The Origins of Hip Hop | Essay

The Origins of Hip Hop | Essay 1. Introduction Hip Hop was born in the early 1970s amongst poverty and gang violence in the South Bronx. In the beginning of Hip Hop DJing, MCing, graffiti writing, and break dancing were used as a way to channel the energy of the youth in a more positive way. Thirty years later things have changed, the game is more serious. There is a lot more money involved, there is a lot more at stake, some say it is dead. If so, who killed it? (YouTube 2) In this essay I will look at the growth of Hip Hop as an art form, from its origins in New York through to its transition into the world wide phenomenon we are familiar with today. My main focus will be to explore and understand why so many people seem to be asking the question is Hip Hop dead?. In order to answer the question is Hip Hop dead? it is first necessary to define my understanding of the question. In this essay I will be evaluating the health of Hip Hop, not in terms of its popularity or the money it generates but in terms of its health as an art form: is it still a thriving, growing, developing form or has it stagnated under the weight of its own success? I will be looking at the artistic growth of Hip Hop as well as the effect that commercialisation has had. My essay charts the decline of the rawness that was at the core of Hip Hop in its early phase of development in New York City, when it was recognised and respected for its in the moment personal creativity, where the dancing would bounce off the music, the music off the rapping, and the rapping from the sounds of the streets. 2. The Origins of Hip Hop Hip Hop is an art form that includes rapping rap music, graffiti writing, particular dance styles (including break dancing), specific attire, and a specialized language and vocabulary. (Droppin science p224) To master an art in Hip Hop required a creative and expressive skill, whether it be a physical expression, rhythmical lyrics, vocal percussion, playing with the many aspects of music or graffiti art. Hip Hop is also a cultural movement which grew and developed primarily amongst poor black kids in the streets of the South Bronx, New York City, in the mid to late 1970s. These were young Afro-American kids, descended from slaves bought over from Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries who lived in poor social conditions: broken families, poverty, poor education, lack of any job opportunities and much radical prejudice, and police prejudice. They lived in black ghettos where violence, and death were common. In the same way as their recent ancestors had been enslaved and made to work the plantations of the Southern states in places such as Mississippi and Alabama, they also felt enslaved in a system which seemed to offer them no way out. America condoned the peculiar institution of slavery from 1619 up until the passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude on December 18, 1865. (Bruno, Anthony (no date) [online]). When slavery was abolished in 1865 (Bruno, Anthony (no date) [online]), and the slaves were suddenly freed, the necessity to work and earn money to survive led them to emigrate to the richer Northern states of America, to cities such as Washington, Chicago and New York, where jobs were available, however low paid. As well as a large number of Africans moving to the Northern Cities, so did many Latinos who had originally emigrated from Mexico, and Puerto. The same attraction of a better life and a chance to make money spurred on their movement North. The Afro-Americans and Latino youth that grew up in the streets of these Northern cities, were the originators of Hip Hop. However, although Latino groups, particularly in New York, made a huge contribution to Hip Hop, there is no doubt that the main influences on Hip Hop came from the African American population. Lack of education and strong prejudice against African Americans led to the being stuck with the dead end, poorly paid jobs and these conditions led to a high level of crime and violence, particularly involvement of drug dealing. To many there seemed no choice, it was either poverty or crime. It is the frustration and anger created by these conditions, especially the lack of any opportunities to improve their situation, that gave rise to the birth of Hip Hop. Hip Hop became that way out, and the music and rhythms of their ancestors were reborn within Hip Hop. The ancient African tribal rhythms and musical traditions travelled with the slaves and remained an important part of the life of an African slave in America, and after 300 years of slavery in the so called Land of the Free the sounds of Old Africa became the new sounds of black America. Rapping, the rhythmic use of spoken or semi-sung lyrics grew from its roots in the tribal chants and the plantation work songs to become, an integral part of black resistance to an oppressive white society. (The roots of Hip Hop, online) Hip Hop, like its direct ancestor, the Blues, were both born out of social deprivation and the determination to use the experience in a positive way, and to escape the clutches of poverty. 3. The Development of Hip Hop YouTube Video 1 briefly shows an interview with a man on the streets of the Bronx, shot in 1986. He talks about how the music programs in the schools of New York would often cut out because of budget problems, and the only way for the kids in the schools to get music lessons would be to pay for them outside of school, which many could not afford. Hip Hop was a new form invented by the kids who struggled with money, and the place they would learn from was on the streets. They used the pieces of music from their roots, their blood, music influences such as blues, gospel and jazz to create a new genre. The genres which their ancestors would have known during the slave trade back in the South of America. A time of similar misery, and expression of the same pain and sorrow in their souls was being called out. For them there were many similarities with their ancestors. Hip Hop was something the youth could get excited about, and have a passion for. It was something that no amount of money or person could get in their way and stop them. And over the few years, whilst not only was Hip Hop gradually developing as a music, dance and art form, so was their range of listeners. More and more people outside of New York were becoming familiar with the genre, and soon an identity had been created for these youths. They had become what they had longed for, a something which was making an impact. Not only were the youth creating the music, dancing to the music but they were living the Hip Hop genre as a way of life. But not at the time were they aware of the size of impact they were going to have on the rest of the world. (YouTube 1, Dropping science 230) It was the disco DJs in the clubs where the roots of the Hip Hop music style began. An interest grew of paying attention to the blending of one track into the next one, as opposed to finishing one and the starting another. The DJs began matching tempos to make a smooth transition. The reaction from the crowds was nothing but excitement as they became witness to gradual build up beats and phases would suddenly put you into a whole new track. (P 12 The rap attack) At a similar time as DJs finding a new and exciting craze in paying attention with and playing around with the beats and tempos of tracks, originally MCing referred to today as rapping was being developed in the streets of the Bronx. Rapping is one of the main elements which had always been at the heart of the Hip Hop genre. It was seen as a skill of rhythmic talking over a funk beat. (P8 The rap attack) Lets Work Together It was not long until these new styled DJs and Rap artists would come together and put the two talents together for everyone around to hear. One of the first DJs to explore this collision was DJ Kool Herc in 1975, who is often referred to today as a godfather of Hip Hop. Another popular DJ at this time was Love Bag Starski, and was known as the first to refer to this new found culture as Hip Hop. With the fast development of rap in the early 80s, rap music records where being played everywhere around America. However in the Bronx the listeners were still excited about the beats of the records and soon became obsessed with what was known as the break of the records, where the lyrics of a track would stop and all that could be heard were the strong beats and rhythms from the drums. (P14 The rap attack) These breaks in the records would be what the listeners would be waiting for, and the dancers to do their thing. This response led DJs to open up their creativity as DJs. From just playing records from start to finish, they would use the breaks as their bass and play around with cutting, repeating, layering, using turntables, extending parts of the records however they wished and felt at the time. Their time of developing a creative identity came. Suddenly the chances of hearing one copy of a James Brown record did not exist. (P14 The rap attack) Around 1973, the new craze of longer lengths of the breaks was reflected in the longer length of improvised moves of the dancers. Soon a new name break-dancer was what these dancers started to call themselves, or b-boys and b-girls for short. The kids who were into the breaks started calling themselves B-Boys and the wild, acrobatic style of dancing which accompanied the playing of the breaks became known as breaking. The better Bronx DJs like Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash started mixing two copies of the same record to