception is main aspect in the Gestalt therapy.Patients are perceived as being able to recognize how the impacts of the previous life could change their life. The therapist assist the client realizes their personal responsibilities, avoiding problems; experience thins in a constructive manner and in a present awareness. The therapy lead the client have awareness of every moment in their life experience and challenge the client to accept to take care of themselves instead of others doing for them. 4. Multicultural therapyMulticultural therapy is counseling that involves clients from differing racial, ethnic, and cultural groups and, thus, multicultural clients refer to clients from minority populations. It is significant to include cultural aspects when dealing with multicultural clients. Incorporating cultural variables in the therapeutic process requires one to be literate in ethnic and cultural information. Eliciti ng cultural information from clients allows the counselor to work with many diverse clients without having to become experts on particular ethnic groups.Hence, counselors must recognize the necessity of ethnic knowledge and cultural information elicited in conversations with clients. Multicultural therapist share common aspects, which include exploring client’s worldview, considering the role of acculturation, and taking additional roles. Exploring clients' worldviews is a fundamental part of multicultural therapy. Therapists must find out the similarity and differences of the client’s value system from the country of origin as well as system in the destination country.Exploration enables counselors to get information concerning how the clients view themselves after being exposed to new cultures. Acculturation is a vital aspect in exploring cultural issues. It is adjustment in which individuals from other culture are subjected to when entering a new culture. Therapist must look at the adaptative strategy that clients are deducing during therapy to assess accurately their level of acculturation. The clients should be encouraged to adjust the old rules for the actual consideration of the current situations.Lastly, when dealing with clients of minority cultures, the counselors are encouraged to take on additional rules. These include changing the idea of counseling as visualized and institutionalized in this county and enfold further styles of intervention. Such addition includes consulting help agencies and elucidating process and laws unusual to the client (Patrick, 2007). Reference: Patrick PK. (2007). Internet counseling: trend, application & ethical issues. In: Patrick PK (ed). Contemporary Issues in therapy. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 27~28

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN The Found World The whale ship opened its mouth, and Nate and the crew spilled out onto the shore like sentient drool, which was some coincidence, since that's exactly what lay beneath the hard shell of the landing. They were met by a group of whaley boys, one of whom handed Nate a pair of Nikes, then went off to trade clicks and squeals and greeting rubs with the returning crew. It was so bright after nearly ten days in the whale ship that Nate couldn't immediately tell what was happening. The rest of the human crew were wearing sunglasses as they sat down on the ground to put on their shoes, only a few feet from the ship's mouth. From the rigid feel of the ground, Nate thought they might be on a dock of some kind, but then Cal Burdick took off his own sunglasses and handed them to Nate. â€Å"Go ahead. I've been looking at all of this for a lot of years, but I think you'll find it interesting.† With the dark glasses, Nate was able to see. His eyes were fine, but his mind was having a hard time processing what they were telling him. It was as light as daylight (on an overcast day, at least), but they were not outdoors. They were inside a grotto so immense that Nate could not even make out the edges of it. A dozen stadiums could have fit inside the space and still left room for a state fair, a casino, and the Vatican if you snipped off a basilica or two. The entire ceiling was a source of light, cold light, it appeared – some sections yellow, some blue – great blotches of light in irregular shapes, as if Jackson Pollock had painted a solar storm across the ceiling. Half of the grotto was water, flat and reflective as a mirror, the smoothness broken by small whaley boys porpoising here and there in groups of five and six, their blowholes sending up synchronized blasts of steam every few yards. Whaley kids, he thought. Fifty or so whale ships of different spec ies pulled up to the shore, their crews coming and going. Huge segmented pipes that looked like giant earthworms were attached to each of the ships, one on each side of the head, and ran off to connections on shore. The ground – the ground was red, and as hard as linoleum, polished, yet not quite shiny. It ran out for hundreds of yards, perhaps over a mile, and appeared to continue halfway up the walls of the immense grotto. Nate could see openings in the walls, oval passages or doorways or tunnels or something. From the size of the people and whaley boys passing in and out, he could tell that some of the openings were perhaps thirty feet around, while others seemed only the size of normal doors. There were windows next to some of the smaller ones – or what he guessed were windows – their shapes all curves and slopes. There wasn't a right angle in the grotto. Hundreds of people moved about amid as many whaley boys, maintaining the ships, moving supplies an d equipment on what seemed very normal hand trucks and carts. â€Å"Where in the hell are we?