Creating Your Dream Job Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Creating Your Dream Job - Essay Example But, as I matured I came to discover my sheer love for kids and teenagers. They are like fine clay which can be moulded into a great art form if they land in the hands of a teacher who inspire. I believe guiding the students morally in their formative years will put an end to many evils in this country. I hope to start my teaching career in the Wellesley high school a famous institution with nearly 1300 students and 75 teachers. People working in the school with the right qualification and over 8 years of experience are selected for the post of the principal through internal recruitment. External recruitment for such reliable position is considered to be costly, time consuming and a tedious process (Armstrong, 1984) by the board members of Wellesley high school. Job Specifications for the High School Principal Post Management and Quality 1. Should manage the school by leading the staff, inspiring the students to work hard and ensure the school is administered well. There are many mod els in organizational management like the motivational model and the mechanistic model. The motivational model will best in this atmosphere. Motivational model requires a leader to train his employees well, remove boredom from work and provide them interesting situations to work with where they can easily unleash their creativity (John, 1989). The greatest challenge the Wellesley school faces is finding and retaining good teachers. So the principle 2. Should be capable of tackling high attrition using innovative motivational theory based ideas. 3. Can frame any new policies regarding the maintenance and development of the school. 4. Should report to the board about how the new policies have influenced the staff and the students positively during the annual review. Adherence to the Rules Ensure every government regulation related to hiring of staff, setting their remuneration, admission of students, performance evaluation and safety of students is followed precisely without any compe nsation. Implementation of Equality 1. The principal should address the various complaints arising from the staff and among the staff immediately. 2. Guarantee no discrimination based on sex, age, race or any other inclination is prevalent in the Wellesley campus in the way the staffs are treated. Finance Management 1. Demonstrate efficient budget management as the principal is the sole repository for all the finance handled in the school. 2. Maintain clear records regarding the fees collected in the school, the subsidiaries given by the government and the donations collected, with the help of his office staff. 3. Prepare quarterly estimates to be submitted in the board audits. The board will conduct financial audits in three months gap to ensure smooth flow of cash and precise reports regarding money handling are maintained. 4. Use the available resources effectively for the development of the school in every way he deems fit like building new classrooms, rolling out new appraisal packages for the staff, recruiting more helpers etc. Student and Staff Handling A school is an organization where collective and organizational learning should be given ample importance. Every principal should be well fledged in tactics like HRM which will help in gaining competitive advantage over others with the help of the staff (Pravin, 2010). The principal should 1. Convert the school environment into a fun filled and cheerful one. The students

Primary color Essay Example for Free

Primary color Essay Light reveals a world of colors by painting everything it touches. Our plain and soulless furniture gains meaning. Our brown bookshelf, gray study table, green mug carpets, rugs, curtains the yellow wheat fields in the harvest picture, the blue china vase, our favorite brown sweater the striking green of a tree surrounded by concrete buildings, the blue sky, and the carousel of life that becomes worth living by being embellished with colors. Lets travel through the wonderful world of colors. Each color conceals a story. Some virtuous and sensitive eyes see the truth through them, while others see rage, anger, and all the evils dictated by the alter ego. Colors carry such feelings as anger and hope, and symbolize such concepts as sinfulness and innocence. They are abused or sacrificed, and widely preferred or despised. Literally, color is a phenomenon of light or visual perception that enables people to differentiate otherwise identical objects. Being one of matters distinguishing characteristics, in a sense its meanings are the meanings of life. As truth is interwoven with life, truth might be viewed through colors. Their Influence on People The most important aspect of color in daily life is probably the aesthetic and psychological responses that they evoke†our psychological perception†and the resulting influences on art, fashion, commerce, and even physical and emotional sensations. For example, reds, oranges, yellows, and browns are warm, whereas blues, greens, and grays are cold. Reds, oranges, and yellows are said to induce excitement, cheerfulness, stimulation, and aggression; blues and greens to induce security, calm, and peace; and browns, grays, and blacks to bring sadness, depression, and melancholy. However, we can only generalize about such subjective perceptions. Age, mood, mental health, and other factors affect color perception. People sharing distinct personal traits often share color perceptions and preferences. For example, schizophrenics are said to have abnormal color perception, and very young children learning to distinguish colors usually prefer red or orange. Many psychologists believe that analyzing ones use of and response to color reveals relevant physiological and psychological information. Some even suggest that specific colors have a therapeutic effect on physical and mental disabilities. In China, India, and Japan, colors are used in alternative medicine. Orange is considered good for depression, yellow for diabetes, green for ulcers and spiritual fatigue, and blue-violet for epilepsy. What is important here is the bodys receptor of color, such as eyes or skin. Each colors wavelength carries and transmits energy to the bodily part having that color. This energy removes physical and emotional disorders, and colorful rays directly influence the neural system. Thus, different illnesses are treated with different rays of colors having different tones and impacts. Although these medical benefits are still in question, color does cause definite physical and emotional reactions. Rooms and objects that are white or have light shades of cool colors may seem larger than those with intense dark or warm colors. As designers and decorators know, black or very dark colors have a slimming or shrinking effect. A cool room decorated in pale blue requires a higher thermostat setting than a warm room painted pale orange to achieve the same sensation of warmth. People viewing unusual colors produced by special illumination may experience headaches and nervous disorders. Tasty wholesome food served under such conditions appears repulsive and may induce