make the breaks last longer; (The roots of Hip Hop, online) This was when the dancers would be creating the moves that inspired the lay down of Hip Hop dance. (online, Hip Hop History) Bringing it Back to the Streets The vocal percussion called beatboxing, is known to have grown originally as an urban form. The beat box drum machines used to create the breaking that the more established MC and DJ artists were using, could not be afforded by the majority of the Hip Hop creators on the streets. Therefore if the breaks could not be made for them, then they would make the breaks themselves through the skill of beatboxing. These soon established beatboxers were imitating drum sounds and beat patterns using the lips, tongue, mouth, throat, and voice. Its summed up with the image of a guy in a hoodie with his hands cupped over his mouth spitting and making wonderful noises. (The Real History of Beatboxing: Part 2) Hip Hop Dance The gangs of the Bronx strongly influenced the development of the Hip Hop dance style. The gang experience and forced hard and strong persona they was almost required to be taken seriously among the streets can been seen of an influence in the dance of Hip Hop. More specifically the dance style uprocking. Before gangs were going into battle, it was known that they would perform a particular dance in order to get the adrenaline running and bring an aggressive nature to the surface. The gang members would carry out movements that would resemble actions that would take place in moments of violence with an enemy. The dance would consist of kicks and strikes between the dancers. (P229 Droppin Science) In the early days, Hip Hop dance was an outwardly body expression specific to that person and their feelings spurred on from the beats and rhythms in the music being heard. The style has adopted a large range of different skills which have developed over time. The dance includes breaking, popping, locking, and free styling, while its movements indulge jumps, breakages, and rotations. Such elements make this dance style amazingly explosive and truly informal. (Hip Hop Dancing) Hip Hop dance has received a renowned respect for being a genre which demands such a high level of personal creativity. Just like the musicians, the dancers develop their own identity to how they dance, and they cannot be wrong. Dance genres such as ballet, demands a specifically noticeable technical ability which normally requires years of intense training. Hip Hop however enables an openness that most genres do not, a freedom to move however you wish. The only requirement which can be seen is an understanding and respect as a creative culture. (Hip Hop Dancing) What made Hip Hop dance so interesting when being performed in the Bronx was the ability to see such a range of new moves, new ideas, new ways of expressing. However with Hip Hop dance today, in the music videos created in the money making world, how often do we see a range of creativity? In my opinion hardly ever. Sure the choreography might involve different steps, but it will almost definitely involve a focus on female dancers, carrying out a version of booty-shaking, torso popping and hair flicking. Moves which emphasises the woman figure and create a more sexual orientated atmosphere. There is no denying that the attention to the movement of the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦bum.. does not link back to moves that would have been found in African history, but Hip Hop in its original day was not all about just that. Just like how many more times can a Hip Hop artist swear in a song, how many more times can a Hip Hop dancer booty-shake? Not much more. Booty-shaking that existed originally as one of many Hip Hop moves has been taken and pushed forward to be portrayed as what Hip Hop dance is. The money making corporate world knows that sex sells, and to them the more sexy moves the better. Graffiti Graffiti is another of the main expressive elements that made up the Hip Hop culture. Graffiti represented the visual, emceeing and DJ produced the music, and B-Boying was the dance. In the early days of hip-hop, all of these elements were deeply intertwined. (graffiti and Hip Hop, online) Graffiti was normally an expression of the political activists in Hip Hop, people who wanted to mark their territory. Graffiti would be found all around the city, particularly on subways. People suddenly did not have to visit the Hispanic parts of the city to become face to face with the Hip Hop culture that was emerging, as graffiti was bought to them, a permanent reminded of the current sub-culture that was growing around them. The were adamant for their previously silent voices to be heard. Not long did graffiti progress from a scribbled tag (nickname) or club name on the wall to an elaborate art form emblazoned with Magic Marker and spray paint over every available surface of the subway trains and buildings. (P15 The rap attack) Competition Another element of Hip Hop that separates itself from other genres is how originally it would be performed in the form of a battle, whether it be rapping or break dancing. One side (or sometimes more) would go against another, and each side would take turns to show what they had to offer with a sort of you think your better than us, prove it attitude. This competitive nature stood at the heart of Hip Hop. Not only did it help displace violence and drugs such as heroin, but it also fostered an attitude of creating from limited materials. (P15 The rap attack). These young black men wanted to prove themselves to the world, and with these battles they were suddenly given a chance. I was ironic that these battles only ended up supporting the views of much of white America that young African American males are threatening, and that this then further restricted their entry into the mainstream service economy as well as other areas of mainstream life. (P229 Droppin Science) 4. The Social Impact of Hip Hop The most noticeable impact Hip Hop had on the community was the decrease conflict between the many established gangs that existed. It was within The Bronx and, to a lesser extent, Harlem that black youths developed their own alternative to the gang warfare that had risen from the dead in the late 1960s to dominate and divide neighbourhoods north of Central Park. (P12 The rap attack) The Savage Seven was the name given to the first known gang that took on the streets of the Bronx. This group of teenagers laid the groundwork for a surge of street gang activity that would overwhelm the Bronx for the next six years. One of the most well-known and influential originators of Hip Hop along with Eric B. and Rakim was Afrika Bambaataa, (more specifically in break-beat dee-jaying) is seen today the Godfather of Hip Hop Culture. Bambaataa, who was once himself not just a member but a leader of the Savage Seven, set up the group Zulu Nation, a Hip Hop group that spoke the message of factology versus beliefs. (Zulu Nation website, online] Hip Hop History) Zulu Nation spoke out of beliefs of right knowledge, right wisdom, right overstanding, right sound reasoning, to bring about right ways and actions. Bambaataa spoke out to the youths of Hip Hop with a message describing the importance of knowledge, wisdom and understanding. (Zulu Nation website) Zulu Nation effectively reached out to the large number of current gang members in the Bronx and show them a chance of an alternate path in life. The African American youths were able to express their frustration and pain now in a way which did not require violence, instead of putting it on one another; they were putting it into Hip Hop. A peacemaking was established. (Dropping Science 213) The school playgrounds, community parks and centres helped bring what were once gang enemies in the ghetto together. The former threatening gangs transformed into relatively harmonious, harmless crews, and the only battling they would have with one another was through the exciting new form of Hip Hop. The gang lives many Afro-American youths had, was never hidden away and ignored in Hip Hop. Instead, the pain and suffering they experienced bought to the forefront of much of the rapping creativity, as a chance to express how they really felt and not be rejected by it became an seized opportunity for many to release their inside emotions. An interesting description of the way Hip Hoppers reacted to media attention and the manipulation is in the book Droppin Science. William Perkins interview with a filmmaker and author of that time Michael Holman describes how the Bronx youth had created a cultural depth and confidence to talk back, when challenged by the media, staying loose, and reacting in a way which most likely spurred on even more attention to how strong the Hip Hop culture had grew to become, they stayed fresh, they maintained that certain volatility that Hip Hop craves. No fear of the end of the world, just fear of being stuck: If you became classifiable, Holman says, you became all the things that kept you in check. (P214 Droppin Science) Through Hip Hops deeply personal and expressive nature, whether it be through words, movement or art we are bought face to face with the reality of the suffering of the African Americans were experiencing at that time. Hip Hop stood out as a form which spoke of stories of everyday life experiences in the streets. (Hip Hops evolution, online) However any positive social impact from Hip Hop in the early days of its development was soon undone when the commercial pressures of the market started to take effect. 5. The Commercialisation of Hip Hop What does the term commercial mean?   