† Nate said, nearly wrenching his neck trying to look at all of it at once. â€Å"I mean, what in the hell is this?† â€Å"Pretty amazing,† Cal said. â€Å"I like to watch people when they see Gooville for the first time.† Nate ran his hand over the ground, or floor, or whatever this surface was they were sitting on. â€Å"What is this stuff?† It appeared smooth, but it had texture, pores, a hidden roughness, like stoneware or – â€Å"It's living carapace. Like a lobster shell. This whole place is living, Nate. Everything – the ceiling, the floor, the walls, the passageway in from the sea, our homes – it's all one huge organism. We call it the Goo.† â€Å"The Goo. Then this is Gooville?† â€Å"Yes,† Cal said, with a big smile that revealed perfect teeth. â€Å"And that would make you?† â€Å"That's right. The Goos. There's a wonderful Seussian logic to it, don't you think?† â€Å"I can't think, Cal. You know how all your life you hear people talk about things that are mind-boggling? It's just a meaningless clich – a hyperbole – like saying that you're wasted or that something is bloodcurdling?† â€Å"Yep.† â€Å"Well, I'm boggled. I'm totally boggled.† â€Å"You thought the ships were impressive, huh?† â€Å"Yeah, but this? One living organism shaped itself into this complex†¦ what? System? I'm boggled.† â€Å"Imagine how the bacteria who live in your intestinal tract feel about you.† â€Å"Well, right now I think they're pissed off at me.† A group of whaley boys was gathering about ten yards away from them, pointing at Nate and snickering. â€Å"They're coming down to check out the newcomer. Don't be surprised if you get rubbed up against in the streets. They're just saying hi.† â€Å"Streets?† â€Å"We call them streets. They're sort of streets.† Now, out of the dim yellow light of the whale ships, Nate realized that there was a wide variety in the whaley boys' coloring. Some were actually mottled blue, like the skin of a blue whale, while others were black like a pilot whale, or light gray like a minke whale. Some even had the black-on-white coloring of killers and Pacific white-sided dolphins, while a few here and there were stark white like a beluga. The body shapes of all were very similar, differing only in size, with the killer whaley boys, who were taller by a foot and heavier by perhaps a hundred pounds, having jaws twice the width of the others'. He also noticed in the brighter light that he was the only human who had a tan. The people, even Cal and the crew, looked healthy; it just appeared that none of them had ever seen the sun. Like the British. Nuà ±ez came over and helped Cal, and then Nate, to his feet. â€Å"How're the shoes?† she asked Nate. â€Å"They're strange after not wearing any for so long.† â€Å"You'll be wobbly for a few hours, too. You'll feel the motion when you stand still for a day or so. No different from having been at sea in normal ship. I'll take you to your new quarters, show you around a little, get you settled in. The Colonel will probably send for you before too long. People will help you out, humans and whaley boys. They'll all know you're new.† â€Å"How many, Cielle?† â€Å"Humans? Almost five thousand live here. Whaley boys, maybe half that many.† â€Å"Where is here? Where are we?† â€Å"I told him about Gooville,† said Cal. Nuà ±ez looked up at Nate and then pulled her sunglasses down on her nose so he could see her eyes. â€Å"Don't freak out on me, huh?† Nate shook his head. What did she think, that whatever she was going to tell him was going to be weirder, grander, or scarier than what he'd seen already? â€Å"The roof above this ceiling – which is thick rock, although we're not exactly sure how thick – anyway, it's around six hundred feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. We're about two hundred miles off the coast of Chile, under the continental shelf. In fact, we came in through a cliff in the continental rise, a cliff face. â€Å"We're six hundred feet underwater right now. The pressure?† â€Å"We came in through a very long tunnel, a series of pressure locks that pass the ships along until we're at surface pressure. I would have shown you as we came through, but I didn't want to wake you.† â€Å"Yeah, thanks for that.† â€Å"Let's get you to your new house. We've got a long walk ahead of us.