illness. Other colors induce pleasure. When an affectively positive or pleasurably perceived color is viewed after a less pleasant color, it produces more pleasure than when viewed by itself. This effect is known as affective contrast enhancement. What Colors Have Experienced Colors are not universal. Some languages do not have separate words for green and blue or yellow and orange, whereas Eskimos use 17 different words for white to describe different snow conditions. Comparing color terminology reveals certain consistent patterns. All languages have designations for black and white. If a third hue is distinguished, it is red; next comes yellow or green, and then other colors. Consider soccer fanatics who so love their teams colors that they tear and burn the other teams flag. They dye their hair and faces yellow-red, blue-white, or red-white to match their teams colors, but cannot stand the opponents colors. They taunt the opposing team with clothes in their own teams colors, even to the extent of injury or death. Most important, they gain identity, send a message, and enjoy the confidence that comes with belonging to a peer group. Colors are gifts, not a cause of separatism. As sociologist Orhan Kologlu points out, people of different religions and nations chose different colors. In the Balkans, blue and white are considered to be Greeces colors (its flag is blue and white). During conflicts, people do not use the colors of other nations flags. But this is emotional and irrational, for no nation owns a color. During a time of Turkishâ€Å"Greek tension, red-white clothes were despised in Greece, and blue-white clothes in Turkey. Bulent Ecevit (current prime minister of Turkey) broke a taboo with his poem Blue Magic, which contains the lines: Like a blue magic, lies a warm sea between us / We are two nations, as beautiful as the other, at its shores. He also chose blue and white as his political partys colors. Ironically, this party whose emblem is in Greek (! ) colors now is now in power Turkey. A nations color choices change over time. Ancient Turks considered blue as sacred, for it was the color of the sky. Some Turkic nations still use it as their national color. In medieval Europe, blue stood for nobility and aristocracy, and the latter were believed to have blue blood. But in America, blue is associated with low spirits, melancholy, and depression (a blue funk). For women it means learned and intellectual, while in morality it means puritanical. It also means profane or indecent (blue movies), off-color or risquA © (blue jokes), and a kind of music (the Blues) dominated by sad and melancholic themes. Red and black are most commonly associated with sociopolitical conflict. For years red symbolized violence, pillage, murder, oppression, anti-democracy, and terrorism. In emotional terms, it means a face flushed with anger or embarrassment (red in the face), or bloody (red eyes). In politics, it means inciting or endorsing radical sociopolitical change, especially by force, as in red uprising or anything associated with communism (the former USSRs Red Square). There are even two Red armies: the Soviet army established after the 1917 Revolution, and the Japanese Red Army formed in 1969. The first was renowned for its strict penal codes and discipline, such as punishing battalions by sending them on suicide missions. New regulations in 1960 considerably lightened the Soviet Armys redness. The second army, a small-structured Japanese terrorist organization, remained active until 1990. Italys Red Brigades, an extreme left-wing terrorist organization, chose red and violence as it sought to prepare 1970s Italy for a Marxist uprising. Chinese revolutionaries seeking to end Chinas traditional culture chose red and violence, as did Cambodias radical Khmer Rouge (Red Khmers). This latter group massacred an entire generation, an estimated 1.5 million people out of an estimated population of 5. 7 million, during their 3. 5-year reign. It is used for heavy or serious (black intrigue); dirty and soiled (black hands); thoroughly sinister, evil, or wicked (black deed); negative (a black mark in ones record); the supernatural or Satan (black magic); very sad, gloomy, or calamitous (black despair); a disaster (black Saturday); hostility, angry discontent, sullenness (black resentment); grim, distorted, grotesque satire (black humor); or covert intelligence operations (black government missions). Although we associate black with negative meanings, we cannot deny that it also symbolizes seriousness, respectability, and nobility. There are occasions when white, the symbol of purity and innocence, is inappropriate says social psychiatrist Ibrahim Ballioglu. Colors should be used with the proper tones and combinations. He claims that it is logical to associate white with positive and black with negative concepts. Black and white are like night and day. The dark of night scares people, whereas the light of day relieves them. The colors hidden at night come forward in daytime. People are inclined to like light and bright colors. We apply white light in our depression patients therapy. Ones interest in dark colors gives clues about ones mood. A patients wearing white signals that he or she is getting well. In history, such groups as the Black Hand,1 Black Faces, and Black Shirts favored violence and vandalism. Mussolinis fascist Black Shirts group is the most interesting. After his overthrow 1943 and the Black Shirts dismissal, people avoided wearing black shirts. White means free of color; light or pallid (white hair, lips white with fear); without spot, blemish, or moral impurity; innocent or chaste (white wedding); harmless (white lie, white magic); and favorable or fortunate (white days of life). It also means politically conservative or reactionary people who undertake counter-revolutionary measures (white terror). In music, it is associated with a musical tone quality characterized by a controlled pure sound and a lack of warmth, color, and resonance. Green means mild and clement (green winter); pleasantly alluring; youthful and vigorous; not ripened or matured (green apples, tender green grasses); fresh and new; marked by a pale, sickly, or nauseated appearance; envious (green with envy); somehow deficient or unsophisticated; and an environmentalist political movement (Green Peace) or individual working to preserve environmental quality. Yellow is associated with sensationalized scandal items or distorted ordinary news (yellow journalism), and cowardice (a yellow streak up ones back). Pink signifies moderately radical and usually socialistic political or economic views, as well as emotional excitement (tickled pink). Do Nations or Religions Have Their Own Color? Color harmony, preferences, symbolism, and other psychological aspects are culturally conditioned and vary with time and place. For instance, American and Japanese concepts of warm and cold colors are essentially the same. However, Japanese consider blues and greens good and the red-purple range bad, while Americans consider the red-yellow-green range good and oranges and red-purples bad. In the West, black signifies mourning; other cultures use white, purple, or gold.