It can take on various meanings, but in essence that term is used to label artists who have alienated parts of the hip-hop culture in their work.  (Hip Hop Culture Essay) There is no denying that commercialisation has helped to open up Hip Hop to the rest of the world. Originally Hip Hop was very much an Afro-American art form, however with the commercial world recognising and marketing the genre with music shows such as MTV, the audience range opened up not only to the whites of America, but the rest of the world. A world can now be said to be dominated by Hip Hop in a commercial sense, but perhaps no longer in an artistic sense. However, many people believe that commercial hip-hop has deteriorated from what so many emcees in the 80s tried to build a culture of music, dance, creativity, and artistry that would give people not only something to bob their head to, but also an avenue to express themselves and deliver a positive message to their surroundings. (Droppin Science) For instance, the dancers we see on TV in Hip Hop music videos and on stage with Hip Hop artists today might look like Hip Hop dancers and be able to do Hip Hop dance, but do they really have artistic integrity and spontaneous thrill of the originals danced on the streets of New York? Well, they are not creating the moves; most likely the steps are taught for them to copy and perform. There is little creativity or realness they learn and perfect their moves in studios, not the streets or in the ghetto clubs the realness in that sense is not in Hip Hop anymore. (mrwiggles, online) Also, Hip Hop music has become to rarely live anymore with many performers miming vocals to pre-recorded backing tracks. Thinking on the spot, being under pressure, being unpredictable and real in the moment as you do your thing, was one of the core skills originally associated with being a master of the form. How often today do we see the so called top Hip Hop artists of today think on their feet? Music videos are recorded, re-recorded, played with, special effected, deleted, you name it. We are hardly given the chance to see Hip Hop being presented as one artist showing what they can do, with the microphone, with the floor. The originators of Hip Hop did not just get involved in creativity and performance, they lived the Hip Hop lifestyle. But as soon as Hip Hop gained media attention and respect for its potential, it was not long until big business seized the opportunity to have a piece and shape the artists style in a way which they felt would make money. Vanilla Ice is a clear example of an attempt to change Hip Hop into a more poppy genre of music. Vanilla Ice was a white kid from Florida who was used to try and create a crossover between Hip Hop and pop music; a blatant and widely ridiculed attempt to manufacture a Hip Hop artist with mass appeal. Gangs were still involved in Hip Hop as it grew, and some believe that there was more gang involvement than ever before. We call them the Hip Hop record labels. They may not call themselves gangs, but through the extreme competitiveness of the record companies to be bigger and better than anyone else, the rivalry backbone still remains. The most famous and recognised record company rivalry is between the West Coast and East Coast. The West Coast record label Death Row founded by Dr. Dre and Suge Knight verses the East Coast label, Bad Boy founded by Puffy Combs. The website Knowledgerush says that the rivalry intensified as Hip Hop continued to enter the mainstream in the United States and abroad; more money entered the industry and raised the stakes. The focal point soon came to a head with Tupac Shakur on the west coast and Notorious B.I.G. (Knowledgerush, online) Tupac (West Coast) and Notorious B.I.G. (East Coast) were two talented rappers, who were friends and would occasionally see one another despite the competitiveness between their record labels. Both were murdered within six months of each in 1996 as part of feud between the East and West coast gangs. The obvious explanation behind the deaths of Tupac and Biggy is in the saying an eye for an eye, and was as a result of the rivalry between the record companies. However the most sinister theory fingers Knight for both murders, the founder of Death Row. (Hip-hop homicide, online) TAKE OUT When Tupacs body lay dead waiting for atomisation (autopsied), his infamous tattoos were fully displayed, including his signature phrase, thug life, in large letters in a semi-circle around his abdomen. (Knowledgerush, online) Despite Hip Hops development into a world full of money, the artists of Hip Hop were still living the Hip Hop culture, Hip Hop still remained their life. Many commentators were of the view that the feud between the East and West coast Hip Hop gangs and the deaths of Tupac and BIG were all primarily morivated by money. As the comedian Chris Rock said, when Tupac became worth more dead than alive, it was the end for him. (Bigger and Blacker, Chris Rock). Rivalry still exists today with Ja Rule verses DMX, Eminem verses Benzino and Jay-Z verses Nas. Not much has really changed. Mentioning and dissing of other gangs started to become a major lyrical theme within Hip Hop in the 1990s. MCs began incorporating more varied and stylistic speech, and focused on introducing themselves, shouting out to friends in the audience, and boasting about their own skills, and criticizing their rivals. (Knowledgerush, online) Not surprisingly this would result in their rivals feeling disrespected and seeking revenge. These Hip Hop artists would never work and travel as individuals, they would go around in big groups including others from their record labels, calling it an entourage. A direct link to the gangs that walked New York cannot help but be made. The bigger the entourage, the more of a successful impression they would make on the rest of the world. A genre that was originally aimed to help the stop gang violence in New York, over time has transform into a genre which can not help but seem creating violence, and glorifying gun culture. Hip Hop identity is now a world-wide phenomenon, the cutting edge of global youth culture. The gangsta identity both represents the drama of the streets, but also the merchandizing of the rhymes of violence by profit hungry media companies. As KRS-1 and others tell it, the media companies promote the most outrageous stereotypes of violent, vicious Black youth while ignoring the rappers who represent the positive and political side of ghetto life. (Hip Hop Gangs) Hand in hand with the commercialisation of Hip Hop came far more negative and misogynistic attitudes to women (or bitches as they are widely referred to within Hip Hop). A video youtube3 discusses the use of women in these Hip Hop music videos. One interviewer expresses that women have become adornments, walking objects, portrayed as walking bling. The numbers of girls in videos has increased over the years, going from maybe four or five to forty even fifty. These women are not dressed in a way that can argue this idea, as they are made to wear as little as possible, which most likely turns out to be very revealing underwear or swimwear. Surely the way these videos portray and use women, with the derogatory terms used to describe them questions womanhood today? I recognise that gender is a very key element to the Hip Hop culture in terms of it being a very much male-dominated world, females struggle to match the success levels as the men, and the degrading attitude women are faced with, however I believe to have looked into and covered that would have been a whole essay in itself. I just wish to mention that since Hip Hop has entered the commercial world it has developed into a male dominated genre which portrays women in a disrespectful, objectified and careless way. In its original day, there was never such a strong disregard for women in Hip Hop, and it can only be noticed that it began to have this misogyny opinion when the Hip Hop artist were working with the big music companies. 6. Conclusions Hip Hop came out of a life people were forced to live in of poor healthcare, no money and no hope. Once they realised they could use the media and publicity in their favour to achieve longed for wealth and a chance for more in their lives, they used it so much, they exploited it. African Americans became corrupted by letting their aim and their search for money become their integrity in life. I cannot help but say be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. As Hip Hop grew and the money in Hip Hop became bigger, more people wanted a piece of the action: managers, promoters, publicists, stylists and most importantly, producers and record companies. Hip Hop (very much like Punk music) was originally an art form that had at its core its rawness and openness you needed no musical training to rap, no instruments to beatbox and no canvass to write graffiti. But now Hip Hop has succumbed to the celebrity culture, and without a major record label, who will want to package and market you, there is little chance of getting your music heard. In the search for record sales, Hip Hop also seemed to lose its integrity and political purpose. Hip Hop, in its early days, did not glorify and encourage violence, drugs and misogyny, it expressed the anger, frustration and suffering young black men were experiencing because of the poor social conditions and lack of opportunities available to them. Today, Hip Hop lyrics and music videos seem to offer a constant diet of violence, drugs and misogyny so much so that it almost becomes bland. How sexist can you