† She headed away from the water, motioning for him to follow. Nate nearly stumbled trying to look back at the whale ships lining the harbor. Tim caught him by the arm. â€Å"It's a lot to take in. People really have freaked out. You just have to accept that the Goo won't let anything bad happen to you. The rest is simply a series of surprises. Like life.† Nate looked into the younger man's dark eyes to see if there was any irony showing there, but he was as open and sincere as a bowl of milk. â€Å"The Goo will take care of me?† â€Å"That's right,† said Tim, helping him along toward the grotto wall, toward the actual village of Gooville, with its organically shaped doorways and windows, its knobs and nodules, its lobster-shell pathways, its whaley-boy pods working together or playing in the water, where was housed an entire village of what Nate assumed were all happy human wackjobs. After two days of looking for meaning in hash marks on waveforms and ones and ohs on legal pads that were hastily typed into the machine, Kona found a surfer/hacker on the North Shore named Lolo who agreed to write it all into a Linux routine in exchange for Kona's old long board and a half ounce of the dankest nugs[1]. â€Å"Won't he just take cash?† asked Clay. â€Å"He's an artist,† explained Kona. â€Å"Everyone has cash.† â€Å"I don't know what I'm going to put that under for the accountant.† â€Å"Nugs, dank?† Clay looked forlornly at the legal-pad pages piling up on the desk next to where Margaret Painborne was typing. He handed a roll of bills over to Kona. â€Å"Go. Buy nugs. Bring him back. Bring back my change.† â€Å"I'm throwing in my board for the cause,† said Kona. â€Å"I could use some time in the mystic myself.† â€Å"Do you want me to tell Auntie Clair that you tried to extort me?† Clay had taken to using Clair as a sort of sword of Damocles/assistant principal/evil dominatrix threat over Kona, and it seemed to work swimmingly. â€Å"Must blaze, brah. Cool runnings.† Suddenly something sparked in Clay's head, a dj vu trigger snapping electric with connections. â€Å"Wait, Kona.† The surfer paused in the doorway, turned. â€Å"The first day you came here, the day that Nate sent you to the lab to get the film – did you actually do it?† Kona shook his head, â€Å"Nah, boss, the Snowy Biscuit see me going. She say keep the money and she go to the lab. When I come back with my ganja, she give me the pictures to give to Nate.† â€Å"I was sort of afraid of that,† Clay said. â€Å"Go, blaze, be gone. Get what we need.† So three days later they all stood watching as Lolo hit the return key and the subsonic waveform from a blue-whale call began scrolling across the bottom of the screen, while above it letters were transcribed from the data. Lolo was a year older than Kona, a Japanese-American burned nut brown by the sun with ducky-yellow minidreads and a tapestry of Maori tattoos across his back and shoulders. Lolo spun in the chair to face them. â€Å"I mixed down a fifty-minute trance track with sixty percussion loops that was way harder than this.† Lolo's prior forays into sound processing had been as a computer DJ at a dance club in Honolulu. â€Å"It's not saying anything,† said Libby Quinn. â€Å"It's just random, Clay.† â€Å"Well, that's the way it's gone so far, right?† â€Å"But there's been nothing since that first day.† â€Å"We knew that might happen, that there couldn't be messages on all of them. We just have to find the right ones.† Libby's eyes were pleading. â€Å"Clay, it's a short season. We have to get out in the field. Now that you have this program, you don't need the manpower. Margaret and I will bring back more tapes – we have them coming in from people we trust – but we can't afford to blow off the season.† â€Å"And we need to go public with the torpedo range,† Margaret added, less sympathetic than Libby had been. Clay nodded and looked at his bare feet against the hardwood floor. He took a deep breath, and when he looked up, he smiled. â€Å"You're right. But don't just blow a whistle and hope someone will notice. Cliff Hyland told me that the diving data was the only thing they were worried about. You're going to need proof that humpbacks dive close to the bottom of the channel, or the navy will claim that you're just being whale buggers and there's no danger to the animals. Even with the range.† â€Å"You're okay if we go public, then?† asked Libby. â€Å"People are going to know about the torpedo range soon enough. I don't think that's dangerous for you. Just don't say anything about the rest of this, okay?† The two women looked at each other, then nodded. â€Å"We have to go,† Libby said. â€Å"We'll call you, Clay. We're not running out on you.† â€Å"I know,† Clay said. After they left, Clay turned to the two surfers. Thirty years working with the best scientists and divers in the world, and this was what it came down to: two stoner kids. â€Å"If you guys need to go do things, I understand.