Teaching Essays Objective of Curriculum

Teaching Essays Objective of Curriculum Objective of Curriculum The main focus of this curriculum is to incorporate elements of children’s developmental domains which contribute to the holistic being. Our activities are designed by taking into consideration the children we have observed for our child study. Although we recognize the concept of play in the curriculum, we feel that it is also important to provide pupils with a structured curriculum that would supplement their developmental needs. The curriculum aims to develop the children’s socio-emotional development, cognitive – language development and physical development through the integration of play as well as the inquiry, project and thematic approach. In doing so we have ensured that children are provided with an avenue for aesthetic and creative expression, language and literacy development, practice for numeracy skills, motor skills development along with creating an awareness of the self, the environment and the social sphere. As part of our design objective, we aim to ensure continuity from what children have learnt in preschool to the primary school curricula. We feel that this would ease pupils into making the transition from an environment which they have developed a sense of familiarity (i.e. the kindergarten setting) and the one which they are being initiated into. Partnered with the other key approaches, our team firmly belief that by encompassing our curriculum around play, it would supplement children’s developmental needs which in our view have been neglected in the current school curricula. Our Curriculum Having observed the children at the various kindergarten settings, our group have decided to build our curriculum around the concept of â€Å"learning through play†. We recognize that play is an integral part of a child’s holistic development and it should not be omitted as the child progresses into the primary education system. From our child study we observed that each of these children displayed varying interests and abilities which can be extended through a curriculum centered on the concept of play. Play, as we know it, has been defined in many ways by various theorists. One of the many definitions is by Van Hoorn (2007) who affirms that â€Å"[p]lay plays a big part of young children’s development and expression of the child’s developing personality, sense of reflect, intellect, social capacity and physicality.† (p. 4). The activities that surround our curriculum are aimed to address these vital domains of the developing child. Van Hoorn (2007 ) also theorizes that the concept of play exists in a continuum which ranges from â€Å"spontaneous† to â€Å"guided† to â€Å"teacher-directed play†. We have adopted this concept throughout the entire design of this curriculum. Through the integration of both individual and group activities, we are taking into consideration each child’s learning needs as we acknowledge their different learning styles. In our planning, we aim to invigorate this concept of play into our curriculum by integrating other key approaches used in the current school curricula. The curriculum is designed such that it is centered on the concept of â€Å"learning through play† while at the same time utilizing the thematic approach, inquiry approach and the project approach. We have developed the following tripartite diagram to illustrate how we have incorporated the various approaches in our curriculum. Thematic Approach We have chosen to implement the thematic approach as it keeps our curriculum design focused. In view of what has been stated by Wortham (2006), we agree that since the â€Å"thematic curriculum is completed over a period of time, there is opportunity for exploration, investigation, and representation of learning in an unhurried environment† (p.299). Ideally, the curriculum should be executed through a span of eight weeks, within a term. This is to ensure that children would be given ample time to develop skills and knowledge surrounding the adopted theme. We felt that the thematic approach would also aid in children’s learning as they build up experiences based on an ongoing theme which stimulates children into meaning-making as they acquire skills and develop in the different domains. Inquiry Approach The inquiry approach has also been interwoven into this curriculum because we believe that pupils should be given the opportunity to explore for themselves the learning possibilities through inquisitive questions. Much of the activities designed in this curriculum has been targeted at children in honing their inquiry skills. Pupils are encouraged to seek solutions using the open resources made available to them. Project Approach The project approach was also adopted in this curriculum as a way of assessing pupils’ learning. Through this mode of assessment, where pupils are given free reign of the project that they could work on, pupils would be exposed to a variety of activities that taps on their various abilities. Both Vygotsky and Piaget believed that it is through personal manipulation and discoveries that children are able construct an understanding of their learning experiences. Additionally with this project approach pupils will be able to work in a social context where they can learn through a partnership with the teacher. Suggested Activities As an illustration the suggested activities in the framework we have included is based on the theme of Occupation. We planned these activities with the assumption that it is theme which the children have collaboratively decided on as a whole class. The activities incorporated in this curriculum development takes into account the interests and strengths of the children we have observed during our child study. For instance, we have given pupils the choice of their mode of presentation for the role play which can be done through dramatization or a musical performance. Moreover this would encourage pupils to form a self awareness of their personal strengths and interests. The Career Day is essentially a whole day event where children will be given an opportunity to exhibit the product of the projects in which they have undertaken within their groups. We have implemented this concept of a career day as we feel that this would encourage children to take responsibility and pride of their achievements and what they are capable of creating.

