How does my introduction sound?

Posted on 22. Jul, 2011 by Lighting Expert.

This is just an intro, it doesn’t start out into action, it just is the setting to the beginning of the story. The "back of the book" description is:

Young Emma Jadeite is enrolled in one of the best boarding school’s there is; in a world where everything is according to the rule of the ruthless dictators. Lying and manipulation compels her to try and escape her world of where she might never be free. Deceit not only becomes a natural thing, but something that will lead to the breaking of countless laws.

Emma is the one telling the story, by the way. Thank you. Only constructive criticism please!

I sift through the clothes on the floor as I search for an outfit to wear for my first day of
school. Nothing can compare to the anxiousness and excitement you feel when you prepare yourself for the big day.

My fingers land on a silky black, short sleeved top. "This could work." I say, taking it
into both hands and holding it out in front of me to get a better view. The light from the bedroom’s lamp casts a warm yellow glow onto the shirt, making it almost shimmer as the sparkles dance along the fabric.

"It could." My sister agrees. I glance up to where she stands in front of our closet. A few shirts are hung up on hangers off to the left, and on the right lay a decent amount of short, strappy dresses. A large dresser of shorts and skirts stand to one side inside the closet and an assortment of shoes line the bottom.

"But maybe a dress will suit you better for the occasion?" She offers, holding up a
creamy white, halter top dress that flairs out into a skirt at the base.

"But that’s yours." I object even though I desperately want her to say that I can wear it anyways.

"You’re right." She says, dropping the dress down a fraction of an inch and looking at it
like one looks at her child. "But that’s okay, you can wear it." She says as she lifts her bright artic blue eyes up to me.

"Okay." I say grinning as I drop the shirt and stand up quickly making all of the clothes
that had been lying on top of me flow to the ground. I reach out for the dress but she pulls it just out of my reach.

"Will you hand me the shirt? I want to wear that." She says shifting her eyes to the black silk shirt that I had unceremoniously dropped to the ground. My grin spreads wider as I realize that she’s only letting me wear the dress so that she can wear the shirt.

I swoop down to pick up the shirt and toss it to her as she hands me the dress. It’s a
casual exchange, not rude or distasteful. I take the dress and walk over to my bed which lies in the far left corner of the room. My sister’s bed is in the far right corner and between our beds is a night stand with our lamp that gives us our only source of light.

I set the dress on the bed and begin to strip myself of clothes as my sister stands at the closet and does the same. It is not unusual for us to change in front of each other. We have shared a room our whole life, it’s just a common thing for us to do. It’s almost offensive if either of us chose to go somewhere else to change.

The dress slips down over my slender body making my skin almost look a bit paler than normal. I take my hands and run them under my head to let my chestnut brown hair flow back down to my chest.

I walk to the full body mirror that hangs next to our bedroom door. I sway side to side to watch my reflection and see if there is any flaws in this dress on me.
Sorry about the paragraph screw ups, Yahoo! Answers wasn’t exactly cooperating with me

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Do you think this is reasonable punishment?

Posted on 13. Jul, 2011 by Lighting Expert.

I’m now a freshman in high school, and will soon be bringing home a report card with B’s C’s and one or two D’s. The D’s are like 69′s and very close to C’s, but i will be getting grounded for nine weeks, which is more than two months. Grounded means, no computer, tv, music, everything except my bed and my desk are removed from my room, no going anywhere, no phone, no social contact outside of school. That’s what happens when i get lower than a C on a report card. Now, my grades are like this because i dont do my homework, a lot of the time, but my test grades are all averaging over 85% in ALL classes. I’ve been grounded roughly two years of my life, for tons of little things, grades, backtalk, all the usual stuff. I want to know what my parents think is going to change, THIS time they ground me. They say it’s "good motivation". It’s the exact opposite, and when i tell them that they think i’m saying that just because i dont want to get grounded, but im not. My grades in the past have generally been WORSE while i’ve been grounded. The longest period of time i was grounded for was 6 months, and that was for getting a D in ART, and when my parents told me to take everything out of my room we started yelling at each other, because i thought it was ridiculous that because i was a bad artist, and did not enjoy art at all, i was being punished. In the end i sat on my bed and watched my dad come in and angrily rip everything out of my room. Now, after about a month of being grounded, i basically get used to it, and since usually my parents won’t give me a date at which i’ll be ungrounded, i figure that i already have NOTHING, a prison inmate LITERALLY has more freedom than me. I have a bed, lamp, desk, food, clothes, shelter, and school. A prison inmate gets all of that plus rec yard time, and can talk with people. So since i have absolutely nothing, i figure, what do i have to lose? So i let my grades drop more and get depressed and its really terrible. My parents have taken over 10% of my life away so far. Do you think this is fair punishment for bad grades, and occasional backtalk? I watch my little brother a few times every week, i do chores, i stay sober and don’t have sex, and do what i’m asked. School is just NOT my thing, and my extremely authoritarian father thinks grounding will change that. What do you guys think?