† â€Å"Outta here,† said Lolo, on his feet and bounding toward the door. Clay looked at the screen where Lolo had been sitting. Scrolling across it: WILL ARRIVE GV APPRX 1300 MONDAY__HAVE__SIZE 11 SNEAKERS WAITING FOR QUINN__END MSS__AAAA__BAXYXABUDAB. â€Å"Get him back,† Clay said to Kona. â€Å"We need to know which tape this was.† â€Å"Libby gave them all to him.† â€Å"I know that. I need to know where she got it. Where and when it was recorded. Call Libby's cell phone. See if you can get hold of her.† Clay was trying to make the screen print before the message scrolled away. â€Å"How the hell does this thing work?† â€Å"How you know I'm not leaving?† â€Å"You woke up this morning, Kona. Did you have a reason to get out of bed other than waves or pot?† â€Å"Yah, mon, need to find Nate.† â€Å"How'd that feel?† â€Å"I'm calling Libby, boss.† â€Å"Loyalty is important, son. I'll go catch Lolo. Confirm which tape it was.† â€Å"Shut up, boss. I'm trying to dial.† Behind them the cryptic message scrolled out of the printer. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT Single-Celled Animal Stockholm syndrome or not, Nate was starting to get tired of the whole hippie-commune, everything-is-wonderful-and-the-Goo-will-provide attitude. Nuà ±ez had come by for three days running to take him out on the town, and every person he met was just a little too damn satisfied with the whole idea that they were living inside a giant organism six hundred feet under the ocean. Like this was a normal thing. Like he just wasn't getting with the program because he continued to ask questions. At least the whaley boys would blow wet raspberries at him and snicker as he walked by. At least they had some sense of the absurdity of all this, despite the fact that they shouldn't even have existed in the first place, which did seem to be a large point of denial on their part. They'd installed him in what he guessed was a premier apartment, or what you'd call an apartment, on the second floor, looking out over the grotto. The windows were oval, and the glass in them, although perfectly clear, was flexible. It was like looking out on the world through a condom, and that was just the beginning of the things that creeped him out about this place. He had a kitchen sink, a bathroom sink, and a shower – all of which had big honking sphincters in the bottom of them – and the seal on the door around his refrigerator, if that's what you called it, appeared to be made out of slugs, or at least something that left an iridescent slime on you if you brushed up against it. There was also a toothed garbage disposal in the kitchen, which he wouldn't even go near. The worst of it was that the apartment didn't make any attempt to conceal that it was alive. His first day there, when the human crew from the whale ship had come by for a drink – a ho usewarming – there had been a scaly knob on the wall by the front door that when pushed would cause the door to open. After the crew left and Nate returned from his shower, the doorknob had healed over. There was a scar there in the shell, but that was all. Nate was locked in. There was a tom-tom thrumming of stones hitting his front picture window. Nate went to the window, looked out on the vast grotto and harbor, then down on the source of his torment. A pod of whaley-boy kids was winging stones at his window. Thump, thump-a, thump. The stones bounced off, leaving no mark. When Nate appeared at the window, the thumping became more furious, as the whaley kids picked up the pace and aimed right at him, as if a well-placed shot might drop him in a dunking tank. â€Å"There's a reason cetaceans don't have hands in the real world!† Nate screamed at them. â€Å"You are that reason! You little freaks!† Thump, thump-a, thump, thump, clack. Occasionally a missed throw hit the shell-like frame of the window, sounding like a marble hitting tile. I sound like Old Man Spangler yelling at my brother and me for raiding his apple trees, Nate thought. When did I turn into that guy? I don't want to be that guy. There was a soft knock on the shell of his front door. As he turned, the door flipped open like shutters, two pieces of shell retracting on muscles hidden in the wall. Nate felt like a surprised box turtle. Cielle Nuà ±ez stood in the doorway with canvas shopping bags folded under her arm. She was a pleasant woman, attractive, competent, and non-threatening; Nate was sure that's why she'd been chosen to be his guide. â€Å"You ready to do some shopping, Nate? I called to tell you I was coming, but you didn't answer.† The apartment had a speaking apparatus, a sort of ornate tube thing that whistled and buzzed green metallic beetle wings when there was a call. Nate was afraid of it. â€Å"Cielle, can we drop any pretense that we are just buddies out for the day? You lock me in here when you leave.† â€Å"For your own safety.† â€Å"Somehow that always seems to be the argument the jailer uses.† â€Å"You want to go get some food and clothes or not?