On the Verge of Lunacy

 There are connections you make in life you do not know will change you. That is how I describe the impact made by a tiny white mouse we named Cowl. One of my sisters brought him home with a second male mouse we named Topper because they did not have anywhere to go. The mice were bought as specimen for a class activity, but the buyer (or perhaps the seller) have mistaken them for female mice. They were supposed to get females, not males; and because there was no use for two male mice, my sister who is a university instructor, brought them home. My mother is scared of rodents, so we did not know about her decision until she came home and called me to see what she brought. I thought it was funny but I was also scared for the mice because I knew my mother would object. Plus we were already raising two dogs so it might not be a good idea to house mice that they would usually hunt (my dogs have killed mice and rats before). They already had their own tiny cage and names. We decided to p...

Yuuta Takemoto is an art school student who lives in the same apartment complex with two other schoolmates. He had a passion for building things such as sculptures. He is friends with Shinobu Morita and Takumi Mayama. Morita is five years older than Takemoto and is unable to graduate because he always missed his classes. Takumi Mayama is an architecture student in the same university. Mayama was in love with Rika Harada, an older woman and a well-known architect. When Takemoto was introduced to Hagumi Hanamoto, he fell in love at first sight. Morita also likes the girl and was more expressive of his feelings than Takemoto. Unfortunately for Takemoto, Morita and Hagumi seem to like each other a lot. Hagumi is considered a genius at painting and was greatly drawn to Morita’s creativity. They’re also friends with a pottery student Yamada Ayumi who is head-over-heels with Mayama. Unfortunately, Mayama doesn’t share her feelings and constantly rejects her expressions of love. ...

*Note: This was a term paper for a class. Since I don't know what grade the professor gave me (or of she even read the paper at all), I decided to post it here. The Enuma Elish is also called The Seven Tablets of Creation. It documents the Babylonian creation epic. It was recorded in seven clay tablets found at various locations including the infamous library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, discovered by Austen Henry Layard. The name of the hero of the epic varies depending on where the tablet is found. The most common version tells of Marduk as the hero. In other versions, the god of the city is considered the hero. Introduction The title of the epic is taken from its opening line “When in the height, heaven was not named...” The epic chronicles Marduk’s war against Tiamat. He leads the other gods against the old divinity who had turned against her children. Besides Marduk’s exploits, the epic also tells about the birth of the gods and goddesses and the creation of the universe....

*Note: This was a term paper for a class. Decided to post it here because I don't know what grade the professor gave me. Introduction Alamut is a novel by the Slovenian writer Vladimir Bartol. It was published in 1938 and the author dedicated it to Benito Mussolini as a form of sarcasm. The book chronicles the story of Hassan-i Sabbah and the forces of the Ismaili sect at Alamut fortress from which the title of the book was taken. The story has helped popularize the Hashshashin or the assassins. Its maxim is “Nothing is true, everything is permitted.” The book is also considered the most popular Slovenian novel. It was also said to be an allegory of the Revolutionary Organization of the Julian March TIGR, an anti-fascist group, and the Italian repression of the Slovene minority in Italy. Vladimir Bartol Bartol grew up in a middle class Slovene minority in an Austro-Hungarian city. His mother was probably an influence to him because she was a teacher and editor. He was a c...

*Note: This was my term paper for a class. Decided to post it here because I have no idea what my grade was for this paper. Introduction Solaris is considered a philosophical science fiction novel by some readers because it explores the dilemmas following a contact with an alien life-form that does not conform to our idea of a sentient being. Some of its themes are ideas of identity and otherness, human memory and the reality of our experiences. Stanislaw Lem Stanislaw Lem was born in Ukraine and died in Poland. He grew up in a Jewish family to well-to-do parents. Later in life, he said he was a Roman Catholic but he became an agnostic and then an atheist at some point. His family survived the Nazi occupation through false documents. He worked as a welder and mechanic. He even helped the Polish resistance by stealing munitions for them. After his family moved to Krakow, he took up medicine but did not become a full-fledged doctor. He was controversial at one point in his ...

When Callum Lynch saw his mother die at the hands of his father, his life was never the same again. Years later, Lynch is in death row and scheduled to be executed, but he woke up a facility in Madrid, Spain where a woman who introduced herself as Sophia Rikkin told him they needed his past to find an end to violence. Lynch does not know anything about the conflict of the Assassins and the Templars. Aguilar de Nerha was an ancestor of Lynch believed to have been the last person to possess an Apple of Eden. He and other assassins were supposed to protect the Prince Ahmed of Granada from becoming a pawn by Tomas de Torquemada to force Sultan Muhammad XII to surrender the Apple. Callum Lynch wakes up at Abstergo after he was executed Lynch at the Abstergo facility in Spain Lynch's ancestor Aguilar de Nerha Aguilar trapped by Templars The movie is a great addition to the Assassin’s Creed lore. I think it was a good idea that they created a n...

Most of the studies on folklore focus on European literature. But just as rich are Asian tales of deities, monsters and heroes. Let’s take a look at some of these. The most well-known are the Epic of Gilgamesh which has two versions in Sumerian and Akkadian; Mahabharata by Veda Vyasa; the Persian epic Shahnameh by Ferdowsi; and Ramayana by Valmiki. Ramayana has different versions in the region including the Burmese version Yama Zatdaw, the Malay Hikayat Seri Rama, the Javanese Kakawin Ramayana and the Cambodian version Reamker. To document all the epics of Asia would fill a book. I’ve picked some examples from each country below. The Book of Dede Korkut is an epic of the Oghuz Turks or Turkomans. It is made up of twelve legends. The first story is about Boghach Khan, while the twelfth narrates the rebellion of the Outer Oghuz. Dede Korkut is supposed to be the narrator of these tales. The Epic of King Gesar , is the epic cycle of the culture hero Gesar of the k...