be? How many times can you swear in your record? How violent can you (pretend to) be? As Hip Hop artists competed with each other to write more and more extreme lyrics, it quickly became apparent that there was nowhere else to go Hip Hop seems to have reached a stage where everything has already been done. Like other mainstream artists, many rappers sold out and kept their mind on their money and their money on their mind. (Hip Hop Gangs) Today, many of Hip Hops most successful artists are pretenders well educated people, from privileged backgrounds some of whom studied performing arts before becoming Hip Hoppers. Kanye West and Young Jeezy are often mentioned in this way. It seems to me that Hip Hop sold out. It reached a compromise with big business in which both sides used one another to get what they wanted. The record labels would use Hip Hop to generate vast sums of money for themselves, and a few Hip Hop youths would get what they had always wanted: money, recognition for their music and a respect from others. In this essay I hope I have shown that in its early days Hip Hop had an integrity and truth rooted in the experiences of black ghetto youths in North American cities. It had an openness and accessibility any one could participate, anyone could be creative. I also hope I have shown how as Hip Hop grew it very quickly became consumed by the needs of the market and original, creative output was replaced with commercial product. I believe that as a commercial enterprise Hip Hop is still very much alive, in fact it might be said to be bigger than ever, and the gangsta rap culture identity still lives on, not just within music but in fashion, language, film and television. However as an art form I believe it is dead. Hip Hop was an art form that existed out of curiosity, play and freedom. Today through the corporate process every little element has to be questioned and often changed to make the genre be put forward in the most marketable way. The creative control has been lost by being someones money making product. In the music world it is very hard to not be a commercial product, and Hip Hop like many other genres has fallen into that existence. I believe Hip Hop began to die when the real Hip Hoppers dont own Hip Hop anymore. Money took control. The music companies did not have the same interest in Hip Hop as the originators did, their interest was making money, not keeping Hip Hop alive in its purest form. People who did not know anything about real Hip Hop were suddenly having say as to how it would sound. A realisation of this I believe has c

Forensic Analysis of Personal Data Leakage on Android Phone

Forensic Analysis of Personal Data Leakage on Android Phone Sheriff Drammeh  Ã‚   RESEARCH STATEMENT The proposed research will explore personal data leakage on the android mobile application platform through forensic analysis of volatile and non-volatile memory. PROPOSAL SUMMARY The proposed research will employ both volatile memory forensic techniques and traditional disk forensic techniques to the android platform in order to identify privacy breaches primarily in android mobile applications [1]. The proposed research also aims to demonstrate that forensic artifacts can be found both in the disk drive (non-volatile) and memory (volatile). AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH 1. Acquire non-volatile data from an android device using the traditional forensic approach and the memory dump, analyse the acquired data for any forensic artifacts and make a comparative analysis of both approaches. This will be achieve by conducting an experimental simulation of both approaches. 2. Develop an effective methodology to improve the detection of personal data leakages and sensitive information from android mobile applications. RESOURCES The major part of this proposed research will be conducting an experiment, hence few equipments are essential to be in place in order to carry out the experiment. The proposed research is mainly memory dumping and disk drive imaging for forensic analysis. Some open source tools will be highly utilize during the course of this proposed research, such as android studio SDK, Odin, ADB and mem. Additionally, books on android forensics, mobile forensics, journals and YouTube video tutorials will also be utilize. As the research progresses more resources might be needed. The following is a non-exhaustive list of resources currently available for use: à ¢-  Window 10 OS with processor Intel (R) Core(TM)i7, install memory of 16.0GB is the host operating system and forensic workstation for disk image analysis à ¢-  Linux Ubuntu 15.10 x32 with kernel v2.6 is our forensic workstation for memory analysis à ¢-  VMware Virtual Machine v11.1.2: Will be used to install guest operating system à ¢-  Physical android phone Samsung galaxy S3: Is the subject of the experiment à ¢-  Android SDK developer tool for Linux x32: Is a software development tool used for application development and analysis. à ¢-  mem is an open source tool for dumping running process on android phone à ¢-  Odin3.-v3.10 is open source tool that enable us to rooted android phone à ¢-  Samsung usb drive for mobile phone used to enable debugging bridge between android phone and forensic workstation à ¢-  CF-Auto-Root-2dcan-2dvl-sghi747m is used to update firmware during rooting process. à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · AccessData Forensic tool kit version 3.4.2 ( Download FTK Imager 3.4.2) is forensic software tool used to analysis disk image file 3 | P a g e CONNECTION TO THE COURSES OF MISSM PROGRAM This proposed research is closely related to Digital forensic course (ISSM536), which is one of the course we had covered in our Information Systems and Security Management program. The proposed research used the techniques learned from this class and applied them in the android environment to reveal several types of personal information such as username, password, date of birth, postal addresses contact, photos, account number, messages etc. The comparative analysis method used covers the principles of digital evidence collection learned in Information Technology Security Laws and Ethics course (ISSM561). The proposed research has a beginning and ending, as a result it need to be managed in order to deliver the end result. Therefore, the knowledge learned from (ISSM545) System Development and Project Management. REVIEW OF RELATED RESEARCHS Fuchs, et al., [2] presented the first analysis tool for android called SCanDroid, a framework for Android to perform information flow analysis on applications in order to understand the flow of information from one component to another component. Consider a case where an application request permission to access multiple data stores i.e., public data store and private data store. The application requires permission for reading the data from the private store and writing data to the public store. SCanDriod analyzes the information flow of the application and reports whether the application will transfer the information in the private store to the public store or not. However, SCanDroid also suffers from the same limitation of security policy expressibility. In order to consider some information flow to be dangerous, the policy writers must define certain constraints prior to executing the policy. Similarly, if an information flow is not explicitly added to the set of constraints the f ramework will consider it to be safe. In 2012, C. Gibler, et al., presented AndroidLeaks, a static analysis framework for automatically finding potential leaks of sensitive information in Android applications on a massive scale[4]. It informed the user if applications are leaking their personal information. AndroidLeaks drastically reduces the number of applications and the number of traces that a security auditor has to verify manually. To secure privacy information, they set up a mappings between Android API methods and the required permissions as the sources and sinks of private data for data flow analysis. However, AndroidLeaks does not yet analyze Android-specific control and data flows. This includes Intents, which are used for communication between Android and application components, and content providers, which provide access to database-like structures managed by other components. Sasa Mrdovic et al., [3] proposed a combination of static and live analysis for memory image, which is obtained by hibernation mode (power management feature that exists in most portable computers). After they obtained the physical memory image, they used it to boot the investigated system in the virtual machine (live view) to resume the system to the same state before it went into hibernation mode. Their proposal of using hibernating feature was to obtain the memory contents without violating the evidence integrity, but during their analysis they found out that they lost all the information about network connections because hibernation mode terminates the network connections before it starts in Windows environment. As one of best well-known analysis approaches, Taint Droid detects privacy leaks using dynamic taint tracking [5]. Enck et al. built a modified Android operating system to add taint tracking information to data from privacy-sensitive sources. They track private data as it propagates through applications during execution. If private data is leaked from the phone, the taint tracker records the event in a log which can be audited by the user. In 2015,Young ho Kim et al., proposed a methodology and an architecture for measuring user awareness of sensitive data leakage, which features runtime application analysis over timing distance between the user input event and actual privacy data leak[6]. 