† Nate shrugged and followed her out the door. They walked along the perimeter of the grotto, which seemed a cross between an old English village and an Art Nouveau hobbit housing project: irregularly shaped doors and windows looking into shops that displayed baked goods and other prepared foods. Evidently the Goo wasn't big on having fire around for home cooking. All the cooked foods were prepared somewhere else in the complex. There was a warming cabinet in Nate's apartment that looked like a breadbox made out of a giant armadillo shell. It worked great. You rolled the top open, put the food in, then promptly lost your appetite. â€Å"Let's get you something to wear today,† Cielle said. â€Å"Those khakis are on loan. Only the whale-ship crews are supposed to wear them.† As they walked, a half dozen whaley kids followed them, chirping and giggling all the way. â€Å"So I'd get in trouble if I started kicking whaley kids down the street?† â€Å"Of course,† Cielle laughed. â€Å"We have laws here, just like anywhere else.† â€Å"Evidently not ones that forbid kidnapping and unjustified imprisonment.† Nuà ±ez stopped and grabbed his arm. â€Å"Look, what are you complaining about? This is a good place to be. You're not being mistreated. Everyone's been kind to you. What's the problem?† â€Å"What's the problem? The problem is that all you people were yanked out of your lives, taken away from your families and friends, taken from everything that you knew, and you all act like it doesn't bother you in the least. Well, it bothers me, Cielle. It fucking bothers me a lot. And I don't understand this whole colony, or city, or whatever this thing is. How does it even exist without anyone knowing about it? In all these years, why has no one gotten out and spoiled the secret of this place?† â€Å"I told you, we were all going to drown –  » â€Å"Bullshit. I don't buy that for a second. That gratitude toward your rescuer only lasts for a short while. I've seen it. It doesn't take over your life. Everyone I've met is blissed out. You people worship the Goo, don't you?† â€Å"Nate, you don't want to be locked in, you won't be locked in. You can have the run of Gooville – go anywhere you want. There's hundreds of miles of passages. Some of them even I haven't seen. Go. Leave the grotto and go down any one of those passages. But you know what? You'll be back looking for your apartment tonight. You are not a prisoner, you're just living in a different place and a different way.† â€Å"You didn't answer my question.† â€Å"The Goo is the source, Nate. You'll see. The Colonel – ; â€Å"Fuck the Colonel. The Colonel is a fucking myth.† â€Å"Should we get some coffee? You seem grumpy.† â€Å"Damn it, Cielle, my caffeine headache is not relevant.† Actually it was, sort of. He hadn't had any coffee today. â€Å"Besides, how do I know it's coffee we're drinking? It's probably some mutant sea otter/coffee bean hybrid beverage.† â€Å"Is that what you want?† â€Å"No, that's not what I want. What I want is a doorknob. And not an organic nodule thing – I want a dead doorknob. One that always has been dead, too. Not something that you used to be friends with.† Cielle Nuà ±ez had backed away from him several feet, and the whaley kids who'd been following them had quieted down and gone into a defensive pod formation, the big kids on the outside. People who were out walking, and who normally made a point of nodding and smiling as they passed, took a wide detour around Nate. There was an inordinate amount of whistling among the milling whaley boys. â€Å"That going to do it for you?† Nu;ez asked. â€Å"A doorknob. I get you a doorknob, you're a happy man?† Why should he be embarrassed? Because he'd scared the kids? Because he'd made his captors uncomfortable? Nevertheless, he was embarrassed. â€Å"I could use some earplugs, too, if you have them. For sleeping.† For ten hours out of twenty-four, the grotto went dark. Cielle explained that this was for the comfort of the humans, to help them keep some semblance of their normal circadian rhythms. People needed day and night – without the change many people couldn't sleep. The problem was, the whaley boys didn't sleep. They rested, but they didn't sleep. So when the grotto went dark, they went on about their business. In the dark, however, they were all constantly emitting sonar clicks. At night the grotto sounded like it was being marched upon by an army of tap dancers. Consequently, so did Nate's apartment. Nu;ez nodded. â€Å"We can probably do that. You want to go get a steaming hot cup of sea otter now?† â€Å"What?† â€Å"I'm just kidding. Lighten up, Nate.† â€Å"I want to go home.† He'd said it before he even realized it. â€Å"That's not going to happen. But I'll send word. I think it's time you met with the Colonel.