Zoroastrianism Essay -- essays research papers

Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism is the ancient pre-Islamic religion of Iran that survives there in isolated areas and, more prosperously, in India, where the descendants of Zoroastrian Iranian (Persian) immigrants are known as Parses, or Pareses. In India the religion is call Parsiism. Founded by the Iranian prophet and reformer Zoroaster in the 6th century BC, the religion contains both monotheistic and dualistic features. It influenced the other major Western religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The ancient Greeks saw in Zoroastrianism the archetype of the dualistic view of the world and of man's destiny. Zoroaster was supposed to have instructed Pythagoras in Babylon and to have inspired the Chaldean doctrines of astrology and magic, could be considered the arch-heretic. In more recent times the study of Zorastrianism has played a decisive part in reconstructing the religion and social structure of the Indo-European peoples. Though Zoroastrianism was never, even in the thinking of its founder, as aggressively monotheistic as, for instance, Judaism or Islam, it does represent an original attempt at unifying under the worship of one supreme god a polytheistic religion comparable to those of the ancient Greeks, Latins, Indians and other early peoples.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Its other salient feature, namely dualism, was never understood in an absolute, rigorous fashion. Good and Evil fight an unequal battle in which the former is assured of triumph. God's omnipotence is thus only temporarily limited. In this struggle man must enlist because of his capacity of free choice. He does so with his soul and body, not against his body, for the opposition between good and evil is not the same as the one between spirit and matter. Contrary to the Christian or Manichaean attitude, fasting and celibacy are proscribed, except as part of the purifacatory ritual. Man's fight has a negative aspect, nonetheless: he must keep himself pure; i.e., avoid defilement by the forces of death, contact with dead matter, etc. Thus Zoroastrian ethics, although in itself lofty and rational, has a ritual aspect that is all percading. On the whole, Zoroastrianism is optimistic and has remained so even though the hardship and oppression of its believers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The religion of Iran before the time of Zoroaster... ...tises written during the brief renascence under Islam in the 9th century. Finally there are books written in Persian, either in verse or in prose. The latter include the correspondence exchanged between the Aoroastirians of Iran and India and the teatise.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Zoroastrianism is not the purely ethical religion it may at first seem. In practice, despite the doctrine of free choice, a Zoroastrian is so constantly involved in a meticulous struggle against the contamination of death and the thousand causes of defilement, and against the threat, even in his sleep, of ever present demons, that he does not often believe that he is leading his life freely and morally.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Apart from this attitude, the belief in the power of destiny sometimes culminates in fatalism. The latter is easily associated with Zurvanism, itself sometimes tainted with materialism. In the it is stated that though one be armed with the valor and strength of wisdom and knowledge, yet it is not possible to strive against the fate. On the whole, however, as RC Zeahner notes, the theological premisses of Zorastrianism are based on an essentially moralistic view of life.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 9

Part II Change Jesus was a good guy, he didn't need this shit. JOHN PRINE Chapter 9 I should have had a plan before I tried to escape from the hotel room, I see that now. At the time, dashing out the door and into the arms of sweet freedom seemed like plan enough. I got as far as the lobby. It is a fine lobby, as grand as any palace, but in the way of freedom, I need more. I noticed before Raziel dragged me back into the elevator, nearly dislocating my shoulder in the process, that there were an inordinate number of old people in the lobby. In fact, compared to my time, there are inordinate numbers of old people everywhere – well, not on TV, but everywhere else. Have you people forgotten how to die? Or have you used up all of the young people on television so there's nothing left but gray hair and wrinkled flesh? In my time, if you had seen forty summers it was time to start thinking about moving on, making room for the youngsters. If you lasted to fifty the mourners would give you dirty looks when they passed, as if you were purposely trying to put them out of business. The Torah says that Moses lived to be 120 years old. I'm guessing that the children of Israel were following him just to see when he would drop. There was probably betting. If I do manage to escape the angel, I'm not going to be able to make my living as a professional mourner, not if you people don't have the courtesy to die. Just as well, I suppose, I'd have to learn all new dirges. I've tried to get the angel to watch MTV so I can learn the vocabulary of your music, but even with the gift of tongues, I'm having trouble learning to speak hip-hop. Why is it that one can busta rhyme or busta move anywhere but you must busta cap in someone's ass? Is â€Å"ho† always feminine, and â€Å"muthafucka† always masculine, while â€Å"bitch† can be either? How many peeps in a posse, how much booty before baby got back, do you have to be all that to get all up in that, and do I need to be dope and phat to be da bomb or can I just be â€Å"stupid†? I'll not be singing over any dead mothers until I understand. The journey. The quest. The search for the Magi. We traveled first to the coast. Neither Joshua nor I had ever seen the sea before, so as we topped a hill near the city of Ptolomais, and the endless aquamarine of the Mediterranean stretched before us, Joshua fell to his knees and gave thanks to his father. â€Å"You can almost see the edge of the world,† Joshua said. I squinted into the dazzling sun, really looking for the edge of the world. â€Å"It looks sort of curved,† I said. â€Å"What?