4 | P a g e Nai-Wei Lo, Kuo-Hui Yeh, and Chuan-Yen Fan present a user privacy analysis framework called LRPdroid[7]. LRPdroid has been proposed for an Android platform to offer a user privacy management model. In the LRPdroid framework, they defined required models to achieve user privacy management: App execution data flow, user perception, leakage awareness, information leakage detection, privacy disclosure evaluation, and privacy risk assessment. To support the proposed privacy analysis model, two information capture modules for LRPdroid were designed to acquire incoming data inputted by a mobile user and outgoing data transmitted from a targeted App. A system prototype based on the LRPdroid framework was developed to evaluate the feasibility and practicability of LRPdroid. Two general App usage scenarios were adopted during the usage of Line App to evaluate the effectiveness of LRPdroid on user privacy disclosure by social engineering attack, user information leakage from normal operations o f a running App, and privacy risk assessment of targeted running App. In 2015[10], Pasquale Stirparo, Igor Nai Fovino, and Ioannis Kounelis developed a novel methodology called MobiLeak, for analysis of security and privacy level of mobile applications, which focuses more on user data instead of application code and its architecture. Their research work addressed and solved the problems related to the following three research questions for mobile environment and applications: (1)what are data and where can such data exist? (2) How is personal data handled? (3)How can one properly assess the security and privacy of mobile applications? They start their research work with a fundamental prerequisite in order to be able to properly treat them, which is studying and identifying every possibility state at which data can exist. After this step, they analyzed how real life mobile applications and operating systems handle users personal data for each of the states previously identified. Based on these steps they developed MobiLeak, which also combined concepts and principles from the digital forensics discipline. DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED RESEARCH THE FOCUS OF THE RESEARCH The aim of this proposed research is to examine user data storage mechanism on a mobile application in a context of android platform. Analyzing mobile application for personal data leakage require extensive analysis and in-depth understanding of both the OS and application architecture. The analysis is expected to be conduct to data at rest and data in motion. The result of this proposed research will help to create awareness to both application developers and the android community that users personal data information such as username, password and other sensitive information are at risk both in volatile and non-volatile memory. Finding user sensitive data on android smart phone could be in three (3) locations: disk drive, memory and app server. Our research is limited to two out of the three application data store which is disk drive and memory, both storage areas could prove strategic locations for finding vital information for android smart phone users. The motive of this research is to examine whether applications encrypt user sensitive information both in the memory and the disk drive. This pose the following questions: 1. Does user credentials are encrypted on a memory ? 2. Among the two method which one is more forensically sound? 3. What information could be found in disk drive and not in memory? During the experimental phase of the proposed research certain applications will be examining, such as VOIP applications, social media applications, financial applications and telecom applications. I chose this samples of android application from various categories. Because these applications are fairly popular and are used by millions of people around the globe. For each application I will look at how user sensitive data, such as user name, password, date of birth and account number are store both in the disk drive and the memory. 5 | P a g e The rest of the proposed research section is divided into 4 parts: First I am going talk about my methodology, next I will present the series of preliminary result both in the memory analysis and disk analysis, third I give the highlight of the expected result and finally, I will discuss about certain obstacles that may arise. METHODOLOGY The method used in carrying out the experiment of the proposed research consist of four phases. Phase One: Gather the require tool both in term of hardware and software As the proposed research required memory dump and disk drive imaging analysis a physical android phone is needed to conduct our experiment. 1. Window Host OS and Ubuntu Guest OS as our forensic workstation 2. Android phone Samsung Galaxy S3 3. Installing Odin3.-v3 which will allow us to root our android phone 4. Install android SDK tool for using ADB(Android Debug Bridge) to get shell access on our android Phone 5. Mem application software loaded into our android phone through ADB which allow us to dump the running process from the Phone Phase Two: Installation and configuration of experimental environment At this phase all the required tools, such as the hardware and software are installed and configured. Pre-experiment of memory dump and disk imaging is performed, and tools are verified. Phase Three: Acquisition of disk image and memory dump At this phase the disk image drive is acquired using dd command tool from the internal memory to internal SDcard of the phone and ADB pull is utilize to pull/copy the disk partitions to our forensic work station. Mem program software is utilize, this allow us to dump the running process. We used ADB to install mem application into our phone in order to dump the desired running application process. Phase Four: Preservation and analysis of acquired data The purpose of this phase is to examine acquired application data both in the memory and disk drive. For example, we will check if the application is encrypting users credential both data at rest and data in transit? MEMORY DUMPING ANALYSIS This section provide detail steps taken to analysis the dumped memory of certain applications selected for this proposed research. The result shows that users credential are not properly handle by the application, which can result in personal data leakage. A program called mem was used to facilities the process dump, ABD was also used to install mem program into our android phone. List the running process and dump them into the internal SDcard and finally pull it to our forensic workstation for further analysis. Strings and sqlite3 command were utilized to look for ASCII text format from the dumped memory to understand the output result. Interestingly, the result showed that users credential are not encrypted at all. The applications analyse in this proposed research are as follows: A) Africallshop App Africallshop is a VOIP application which allows customers to buy credit online to make national and international calls and send text message worldwide to friends and family at a cheap rate. The application is 6 | P a g e rated about 4.4 in the android play store and was downloaded by five thousand (5000) customers during the time of this proposed research. The prominent outcome of this application are as follow: The username, password, caller id and user account balance are not encrypted. We ran the sqlite3 and string command on the dumped memory, which produce the result below: sip.africallshop.com XXXXXXX 0017802986780 CANADA 12590 xxxxxxxxx yes CAD proxy.africallshop.com:443 574b690276bc5 [emailprotected] 0,434 B) EHarmony App EHarmony is an online dating site for singles. Those using this app can communicate freely, share picture, video and text. During the time of this proposed research the application was downloaded by five million people and rated 3.1 in the app store. The prominent outcome of this application analysis are as follow: The user credential, such as username, password and device information are all in plaintext. The result below: POST /singles/servlet/login/mobile HTTP/1.1 j_username=sdramme1%40student.concordia.ab.caj_password=123qazplatform=androidj0r1D7fg4ArJ2uSVPgSti5zcEnltO919mHUV88E%2FKUWcan9NEMgT820MygiKsWf0Sg1147vdZbXIo tLS HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: eHarmony-Android/3.1 (SGH-I747M; Android OS 4.4.2; en_CA; id f9d8a2acfec7b901) X-eharmony-device-id: f9d8a2acfec7b901 X-eharmony-device-os: Android X-eharmony-device-os-version: 19 X-eharmony-device-type: 1 X-eharmony-client: eHarmony X-eharmony-client-version: 3.1 Accept: application/json lBxp c_te j_username=sdramme1%40student.concordia.ab.caj_password=123qazplatform=android 8KTB stevedocwra on 7 | P a g e C) Virgin Mobile My account App Virgin mobile is GSM mobile application that allow user to manage their account features and usage. Users can make payment and add a buddy to their list. This application was downloaded by five hundred thousand (500,000) people during the time of this proposed research and was rated 3.4 in the app store. The prominent outcome of this application are as follow: Sim sequence number, cell phone number, UMTS number, activation date, user data of birth, subscribe date, user e-mail address, initial password, pin unlock code and account number. all this information are not encrypted. [emailprotected]:~/android-sdk-linux/platform-tools$ strings virginmobile | grep [emailprotected] We run the