† They spent the day going to shops. Nate found some cotton slacks that fitted him, some socks and underwear, and a pile of T-shirts from one tiny shop. There was no currency exchanged. Nuà ±ez would just nod to the shopkeeper, and Nate would take what he needed. There was little variety in any of the shops, and most of what they carried was goods from the real world: clothes, fabric, books, razor blades, shoes, and small electronics. But a few shops carried items that appeared to have been grown or made right there in Gooville: toothbrushes, soaps, lotions. All the packaging seemed to come out of the seventeenth century – the shopkeepers wrapped parcels in a ubiquitous oilcloth that Nate thought smelled vaguely of seaweed and indeed had the same olive color as giant kelp. Patrons brought their own jars to carry oils, pickles, and other soft goods. Nate had seen everything from a modern mayonnaise jar to hand-thrown crockery that had to have been made a hundred years ago. â€Å"How long, Cielle?† he asked as he watched a shopkeeper count sugared dates into a hand-blown glass jar and seal it with wax. â€Å"How long have people been down here?† She followed his gaze to the jar. â€Å"We get a lot of the surface goods from shipwrecks, so don't be impressed if you see antiques; the sea is a good preserver. We may have salvaged it only a week ago. A friend of mine keeps potatoes in a Grecian wine amphora that's two thousand years old.† â€Å"Yeah, and I'm using the Holy Grail to catch my spare change. How long?† â€Å"You are so hostile today. I don't know how long, Nate. A long time.† He had dozens, hundreds more questions, like where the hell did they get potatoes when they didn't have sunlight to grow anything? They weren't bringing potatoes up from a shipwreck. But Cielle was letting him get only so far before claiming ignorance. They had lunch at a four-stool lunch counter where the proprietor was a striking Irishwoman with stunning green eyes and a massive spill of red hair and who, like everyone, it seemed, knew Cielle and knew who Nate was. â€Å"Got you a Walkman then, Dr. Quinn? Whaley boys will drive you to drink with that sonar at night.† â€Å"We're going to get him some earplugs today, Brennan,† Cielle said. â€Å"Music, that's the way to wash the whaley-boy whistles,† the woman said. Then she was off to her kitchen. The walls of the cafe were decorated with a collection of antique beer trays, glued in place, as Nate had learned, with an adhesive that was similar to what barnacles secreted to fasten themselves to ships. Nailing things up was frowned upon, as the walls would bleed for a while if injured. Nate took a bite of his sandwich, meatballs and mozzarella on good crusty French bread. â€Å"How?† he asked Cielle, blowing crumbs on the counter. â€Å"How does any of this stuff get made if there's no flame?† Cielle shrugged. â€Å"No idea. A bakery, I'd guess. They make all the prepared food outside the grotto. I've never been there.† â€Å"You don't know how? How can that be?† Cielle Nuà ±ez put down her own sandwich and leaned on one elbow, smiling at Nate. She had remarkably kind eyes, and Nate had to remind himself that she had been ordered to be his friend. Interesting, he thought, that they'd choose a woman. Was she bait? â€Å"You ever read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Nate?† â€Å"Of course, everybody does.† â€Å"And that guy goes back to Camelot from the late nineteenth century and dazzles everyone with his scientific knowledge, mainly because he can make gunpowder, right?† â€Å"Yes, so?† â€Å"You're a scientist, so you might do better than most, but take your average citizen, a guy who works at a discount store, say. Drop him in the twelfth century, you know what he'll achieve?† â€Å"Make your point?† â€Å"Death by bacterial infection, more than likely. And the last words on his lips will probably be, ‘There's such a thing as an antibiotic, really. My point is, I don't know how this stuff is made because I haven't needed to know. Nobody knows how to make the things they use. I suppose I could find out and get back to you, but I promise you I'm not holding out on you just to be mysterious. We do a lot of salvage on the whale ships, and we have a trade network into the real world that gets us a lot of our goods. When a freighter leaves pallets of goods for the people on remote islands in the Pacific, all they know is that they've been paid and they've delivered to shore. They don't stay to see who takes the goods away. The old-timers say that it used to be that the Goo provided everything. Nothing came in from the outside that wasn't on their backs when they got here.† Nate took a bite of his sandwich and nodded as if considering what she'd just said. Since he'd arrived in Gooville, he had spent every waking moment thinking about two things: one, how this whole place could possibly function; and two, how to get out of it. The Goo had to get energy from somewhere. The energy to light the huge grotto alone would require tens of millions of calories. If it got energy from outside, maybe you could use that same pathway to get out. â€Å"So do you guys feed it? The Goo?† â€Å"No.† â€Å"Well, then-â€Å" â€Å"Don't know, Nate. I just don't know. How does dry-cleaning work?