† Joshua scanned the horizon, but evidently he didn't see the curve. â€Å"The edge of the world looks curved. I think it's round.† â€Å"What's round?† â€Å"The world. I think it's round.† â€Å"Of course it's round, like a plate. If you go to the edge you fall off. Every sailor knows that,† Joshua said with great authority. â€Å"Not round like a plate, round like a ball.† â€Å"Don't be silly,† Joshua said. â€Å"If the world was round like a ball then we would slide off of it.† â€Å"Not if it's sticky,† I said. Joshua lifted his foot and looked at the bottom of his sandal, then at me, then at the ground. â€Å"Sticky?† I looked at the bottom of my own shoe, hoping to perhaps see strands of stickiness there, like melted cheese tethering me to the ground. When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument. â€Å"Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean the world is not sticky.† Joshua rolled his eyes. â€Å"Let's go swimming.† He took off down the hill. â€Å"What about the God?† I asked. â€Å"You can't see him.† Joshua stopped halfway down the hill and held his arms out to the shining, aquamarine sea. â€Å"You can't?† â€Å"That's a crappy argument, Josh.† I followed him down the hill, shouting as I went. â€Å"If you're not going to try, I'm not going to argue with you anymore. So, what if stickiness is like God? You know, how He abandons our people and leads them into slavery whenever we stop believing in Him. Stickiness could be like that. You could float off into the sky any time now because you don't believe in stickiness.† â€Å"It's good that you have something to believe in, Biff. I'm going in the water.† He ran down the beach, shedding his clothes as he went, then dove into the surf, naked. Later, after we'd both swallowed enough salt water to make us sick, we headed up the coast to the city of Ptolemais. â€Å"I didn't think it would be so salty,† Joshua said. â€Å"Yeah,† I said, â€Å"you'd never know it by looking at it.† â€Å"Are you still angry about your round-earth-stickiness theory?† â€Å"I don't expect you to understand,† I said, sounding very mature, I thought. â€Å"You being a virgin and all.† Joshua stopped and grabbed my shoulder, forcing me to wheel around and face him. â€Å"The night you spent with Maggie I spent praying to my father to take away the thoughts of you two. He didn't answer me. It was like trying to sleep on a bed of thorns. Since we left I was beginning to forget, or at least leave it behind, but you keep throwing it in my face.† â€Å"You're right,† I said. â€Å"I forgot how sensitive you virgins can be.† Then, once again, and not for the last time, the Prince of Peace coldcocked me. A bony, stonecutter's fist just over my right eye. He hit harder than I remembered. I remember white seabirds in the sky above me, and just a wisp of clouds across the sky. I remember the frothy surf sloshing over my face, leaving sand in my ears. I remember thinking that I should get up and smite Josh upside the head. I remember thinking then that if I got up, Josh might hit me again, so I lay there for a moment, just thinking. â€Å"So, what do you want?† I said, finally, from my wet and sandy supinity. He stood over me with his fists balled. â€Å"If you're going to keep bringing it up, you have to tell me the details.† â€Å"I can do that.† â€Å"And don't leave anything out.† â€Å"Nothing?† â€Å"I've got to know if I'm going to understand sin.† â€Å"Okay, can I get up? My ears are filling with sand.† He helped me to my feet and as we entered the seaside city of Ptolomais, I taught Josh about sex. Down narrow stone streets between high stone walls. â€Å"Well, most of what we learned from the rabbis was not exactly accurate.† Past men sitting outside their houses, mending their nets. Children selling cups of pomegranate juice, women hanging strings of fish from window to window to dry. â€Å"For instance, you know that part right after Lot's wife gets turned to stone and then his daughters get drunk and fornicate with him?† â€Å"Right, after Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed.† â€Å"Well, that's not as bad as it sounds,† I said. We passed Phoenician women who sang as they pounded dried fish into meal. We passed evaporation pools where children scraped the encrusted salt from the rocks and put it into bags. â€Å"But fornication is a sin, and fornication with your daughters, well, that's a, I don't know, that's a double-dog sin.† â€Å"Yeah, but if you put that aside for a second, and you just focus on the two young girls aspect of it, it's not nearly as bad as it sounds initially.† â€Å"Oh.† We passed merchants selling fruit and bread and oil, spices and incense, calling out claims of quality and magic in their wares. There was a lot of magic for sale in those days. â€Å"And the Song of Solomon, that's a lot closer, and you can sort of understand Solomon having a thousand wives. In fact, with you being the Son of God and all, I don't think you'd have any problem getting that many girls. I mean, after you figure out what you're doing.