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what does this dream mean?

Posted on 27. Jun, 2011 by Lighting Expert.

It starts out I’m walking down the drive way and going to a like a tan mahogany color place like a home and Michael Jackson lived there. And I guess I was surprised (because you now know that he is dead now), so in my dream there was black lamp post and in white there was an address and from what I remember it said 14147 Bennet St. and above that a number 42 or 43 can remember which one.
then like two nurses like from my school like came to like give him like a check up or some thing and like now he is dead they didn’t say anything like that or anything but you kind of get this feeling. a nurse came out then there was like a flood came and a nurse like climbed a rock and said something like this" I real shouldn’t be doing this" because she was like climbing on a wet rock and the rock was weird because it was like a rock from the ocean with green seaweed on it but not that much, and the rock was really big so I tried to get on and I remember someone like a friend was next to me at the time but I didn’t look at her so I don’t know if it was a real friend or like a dream friend. so I tried getting up on the rock but the first time I slipped but the second time I got on and the person that was next to me cam up on there third try.(now remember were still in the driveway) now when I’m on the rock at the end of the driveway I see like the flood is rising but were I am it isn’t then a narrator say like how he died,(now in reality I never knew what killed him) the narrator said something like this and as he is explaining this diagram comes and like shows me what he is saying. but what he says is something like this " Michael when to a doctor and got a perception to a certain pain med. then his digestive track got messed up then got more meds(then the diagram came up) but then I don’t remember having any sound just the diagram. Then I woke up

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Light fights depression? Just lots of light or a special kind of light?

Posted on 26. Jun, 2011 by Lighting Expert.

I live in Chicago and it is REALLY freaking cold here…

The building I live in is VERY VERY VERY old and the windows haven’t been replaced since the 70′s so I had to seal most of them to keep the cold out.

I have heard that you need lots of bright light to keep from getting depressed and sleepy but is it enough to have multiple lamps on in my office or do I need some kind of ‘special’ light?

I have a "Grow Light" for my plants that said it was full spectrum but it is a pinkish color that doesn’t provide a lot of light.

What do you recomend?
I take a vitamin d supplement… If that helps…

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Any ideas on what happend to me?

Posted on 06. Jun, 2011 by Lighting Expert.

Please read this all, carefully.
Yesterday i was experiencing no appetite, and dizziness all day. I sat down at the computer later on that night, and all of a sudden my vision went blurry and i couldnt focus. Immediatly after my vision went blurry, I found my hand starting to shake, I started to tremble all over, I tried to yell for my husband who was asleep a few feet away, and i couldn’t open my mouth to do so. I was concious in the sense that i could hear what was going on around me, (i e tv, dogs scratching) but couldn’t speak, or move for about two minutes. After i felt the shaking gone i felt as if I needed to lay down, standing up was a little hard, b/c i felt really weak. I laid down and I could hear everything but i still had a "Fizzing" sound in my ears. ( kinda like when you pour a soda into a glass or when you open it). After laying there for a few minutes, I then got up and went to the bathroom, and went to turn off the desk lamp and felt fine, like nothing happend.
What would cause this to happen? I do not have any history of siezures, and i am currently on Metformin, (not to treat diabetes, but for my polycysitc ovary sydrome) Provera to start my cycles, and Clomid to induce ovulation. I have never had anything like this happen to me and it scared me alot. Any ideas on what could of been wrong would be great to hear… Thanks in advance

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What does this dream mean?

Posted on 30. Mar, 2011 by Lighting Expert.

It starts out I’m walking down the drive way and going to a like a tan mahogany color place like a home and Michael Jackson lived there. And I guess I was surprised (because you now know that he is dead now), so in my dream there was black lamp post and in white there was an address and from what I remember it said 14147 Bennet St. and above that a number 42 or 43 can remember which one.
then like two nurses like from my school like came to like give him like a check up or some thing and like now he is dead they didn’t say anything like that or anything but you kind of get this feeling. a nurse came out then there was like a flood came and a nurse like climbed a rock and said something like this" I real shouldn’t be doing this" because she was like climbing on a wet rock and the rock was weird because it was like a rock from the ocean with green seaweed on it but not that much, and the rock was really big so I tried to get on and I remember someone like a friend was next to me at the time but I didn’t look at her so I don’t know if it was a real friend or like a dream friend. so I tried getting up on the rock but the first time I slipped but the second time I got on and the person that was next to me cam up on there third try.(now remember were still in the driveway) now when I’m on the rock at the end of the driveway I see like the flood is rising but were I am it isn’t then a narrator say like how he died,(now in reality I never knew what killed him) the narrator said something like this and as he is explaining this diagram comes and like shows me what he is saying. but what he says is something like this " Michael when to a doctor and got a perception to a certain pain med. then his digestive track got messed up then got more meds(then the diagram came up) but then I don’t remember having any sound just the diagram. Then I woke up