ps and string command on the dumped memory, which produced the result below: imeioriginal:null,simsequenceNumber:174392323,esnequipmentType:null,imeiequipmentType:{value:LTEDevice,code:T},simequipmentType:{value:USimVal,code:U}},telephoneNumber:7802356780,networkType:{value:UMTS,code:85},language:{value:EN,code:E},isBillSixty:false,isTab:false,commitmentStartDate:null,commitmentEndDate:null,commitmentTerm:0,contractType:{value:OFF_COMMITMENT,code:O},paccPinStatus:{value:NOT_ENROLLED,code:78},padPinStatus:{value:NOT_ENROLLED,code:78},initialActivationDate:1463112000000,accountCommPref:{value:BILL_INSERTS,code:66},isAccountSMSPerm:true,birthDate:512197200000,lastUpdateDate:1464062400000,lastUpdateStamp:9863,lastHardwareUpgradeDate:null,daysSinceLastHWUpgrade:null,subscriberEstablishDate:1463112000000,daysSinceActivation:16,nextTopupDate:1465704000000,cancelledSubStatusDate:1463371200000,initialPassword:5069,isCallDisplayAllowed:false,pricePlan:VHV226,portInidicator:null,primeMateInidicator:{value:UNKNOWN,code:R},primeSubNumber:null,subMarket:{value:UAC,code:UAC },telcoId:MOBL,pinUnlockKey:[36761817,63094923],manitobaIndicator:O,thunderBayIndicator:O,portabilityIndicator:O,serviceArea:N,hasOrderInProgress:false,isWCoCSubscriber:true,hasDomesticDataServices:false,hasRoamingDataServices:false,domesticDSBlockedUntil:null,roamingDSBlockedUntil:null,isAccessible:false,promotionGroupCode:null,emailAddress:[emailprotected],wcoCDate:1463112000000}]},emailAddress:[emailprotected],arbalance:{name:{http://bside.int.bell.ca/customer/profile/types}ARBalance,declaredType:java.lang.Double,scope:ca.bell._int.bside.customer.profile.types.MobilityAccountType,value:0,nil:false,globalScope:false,typeSubstituted:false},ebillInfo:{isEBillEnrolled:true,isEBillNotifyEnabled:true,ebillStartDate:1463112000000,ebillEndDate:null},siowner:{value:BELL_MOBILITY,code:MOBL},arpuamount:19.13}]},wirelineAccounts:null,internetAccounts:null,tvaccounts:null},activeHouseholdOrders:null,emailAddress:[emailprotected]},username:7802986780,guid:SCP9O0ELLDDUN2J,profileType:BUP,savedT imeStamp:2016-05-29T01:30:38.458-04:00,profilebanNumbers:[{accountType:Legacy,ban:527566075,profileSaveTime:1463945744000}],accountType:,paymentData:[[{paymentInfoList:{billAvailable:true,lastPaymentAmount:40.18,totalAmountDue:40.18,lastPaymentDate:2016-05-22T00:00:00.000-04:00,paymentDueDate:2016-06-06T00:00:00.000-04:00,billEnddate:2016-05-14T00:00:00.000-04:00,balanceForward:0,bankAccountNumber:null,creditCardNum:null,customerId:null,ban:527566075,mdn:52756607UAV580,eligibilityInd:Y}}]]}` DISK IMAGING ANALYSIS This section provided detail steps taken to conduct traditional forensic technique for non-volatile memory acquisition and analysis. During this phase the acquired memory will be examine and the primary concern will be user data stored, in particular share_pref folder. Share_pref folder is a storage location for key-value in side application database. Android application store user data within /dev/block[8]. With the use of common forensic command, such as dd, will be utilize to image disk drive partition. For this proposed research the following partitions are imaged for analysis: System file Cache file 8 | P a g e User data Persist But our proposed research experiment will be focus on user data folder, as it is consider to be the storage location for application data. To image disk drive, shell access is need through android SDK, we then look for mount file on the disk drive before executing dd commands to copy the partition from the internal memory to internal SDcard and finally pulling it to our forensic work station using adb pull command. 1. Checking the mounted file on the disk drive mount /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist 2. Copying the user date partition and pull it to forensic work station dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata of=/mnt/sdcard/test1 17399538+0 records in 17399537+0 records out 8908562944 bytes transferred in 1934.464 secs (4605184 bytes/sec) adb pull /mnt/sdcard/test1 3. Imaging the cache partition to internal SDcard dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache of=/mnt/sdcard/cachefile1.img 1720320+0 records in 1720320+0 records out 880803840 bytes transferred in 118.669 secs (7422358 bytes/sec) 4. Copying the system partition dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system of=/mnt/sdcard/systemfile.img 3072000+0 records in 3072000+0 records out 1572864000 bytes transferred in 255.874 secs (6147025 bytes/sec) [emailprotected]:/ # 5. Copying the persist partition dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist of=/mnt/sdcard/persist.img 16384+0 records in 16384+0 records out 8388608 bytes transferred in 0.865 secs (9697812 bytes/sec) The above command will image each partition of the mounted file of dev/block with the default block size of 512 byte during bit-by-bit copy of the file and direct the output file to internal SDcard. Finally, copy it to our forensic workstation, Which can be analysis using forensic tool called AccessData FTK imager version 3.4.2. FTK is recommended forensic tool for disk image analysis by both forensic and legal community for its powerful carving capability, stability and ease of use. AccessData FTK ANALYSIS 1. PayPal App PayPal is an online payment system that allows its member to transfer funds locally and globally. Members can receive, send money and buy or pay for goods and services online. The application was downloaded by 10 million people at the time of this research and rated as a good app in the app store. We added evidence item to 9 | P a g e FTK navigate to data and com.paypal.android.p2pmobile then share_pref folder. The folder share_pref/PresentationAccount.RememberedUsersta../ reveal user data information such as user first and last name, cell phone number, and email address. 2. AfricallShop App Africallshop is a VOIP application that allow the users to make cheap international call worldwide, user can purchase credit online to communicate with peer by text message and voice call. After adding user data partition to FTK imager, navigate to com.v2.africallshop folder, expand the folder view share_pref folder. In sher_pref folder an xml file called com.v2.africallshop-prefrences.xml was view and contain user sensitive data such as app domain name, caller ID, country, ID, user password, username and account balance all in plain text. 10 | P a g e 3. Keku App Keku is a VOIP application which facilitate call or text through Wi-Fi or mobile data. User buy credit online to make local and internationally calls. The package of the application contain probative information about the user. App database store was reveal through FTK analysis and the share_pref folder contain sensitive information about the user. In share_pref folder a file called Org.keku_preferences.xml, this file contain users sensitive data and device information such as, password, username, device-mac address and user phone number. 11 | P a g e EXPECTED RESULTS During the experimental phase of the proposed research, aim and objective of the experiment is to demonstrate or show that users personnel data information are at risk during application data process in transit and at rest. The research has observe the dumped process and disk drive imaged to reveal personal data leakage and has successfully uncover vital information about App users, such as username, password, date of birth etc. OBSTACLE The obstacles encountered during the experimental phase of the proposed research as follow: 1) Lack of enough material regarding android forensic as the field is immature 2) Unable to image the whole memory of the actual phone, as the system configuration file is missing and couldnt be found to compile it with LiMe in order to acquire the whole memory. 3) Lack of enough analysis tool to cross examine or evaluate both the dumped and disk drive memory, Ubuntu Linux tool was used to do our analysis. CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE The proposed research show that application developers are far less careful with user sensitive data when it being stored both in the disk drive and memory in running applications. Using very simple forensic investigation techniques running strings and sqlite3 on dumped memory and disk drive imaging analysis on FTK show quite a lot of private information. OUTLINE OF FINAL RESEARCH PAPER ISSM 580/581 The final research document will be structure as follows [9]: Section 1, will be the abstract then the Introduction to the paper. Section 2, will discuss memory analysis technique. Section 3, will discuss disk imaging analysis 12 | P a g e technique. Section 4, will discusses the forensic artifacts unveil during the analysis . Section 5, related work. Section 6, the result summary. Section 7; conclusion and future work. . RESEARCH DELIVERABLES This research will be conduct in Fall Semester 2016, from September 2016 to December 2016. Nevertheless, some major preliminary steps have already being taken. Most of the required tools both hardware and software for the proposed research have already being obtained and implemented. Spring 2016 April Researching the Topic of Interest Week 1 2 Finalize the Topic with Primary Advisor Week 3 4 Read the Area/Topic of Interest May Week 1 2 Read relevant Journal or Article related to the topic of interest Week 3 4 Gathering and installation of test Environment, Conducting and Experiment. June Week 1 Writing First Draft proposal and submit Week 2 -3 Edit and Improve proposal based on advisor guidance, Further Experiment and literature review read. Week 4 Final Proposal and Submit.