† â€Å"And a lot of girls is a good thing?† â€Å"You're a ninny, aren't you?† â€Å"I thought you'd be more specific. What does Maggie have to do with Lot and Solomon?† â€Å"I can't tell you about me and Maggie, Josh. I just can't.† We were passing a lick of prostitutes gathered outside the door of an inn. Their faces were painted, their skirts slit up the side to show their legs glistening with oil, and they called to us in foreign languages and made tiny dances with their hands as we passed. â€Å"What the hell are they saying?† I asked Joshua. He was better with languages. I think they were speaking Greek. â€Å"They said something about how they like Hebrew boys because we can feel a woman's tongue better without our foreskins.† He looked at me as if I might confirm or deny this. â€Å"How much money do we have?† I asked. The inn rented rooms, stalls, and space under the eave to sleep. We rented two adjacent stalls, which was a bit of a luxury for us, but an important one for Joshua's education. After all, weren't we on this journey so he could learn to take his rightful place as the Messiah? â€Å"I'm not sure if I should watch,† Joshua said. â€Å"Remember David was running over the roofs and happened onto Bathsheba in her bath. That set a whole chain of sin in motion.† â€Å"But listening won't be a problem.† â€Å"I don't think it's the same thing.† â€Å"Are you sure that you don't want to try this yourself, Josh? I mean, the angel was never clear about your being with a woman.† To be honest, I was a little frightened myself. My experience with Maggie hardly qualified me to be with a harlot. â€Å"No, you go ahead. Just describe what's happening and what you're feeling. I have to understand sin.† â€Å"Okay, if you insist.† â€Å"Thank you for doing this for me, Biff.† â€Å"Not just for you, Josh, for our people.† So that's how we ended up with the two stalls. Josh would be in one while I, along with the harlot of my choice, instructed him from the other in the fine art of fornication. Back out at the front of the inn I shopped for my teaching assistant. It was an eight-harlot inn, if that's how you measure an inn. (I understand that now they measure inns in stars. We are in a four-star inn right now. I don't know what the conversion from harlots to stars is.) Anyway, there were eight harlots outside the inn that day. They ranged in age from only a few years older than us to older than our mothers. And they ran the gamut of shapes and sizes, having in common only that they were all highly painted and well oiled. â€Å"They're all so†¦so nasty-looking.† â€Å"They're harlots, Biff. They're supposed to be nasty-looking. Pick one.† â€Å"Let's go look at some different harlots.† We had been standing a few doors down from the harlots, but they knew we were watching. I walked over and stopped close to a particularly tall harlot and said, â€Å"Excuse me, do you know where we might find a different selection of harlots? No offense, it's just that my friend and I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  And she pulled open her blouse, exposing full breasts that were glistening with oil and flecks of mica, and she threw her skirt aside and stepped up so a long leg slid behind me and I could feel the rough hair between her legs grinding against my hip and her rouged nipples brushed my cheek and in that instant profound wood did from my person protrude. â€Å"This one will be fine, Josh.† The other harlots let loose with an exaltation of ululation as we led my harlot away. (You know ululation as the sound an ambulance makes. That I get an erection every time one passes the hotel would seem morbid if you didn't know this story of how Biff Hires a Harlot.) The harlot's name was Set. She was a head and a half taller than me, with skin the color of a ripe date, wide brown eyes flecked with gold, and hair so black that it reflected blue in the dim light of the stable. She was the perfect harlot design, wide where a harlot should be wide, narrow where a harlot should be narrow, delicate of ankle and neck, sturdy of conscience, intrepid and single-minded of goal once she was paid. She was an Egyptian, but she had learned Greek and a little Latin to help lubricate the discourse of her trade. Our situation required more creativity than she seemed accustomed to, but after a heavy sigh she mumbled something about â€Å"if you fuck a Hebrew, make room in the bed for his guilt,â €  then pulled me into my stall and closed the gate. (Yes, the stalls were used for animals. There was a donkey in the stall opposite Josh's.) â€Å"So what's she doing?† Josh asked. â€Å"She's taking off my clothes.† â€Å"What now.† â€Å"She's taking off her clothes. Oh jeez. Ouch.† â€Å"What? Are you fornicating?† â€Å"No. She's rubbing her whole body over mine, sort of lightly. When I try to move she smacks me in the face.† â€Å"How does it feel?† â€Å"How do you think? It feels like someone smacking you, you twit.† â€Å"I mean how does her body feel? Do you feel sinful? Is it like Satan rubbing against you? Does it burn like fire?† â€Å"Yeah, you got it. That pretty much has it.† â€Å"You're lying.† â€Å"Oh wow.† Then Josh said something in Greek that I didn't catch all of and the harlot answered, sort of. â€Å"What did she say?† Josh asked. â€Å"I don't know, you know my Greek is bad.† â€Å"Mine isn't, I couldn't understand what she said.† â€Å"Her mouth is full.† Set raised up. â€Å"Not full,† she said in Greek. â€Å"Hey, I understood that!† â€Å"She has you in her mouth?† â€Å"Yeah.† â€Å"That's heinous.† â€Å"It doesn't feel heinous.† â€Å"It doesn't?† â€Å"No, Josh, I gotta tell you, this really is – oh my God!† â€Å"What? What's happening?