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Is this an all right place to put an Xbox 360 Elite?

Posted on 10. Mar, 2011 by Lighting Expert.

I just got an Xbox 360 Elite. I want to set it up on my shelf. The shelf is directly above a 23" LCD TV, and under a little to the left is a 21" LCD monitor. On the shelf there would be these items. (from left to right) A playstation 3, cable modem+wireless router, the Xbox 360 Elite, an office lamp, and clock. The xbox would be close to a wall. The xbox is going to be on a cooling stand and if I need to multiple other cooling devices. The thing that Im concerned about is the heat in the xbox 360 because I really don’t want the three rings of death. should I put it some where else and if it wouldn’t be ok would more cooling devices make it ok.

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Would You Read More Of This?

Posted on 05. Mar, 2011 by Lighting Expert.

Ava bit on her bottom lip, staring at her nails.

["What are you talking about?" Ava asked quietly.
"You know what I'm talking about, Ava!" Luke screamed, pushing her back, screaming in her face.

Ava looked up into the boy's innocent green eyes, now stained with the glitter of anger. She would have never expected her boyfriend to do this.

Luke acted on instinct, he never wanted to hurt Ava Montgomery. She was a five foot tall, innocent brunette. She twirled her hair with her finger when she laughed, and her face turned the shade of roses whenever she was complimented. Her brown eyes always sparkled with joy. It was as if Luke was watching outside of his body as his slim palm connected with her porcelain face, watching to see if she would shatter.

The brown eyeliner that lined Ava's orbs started to follow the trails her tears made when she felt the sting, both internally and externally, in this first experience of abuse. Her parents never hit her as a child growing up, she was never spanked. This feeling of hostility was so unfamiliar, and Ava hated it.

"Leave," Ava choked out.

As if he returned, Luke's moss green eyes widened.

"Avie," he whispered, placing his palm gently on her cheek.
"Please, leave," she whimpered, backing away to her lavender purple wall, brushing against some slips of paper printed from her ancient Lexmark.]

"Avalon," her father’s voice said softly, snapping her from her trance.
"Yeah?" she asked, looking up at the tall man in front of her.

Craig Montgomery was a family man, someone who the workers wanted to get shots with. His salt and pepper hair was styled to a crisp each and every morning, and he always had a sunny attitude. He was Ava’s inspiration.

"Can I come in?" he asked with a side smile.
"Sure."

Mr. Montgomery stepped into his daughters new bedroom, a canary yellow color. Her bed sheets were an ivory color with a light yellow pattern. Her walls were plastered with photos from her old town of Phoenix taken on her Polaroid 300 Instant Camera. He smiled at his daughter, a copy of her mother, Lydia Montgomery.

"How are you?" he asked softly. "Ready for school?"

Ava looked up at her father, trying to read what he really meant in his eyes. She knew he was talking about what happened with Luke, and she knew what he wanted. He wanted her to cry in his arms, sob out everything that happened, and then bring her Kleenex from the kitchen, being a model father.

"As ready as I can be in a new town," Ava giggled, tucking a brunette lock behind her small ear.
"That’s good, sweetie," he said with a faltering smile. He wasn’t sure whether to believe her.
"I think I’m gonna go to bed, dad," Ava said, trailing off.
"Of course," he replied, standing up, pressing his lips to her tiny forehead. "Goodnight."
"Night," Ava smiled, flicking off the silver office lamp on her bedside table and crawling under her warm, wool covers.

[No], Ava answered her father’s question, [I'm not].

—

The text in the brackets is supposed to be italicized. >.<

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I spilled roughly a tablespoon worth of milk on my laptop! What should I do?

Posted on 11. Feb, 2011 by Lighting Expert.

I have a MacBook Pro 13" model that I bought new in July 2010 (so unibody).