Humorous Wedding Roast of the Groom :: Wedding Toasts Roasts Speeches

Humorous Wedding Speech about the Groom Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Before starting the one speech that I know you’ve all been waiting for, I’d like to thank both Steve and Marcus – my two support acts. And I’d also like to thank Marcus in particular, for hosting what so far has been an absolutely fantastic wedding. It can’t have been easy watching your only daughter marry someone like Steve. In fact, I can only imagine what it might have been like - perhaps a similar feeling to realizing that you’ve just trodden in some fresh dog mess, only 100 times worse? But Marcus, if I may call you that, you’ve conducted yourself with great dignity and composure today, and I think we should all take inspiration from you – particularly when we next have a mishap on the pavement. And talking of mishaps on pavements, it was 17 years ago this very year that I trod on Steve – sorry, I mean that I met Steve - one September morning, both of us walking to our first day at St Joseph’s Secondary. And I feel the things I’ve witnessed over the last 17 years give me a certain authority today to remind Marcus, and to tell those of you who don’t know Steve, quite what Aimee’s got herself into. Now, I can see Steve beginning to look uncomfortable and, behind that sweet smile, Aimee is clearly furious. And it’s fair enough, because they did make it very plain to me that today was a family occasion. But it’s also tough, because this is too good an opportunity to miss. That said, they shouldn’t really worry because Steve’s never been much of a rebel. In fact, at school he was quite a goody-two-shoe – if you ignored the fact that through the fourth and fifth year he used his changing room locker to run a profitable lending library of pornographic magazines. Let me tell you, when word got round that the Porn Prince had some new stock in, there would be a queue half way round the block. Or so I heard. But he did ask me not to go into that today, because it’s something he’s never told Aimee, so I won’t. And in fairness to Steve, he was actually a keen student who always wanted to put forward his opinions – and he would have done well if the examination board had only agreed with just a few more of them.

Core Elements of Health Education and Risk Reduction Activities Essay

Core Elements of Health Education and Risk Reduction Activities A number of core elements should be considered in health education and risk reduction program and evaluation activities. Effective Health Education and Risk Reduction program activities: †¢ State realistic, specific, measurable, and attainable program goals and objectives. †¢ Identify methods and activities to achieve specific goals and objectives. †¢ Define staff roles, duties, and responsibilities. †¢ Define the populations to be served by geographic locale, risk behavior(s), gender, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity. †¢ Assure that educational materials and messages are relevant, culturally competent, and language- and age-appropriate. †¢ Include professional development for all program staff. †¢ Include a written policy and personnel procedures that address stress and burnout. †¢ Include written procedures for the referral and tracking of clients to appropriate services outside of the agency. †¢ Provide for collaboration with other local service providers to assure access to services for clients. †¢ Assure confidentiality of persons served. Effective Health Education and Risk Reduction evaluation activities: †¢ Include process evaluation. †¢ Require consistent and accurate data collection procedures, including number of persons served, quantity and type of literature or materials distributed, and demographics of persons served. A description of the tools to be used and definitions of various measurements (e.g., "unit of service" and "contact") should be outlined. †¢ Include staff supervision, observation, evaluation, and feedback on a regular basis. †¢ Include feedback from persons served. †¢ Designate staff who are responsible for evaluation and quality assurance activities, for compiling and analyzing data, and for documenting and reviewing findings. †¢ Define methods for assessing progress toward stated proc... ...apters to read Aug. 21 - Course outline 26 - The Meaning of Health and Wellness 1 28 - The Meaning of Health and Wellness 1 Sept. 2 – Health Promotion 2 4 - Health Promotion 2 9 - Health Education 3 11 - No class 16 - History of Health Education and Health Promotion 4 18 - History of Health Education and Health Promotion 4 23 - Health Education and Promotion as a Profession 5 25 - Health Education and Promotion as a Profession 5 30 - Settings for Health Education and Promotion 6 Oct. 2 - Settings for Health Education and Promotion 6 7 - Mid-term exam 9 – Fall break 14 - Coordinated School Health Programs 7 16 - Government Initiatives 8 21 - Programs that work 9 23 - Programs that work 9 28 - Learning and Behavior Change: Theories and Models 10 30 - Learning and Behavior Change: Theories and Models 10 Nov. 4 - Needs Assessment, Planning, and Program Implementation 11 6 - Needs Assessment, Planning, and Program Implementation 11 11 - Evaluation 12 13 - Evaluation 12 18 - Current and Future Issues in Health Education and Health Promotion 13 20 - PPD 25 – Interview presentations 27 - Thanksgiving Dec. 2 - Interview presentations 4 - Interview presentations FINAL TBA

The Allegory of the Cave?? in Different Perspectives :: essays research papers

 ¡Ã‚ §The Allegory of the Cave ¡Ã‚ ¨ in Different Perspectives  ¡Ã‚ §The Allegory of the Cave, ¡Ã‚ ¨ written by Plato, is an interpretation of a conversation between Socrates, Plato ¡Ã‚ ¦s mentor, and Glaucon, one of Socrates students.  ¡Ã‚ §The Allegory of the Cave ¡Ã‚ ¨ can be interpreted several different ways. Imagine men in a cave chained up by their necks and legs, forcing them to only look forward at a wall. An opening behind them lets the light in. Above the burning fire and chains, there is a road. Have these chained men ever seen anything else of themselves or others beyond the cave ¡Ã‚ ¦s shadows made by the fire? Some people would say the truth is only perceived by the shadows seen on the walls of the cave. What if one of these men ¡Ã‚ ¦s chains were taken off and he was free to leave? Would the man feel pain when seeing the real world? Would he be confused on believing what is real? Would it make a difference if the chained man was briefly educated about what he was going to see first? Perhaps he would understand and not be confused about what is real. Will the man think what he saw before was much more real than what he sees now? Questions like these will bring different opinions and meaning to  ¡Ã‚ §The Allegory of the Cave. ¡Ã‚ ¨ Whose interpretation, if any, is correct when explaining the meaning of  ¡Ã‚ §The Allegory of the Cave ¡Ã‚ ¨? Does it have mathematical meaning, explain a vision of the whole world, or is it just a comparison to the field of social work? I personally feel that  ¡Ã‚ §The Allegory of the Cave ¡Ã‚ ¨ is a great explanation of how people in the world live. People are just like the men chained inside the cave, people only know and believe what he or she might have seen. Outside of the cave is the world around us. People are very narrow minded beings, a persons perception on life is only from their own experiences. When the chained men are let free is when people finally realize what is going on in the world and not just what is around them.  ¡Ã‚ §The Allegory of the Cave ¡Ã‚ ¨ can be interpreted with different meanings, such as Michael O ¡Ã‚ ¦Leary ¡Ã‚ ¦s theory of the cave being a place away from the world. Michael O ¡Ã‚ ¦Leary believes  ¡Ã‚ §The Allegory of the Cave ¡Ã‚ ¨ is Plato ¡Ã‚ ¦s explanation of the education of the soul towards enlightenment.