† â€Å"Well, I assume that they use solvents, that, uh – Look, biologists don't have a lot of stuff that needs to be dry-cleaned. I'm sure it's not that complicated a process.† â€Å"Yeah, well, right back at you on all of your questions about the Goo.† Cielle stood and gathered up her parcels. â€Å"Let's go, Nate. I'm taking you back to your apartment. Then I'm going right to the whaley-boy den and find out if they can get the Colonel to see you. Today.† Nate still had a couple bites of his sandwich left. â€Å"Hey, I've still got a couple of bites of my sandwich left,† he said. â€Å"Really? Well, did you ask yourself where in Gooville we got meatballs? What sort of meat might be in them?† Nate dropped his sandwich. â€Å"Bit of the whining wussy boy, aren't we?† said Brennan as she came out of the kitchen to take away their plates. Nate was reading a cheesy lawyer novel that he'd found in the small library in his apartment when the whaley boys came for him. There were three of them, two large males with killer-whale coloring and a smaller female blue. Only when the blue squeaked â€Å"Hi Nate† in a mashed-elf voice did he recognize it as Emily 7. â€Å"Wow, hi, Emily. Is just Emily okay, or should I always say the Seven?† Nate always felt awkward with someone afterward, even if there wasn't anything for the ward to be after. She crossed her arms over her chest and bugged out her left eye at him. â€Å"Okay,† Nate said, moving on, â€Å"I guess we'll be going, then. Did you see my new doorknob? Brand-new. Stainless steel. I realize it doesn't go with everything else, but, you know, it feels a little like freedom.† Right, Nate. It's a doorknob, he thought. They led him around the perimeter of the grotto, beyond the village, and into one of the huge passageways that led away from the grotto. They walked for half an hour, tracing a labyrinth of passageways that got narrower and narrower the farther off they went, the bright red lobster-shell surface fading into something that looked like mother-of-pearl the deeper in they went. It glowed faintly, just enough so they could see where they were going. Finally the passageway started to broaden again and open into a large room that looked like some sort of oval amphitheater, all of it pearlescent and providing its own light. Benches lined the walls around the room, all in view of a wide ramp that led to a round portal the size of a garage door, closed now with an iris of black shell. â€Å"Ooooh, the great and powerful Oz will see you now,† Nate said. The whaley boys, who normally found practically anything funny, just looked away. One of the black-and-whites started whistling a soft tune from his blowhole. â€Å"In the Hall of the Mountain King† or a Streisand tune – something creepy, Nate thought. Emily 7 backhanded the whistler in the chest, and he stopped abruptly. Then she put her hand on Nate's shoulder and gestured for him to go up the steps to the round portal. â€Å"Okay, I guess this is it.† Nate started backing up the ramp as the whaley boys started backing away from him. â€Å"You guys better not leave me, because I'll never find my way back.† Emily 7 grinned, that lovely hack-a-salmon-in-half smile of hers, and waved him on. â€Å"Thanks, Em. You look good, you know. Did I mention? Shiny.† He hoped shiny was good. The iris opened behind him, and the whaley boys fell to their knees and touched their lower jaws to the floor. Nate turned to see that the pearlescent ramp led into a vibrant red chamber that was pulsing with light and glistening with moisture as the walls appeared to breathe. Now, this looked like a living thing – the inside of a living thing. Really much more what he'd expected to see when the whale had eaten him. He made his way forward. A few steps in, the ramp melded into the reddish flesh, which Nate could now see was shot through with blood vessels and what might be nerves. He couldn't get the size of the space he was in. It just seemed to expand to receive him and contract behind him, as if a bubble were moving along with him inside it. When the iris disappeared into the pink Goo, Nate felt a wave of panic go through him. He took a deep breath – damp, fecund air – and strangely enough he remembered what Poynter and Poe had told him back on the humpb ack ship: It's easier if you just accept that you're already dead. He took another deep breath and ventured forward a few more feet, then stopped. â€Å"I feel like a friggin' sperm in here!† he yelled. What the hell, he was dead anyway. â€Å"I'm supposed to have a meeting with the Colonel.† On cue, the Goo began to open in front of him, like the view of a flower opening from the inside. A brighter light illuminated the newly opened chamber, now just large enough to house Nate, another person, and about ten feet of conversational distance. Reclining in a great pink mass of goo, dressed in tropical safari wear and a San Francisco Giants baseball hat, was the Colonel. â€Å"Nathan Quinn, good to see you. It's been a long time,† he said.