Last night, I had a small carton of milk beside my laptop and with myself tired, I accidentally flipped the carton over onto my laptop, spilling roughly a teaspoon/tablespoon worth of milk on the right side of the keyboard. Immediately, I turned the laptop upside down and tried to get the visible liquid off. I turned the laptop off a few minutes after that, and I held it upside down for a good few minutes to see if anything would drip out (which none did, which leads me to believe that not much of anything got below the keys).

Still, after that, I put it right side up, and I shined my desk lamp that gets hot right over the area of the keyboard that was compromised. I turned off the light and let it sit right side up overnight and now I have turned the light back on so it is now shining on it as I speak. The spill occurred about 10 hours ago.

I have read things online saying that I should wait at least 24 hours after the spill to turn it on. I have read things that say that I should take it apart and see if I can clean anything. However, I don’t know whether this is necessary since it was only a teaspoon/tablespoon amount.

Furthermore, I am in college right now so I don’t have the tools to take the thing appart. However, included in my tuition is this computer services desk fee. The desk takes looks at laptops, and will help repair them. They charge for new parts when they are not under warranty (which probably is void now that I spilled something on it) but do you think it’s worth it to have it checked out by them before I go and turn it on?

Thanks for your help!

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what do u think of this story so far?

Posted on 24. Jan, 2011 by Lighting Expert.

"Rachel, is that you?” My mother called out in a panicked tone as I slowly slid the window next to the front door shut. I had planned on quietly sneaking back in and crawling into bed, after all it was a Saturday morning and my parents were usually still fast asleep… but when I saw my mother’s face I knew that it definitely wasn’t going to be as easy as I had planned.
“Where have you been?” she cried, looking furious.
“I, um…just got back from a run?” I lied, hoping she’d buy it.
The truth was Jess had texted me around 10 o’clock the night before asking if I wanted to go to a party in the gas lamp with some guys we had met the previous weekend at a club downtown. My parents had just grounded me after beating me to the mailbox and finding my report card full of C’s and D’s, and in a state of fury I decided that since they were already in bed I was in the clear. I would spend the rest of the week snickering every time they said the word grounded, or so I thought.
“I don’t think so! You were with Jess! What were you guys doing? I called her mother and she didn’t know, or seem to care for that matter! Do you have any idea how worried I was? I’ve been calling you since two in the morning!”
I reached for the back pocket of my favorite pair of dark wash true religion jeans, but nothing was there. It must have fallen out sometime during the night. It was almost as if my mom could read my mind because when I looked up and met her tired eyes she yelled, “Don’t tell me you lost your phone too! What is it with you lately? Where is the trustworthy, responsible daughter I know?”
I had nothing to say, I didn’t know where she went either. I guess it was at the beginning of my junior year, around the time I started hanging out with Jess, that she started slipping away. I started cutting classes to go to the beach, sneaking out at night to hangout downtown, and basically giving up on all the things I had once devoted so much time to… like my grades and the volleyball team and my annoyingly perfect group of friends that I had been hanging out with since kindergarten.
“I’m sick of dealing with all of this! Just go to your room! We’ll discuss your punishment when your father wakes up.”
I looked at the ground and walked to my room, trying to hold back the smile that crept up every time I thought about the night before. I kicked off my Steve Madden sandals, shut my blinds, climbed into bed, and quickly fell asleep.

A couple hours later, I heard a knock on my door.
“Rachel, it’s your Dad, we need to have a talk.”
I rubbed my eyes; I was exhausted had a little bit of a hangover. I looked at the clock, 10:30 am. I kicked the covers off, rolled out of bed, and walked down the hall towards the living room where my mother was sitting on the couch. She had obviously been crying and my Dad looked more disappointed than I had ever seen him.
“Rachel, we just don’t know what to do with you anymore. Ever since you met this Jess girl, you’ve been getting into more and more trouble. We won’t tolerate it any longer,” said my Dad in his sternest voice.
Yeah, I’ve heard that before, I thought, figuring my life would go back to normal in a week or two, once I figured out how to stop getting caught.
“Which is why we have decided to send you to Connecticut to live with your Aunt Mary-Clo,” he finished.
“WHAT? Crazy-Clo? The one who lives on a farm? You have got to be kidding me!” I cried.
“Don’t call her that!” said my mother.
“You guys always call her that!” I retorted.
“Enough. We think what you need is a breath of fresh air and few weeks without Jess’s influence. When we called your aunt this morning, she said she would be more than willing to have you for the rest of the summer.”
“But…” I began, but my dad cut me off.
“The discussion is over, and we have already made the decision. We booked the next direct flight, which leaves at six o’clock tonight, so you better start packing.”
“You can’t do this to me!” I yelled.
My mom looked up at me and said, “It’s the only thing left to do, Rachel.”

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