† â€Å"She's getting dressed.† â€Å"Are you done sinning? That's it?† The harlot said something in Greek that I didn't understand. â€Å"What did she say?† I asked. â€Å"She said that for the amount of money we gave her, you're finished.† â€Å"Do you think you understand fornication now?† â€Å"Not really.† â€Å"Well then, give her some more money, Joshua. We're going to stay here until you learn what you need to know.† â€Å"You're a good friend to suffer this for me.† â€Å"Don't mention it.† â€Å"No, really,† Joshua said. â€Å"Greater love hath no man, than he lay down for his friend.† â€Å"That's a good one, Josh. You should remember that one for later.† The harlot then spoke at length. â€Å"You want to know what this is like for me, kid? This is like a job. Which means that if you want it done, you need to pay for it. That's what it's like.† (Joshua would translate for me later.) â€Å"What'd she say?† I asked. â€Å"She wants the wages of sin.† â€Å"Which are?† â€Å"In this case, three shekels.† â€Å"That's a bargain. Pay her.† Much as I tried – and I did try – I didn't seem able to convey to Joshua what it was he wanted to know. I went through a half-dozen more harlots and a large portion of our traveling money over the next week, but he still didn't understand. I suggested that perhaps this was one of the things that the magician Balthasar was supposed to teach Joshua. Truth be told, I'd developed a burning sensation when I peed and I was ready for a break from tutoring my friend in the fine art of sinning. It's a week or less by sea if we go to Selucia, then it's less than a day's walk inland to Antioch,† Joshua said, after he had been talking to some sailors who were drinking at the inn. â€Å"Overland it's two to three weeks.† â€Å"By sea, then,† I said. Pretty brave, I thought, considering I'd never set foot in a boat in my life. We found a wide-beamed, raised-stern Roman cargo ship bound for Tarsus that would stop at all the ports along the way, including Selucia. The ship's master was a wiry, hatchet-faced Phoenician named Titus Inventius, who claimed to have gone to sea when he was four and sailed to the edge of the world twice before his balls dropped, although what one had to do with the other I never figured out. â€Å"What can you do? What's your trade?† Titus asked, from under a great straw hat he wore while watching the slaves load jars of wine and oil onto the ship. His eyes were black beads set back in caves of wrinkles formed by a lifetime of squinting into the sun. â€Å"Well, I'm a stonemason and he's the Son of God.† I grinned. I thought that would give us more diversity than just saying we were two stonemasons. Titus pushed the straw hat back on his head and looked Joshua up and down. â€Å"Son of God, huh? How's that pay?† Joshua scowled at me. â€Å"I know stone work and carpentry, and we both have strong backs.† â€Å"There's not a lot of call for stone work aboard a ship. Have you been to sea before?† â€Å"Yes,† I said. â€Å"No,† Joshua said. â€Å"He was sick that day,† I said. â€Å"I've been to sea.† Titus laughed. â€Å"Fine, you go help get those jars on board. I'm taking a load of pigs as far as Sidon, you two keep them calm and keep them alive in the heat and by that time maybe you'll be something of use to me. But it costs you as well.† â€Å"How much?† Joshua asked. â€Å"How much do you have?† â€Å"Five shekels,† I said. â€Å"Twenty shekels,† Joshua said. I elbowed the Messiah in the ribs hard enough to bend him over. â€Å"Ten shekels,† I said. â€Å"Five each, I meant before when I said five.† I felt as if I was negotiating with myself, and not doing that well. â€Å"Then ten shekels plus any work I can find for you. But if you puke on my ship, you're over the side, you hear me? Ten shekels or not.† â€Å"Absolutely,† I said, pulling Joshua down the dock to where the slaves were loading jars. When we were out of earshot of Captain Titus, Joshua said, â€Å"You have to tell him that we're Jews, we can't tend pigs.† I grabbed one of the huge wine jars by the ears and started to drag it toward the ship. â€Å"It's okay, they're Roman pigs. They don't care.† â€Å"Oh, all right,† Joshua said, latching onto a jar of his own and hoisting it onto his back. Then it hit him and he set the jar down again. â€Å"Hey, wait, that's not right.† The next morning we sailed with the tide. Joshua, me, a crew of thirty, Titus, and fifty allegedly Roman pigs. Until we cast off from the dock – Josh and I manning one of the long oars – and we were well out of the harbor; until we had shipped the oars and the great square sail was ballooned over the deck like the belly of a gluttonous genie; until Joshua and I climbed to the rear of the ship where Titus stood on the raised deck manning one of the two long steering oars and I looked back toward land, and could see not a city but a speck on the horizon; until then, I had no idea that I had a deep-seated fear of sailing. â€Å"We are way too far away from land,† I said. â€Å"Way too far. You really need to steer closer to the land, Titus.† I pointed to land, in case Titus was unsure as to which way he should go. It makes sense, don't you think? I mean, I grew up in an arid country, inland, where even the rivers are little more than damp ditches. My people come from the desert. The one time we actually had to cross a sea, we walked. Sailing seemed, well, unnatural. â€Å"If the Lord had meant us to sail we would have been born with, uh, masts,† I said. â€Å"That's the dumbest thing you've ever said,† said Joshua. â€Å"Can you swim?† asked Titus. â€Å"No,† I said. â€Å"Yes he can,† Joshua said. Titus grabbed me by the back of the neck and threw me over the stern of the ship.

B.C. (or BC) - Counting and Numbering Pre-Roman Time

B.C. (or BC) - Counting and Numbering Pre-Roman Time The term BC (or B.C.) is used by most people in the west to refer to pre-Roman dates in the Gregorian Calendar (our current calendar of choice). BC refers to Before Christ, meaning before the putative birth year of the prophet/philosopher Jesus Christ, or at least before the date once thought to be that of Christs birth (the year AD 1). The first surviving use of the BC/AD convention was by the Carthaginian bishop Victor of Tunnuna (died AD 570). Victor was working on a text called Chronicon, a history of the world begun by Christian bishops in the 2nd century AD. BC/AD was also used by the British monk the Venerable Bede, who wrote over a century after Victors death. The BC/AD convention was probably established as early as the first or second century AD, if not widely used until much later. But the decision to mark years AD/BC at all is only the most prevalent convention of our current western calendar in use today, and it was devised only after some tens of thousands of years of mathematical and astronomical investigations. Calendars BC The people who likely devised the earliest calendars are thought to have been motivated by food: the need to track seasonal  growth rates in plants and migrations in animals. These early astronomers marked time by the only way possible: by learning the motions of celestial objects such as the sun, moon, and stars. These earliest calendars were developed all over the world, by hunter-gatherers whose lives depended on knowing when and where the next meal was coming from. Artifacts that may represent this important first step are called tally sticks, bone and stone objects which bear incised marks that may refer to the numbers of days between moons. The most elaborate of such objects is the (somewhat controversial of course) Blanchard Plaque, a 30,000-year old piece of bone from the Upper Paleolithic site of Abri Blanchard, in the Dordogne valley of France; but there are tallies from much older sites that may or may not represent calendrical observations. The domestication of plants and animals brought an additional layer of complexity: people were dependent on knowing when their crops would ripen or when their animals would gestate. Neolithic calendars must include the stone circles and megalithic monuments of Europe and elsewhere, some of which mark the important solar events such as solstices and equinoxes. The earliest possible first written calendar identified to date is the Gezer calendar, inscribed in ancient Hebrew and dated to 950 BC. Shang dynasty oracle bones [ca 1250-1046 BC] may also have had a calendrical notation. Counting and Numbering Hours, Days, Years While we take it for granted today, the crucial human requirement of capturing events and predicting future events based on your observations is a truly mind-blowing problem. It seems quite likely that much of our science, mathematics, and astronomy are a direct outgrowth of our attempts to make a reliable calendar. And as scientists learn more about measuring time, it becomes clear how enormously complex the problem truly is. For example, youd think figuring out how long a day was would be simple enoughbut we now know that the sidereal daythe absolute chunk of the solar yearlasts 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.09 seconds, and is gradually lengthening. According to growth rings in mollusks and corals, 500 million years ago there may have been as many as 400 days per solar year. Our astronomical geek ancestors had to figure out how many days there were in a solar year  when the days and years varied in length. And in an attempt to know enough about the future, they did the same for a lunar yearhow often did the moon wax and wane and when does it rise and set. And those kinds of calendars arent migratable: sunrise and sunset occur at different times at different parts of the year and different places in the world, and the moons location in the sky is different for different people. Really, the calendar on your wall is a remarkable feat. How Many Days? Fortunately, we can track the failures and successes of that process through surviving, if patchy historical documentation. The earliest Babylonian calendar reckoned the year to be 360 days longthats why we have 360 degrees in a circle, 60 minutes to an hour, 60 seconds to the minute. By about 2,000 years ago, societies in Egypt, Babylon, China, and Greece had figured out that the year was actually 365 days and a fraction. The problem becamehow do you deal with a fraction of a day? Those fractions built up over time: eventually, the calendar that you were relying on to schedule events and tell you when to plant became off by several days: a disaster. In 46 BC, the Roman ruler Julius Caesar established the Julian calendar, which was built solely on the solar year: it was instituted with 365.25 days and ignored the lunar cycle entirely. A leap day was built in every four years to account for the .25, and that worked pretty well. But today we know our solar year is actually 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds long, which is not (quite) 1/4 of a day. The Julian calendar was off by 11 minutes per year, or a day every 128 years. That doesnt sound too bad, right? But, by 1582, the Julian calendar was off by 12 days and cried out to be corrected. Other Common Calendar Designations A.D.B.P.RCYBPcal BPA.H.B.C.E.C.E. Sources This glossary entry is part of the About.com Guide to Calendar Designations and the Dictionary of Archaeology. Dutka J. 1988. On the Gregorian revision of the Julian calendar. The Mathematical Intelligencer 30(1):56-64. Marshack A, and DErrico F. 1989. On Wishful Thinking and Lunar Calendars. Current Anthropology 30(4):491-500. Peters JD. 2009. Calendar, clock, tower. MIT6 Stone and Papyrus: Storage and Transmission. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Richards EG. 1999. Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sivan D. 1998. The Gezer Calendar and Northwest Semitic Linguistics. Israel Exploration Journal 48(1/2):101-105. Taylor T. 2008. Prehistory vs. Archaeology: Terms of Engagement. Journal of World Prehistory 21:1–18.