Examining Hamlet and The Great Gatsby Essay

According to Roger Lewis, â€Å"The acquisition of money and love are both part of the same dream, the will to return to the quintessential unity that exists only at birth and at death† (41). In both William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the protagonists are willing to sacrifice all that they have in order to achieve their unrealistic objectives and ambitions, resulting in their tragic demises. While there are many themes and concepts relevant to both Hamlet and The Great Gatsby, their parallels regarding their aspirations stand out for further evaluation. The concept of sacrificing all that a person has, not limiting to their own life, is ever present in these works. Both Hamlet and Gatsby make evident that they are willing and are capable of sacrificing all that is themselves to possibly reach their ultimate goal. Throughout William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark is set on his goal of achieving vengeance and justice for his father’s murder, without the realization that his obstinate aspirations eventually lead to his own downfall. Unlike many other characters, Hamlet is very analytical; he makes very calculated and thoughtful moves before he acts, ultimately leading him to his death. â€Å"Hamlet represents the type of man whose power of direct action is paralyzed by an excessive development of his intellect† (Freud, Sigmund). This is furthermore supported when Hamlet is given a golden opportunity to attain vengeance for his father, but does not kill Claudius, the king of Denmark, for Hamlet mistakenly assumes that Claudius is praying. Hamlet: Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying. And now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven. And so am I revenged, That would be scanned. A villain kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send, To heaven. Oh, this is hire and salary, not revenge. (Hamlet, III, iii, 74-80) Hamlet misses an opportune chance to complete his mission, one to which he would have no opposition, but loses his chance due to his over-excessive thought process. On the other hand, Jay Gatsby is a person who appears to be motivated by only his urges and emotions; no other forces drive him more than his ultimate love lust. â€Å"Gatsby does not appear as a man of ordinary disposition acting under the direction of ordinary, explicable impulses. He appears instead as one under the spell of some enchantment† (Langman, F.H.). In other words, Gatsby himself was driven by a mighty inner need to reattain his once lost love. Through this, we see that Gatsby was not controlled by anything but his heart; his heart controlled his actions and thought process, and had completely consumed his entire life since his breakup with Daisy. Gatsby was willing to adjust himself to what Daisy seemed to desire at that moment. He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way, as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real. Once he nearly toppled down a flight of stairs. (Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 112) In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby has made it his life mission to donate all of his possible energy and resources to attempt to acquire his love once lost. According to Carla Verderame, â€Å"The novel concerns itself with the struggles of reinventing oneself to attain the dreams and pleasures of one’s youth. In Gatsby’s case, the effort goes terribly awry.† Gatsby, throughout the novel, strives to retrieve his long lost love; he is willing to conform himself to whatever means he must conform to in order to achieve his end desired goal. â€Å"The poor boy who becomes a millionaire by extra-legal activities endeavors to recapture Daisy Buchanan by means of his newly acquired wealth. This ostentatious, mysterious character becomes the exemplar of the American dream and its flaws† (Bruccoli, Matthew J.). Jay Gatsby spends years of his life involved in illegal activity in order to accumulate enough wealth to be able to throw many parties, all for a possible chance to see his love once lost, Daisy. In this, both Jay Gatsby and Prince Hamlet are willing to sacrifice all that they have, not limited to themselves, in order to achieve their unrealistic goals. In comparison, Hamlet is content with altering his life and his current relationships, all for the sake of being closer to his ultimate goal, vengeance for his father. â€Å"Hamlet lacks faith in G-d and himself. Consequently he must define his existence in terms of others†¦ He would like to become what the Greek Tragic hero is, a creature of situation. Hence his inability to act, for he can only ‘act’†, i.e., play at possibilities† (Auden, W.H) Hamlet is willing to act mad, ruining all of his relationships, not limited to his romantic life, for a futile opportunity to get close enough to Claudius to kill him. Although both Jay Gatsby and Prince Hamlet are willing to sacrifice all for their aspirations, Gatsby puts on a false front, while Hamlet covers his; Gatsby pulls a facade as though he had been wealthy throughout his entire life, while Hamlet feigns insanity. Gatsby has attempted to pull a facade of him having always been wealthy, thus allowing him to be part of Daisy’s circle. Gatsby claims to have inherited his vast sum, hiding that he had actually self accumulated it over the years. By pretending to be wealthy to belong in an elite class, he is hoping for the opportunity and chance to have the ability of mixing in with Daisy, his lost love. â€Å"Past the last door to the last room and Gatsby’s facade is still up; he is still marshaling, even in his bedroom ‘many colored disarray’, literally pilling up: there is no end to his ‘soft rich heap’†¦But despite all the wealth they embody, they remain piles of things† (Lhamon Jr, W.T., 58). Though Jay Gatsby indubitably pretends he fits into the elite rich’s circle, he did not belong there in the least. Gatsby goes so far as to change his name, the one part of a being that will always be himself infinitely. He had gone so far as to change his name and identity as though it could be almost impossible to separate the fake facade from the real being. While delving so deep into a lie and false pretense, one can presume that likely at a point the two merged, creating a sort of equilibrium state, as though there had genuinely existed a ‘Jay Gatsby.’ â€Å"[Gatsby’s] parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people- his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God†¦ he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.† (Fitzgerald, F. Scott) In contrast, Hamlet has dissembled his true noble self in order to feign madness to draw Claudius near. Hamlet is far superior than any other characters in Hamlet, intellectually and with a potent inner strength. He embodies many incredible capabilities and abilities; Hamlet can be considered a paradoxical character, being both witty and cautious, kind but stern, etc. â€Å"[Hamlet] is endowed with the finest sense of propriety, susceptible of noble ambition, and open in the highest degree to an enthusiastic admiration of that excellence in others of which he himself is deficient. He acts the part of madness with unrivaled power† (Schlegel, August Wilhelm Von). Hamlet is inherently a noble and imperial being, therefore, for him to dissemble himself and conceal it enables him to feign his insanity, for insanity is much less noble than nobility. Hamlet appears to be a strong character, both physically and mentally. He is a very elegant thinker, who is by far more intellectual than his peers. â€Å"The character of Hamlet stands quite by itself. It is not a character marked by strength of will or even of passion, but by refinement of thought and sentiment† (Hazlitt, William). Hamlet is a very unique character in regards to his highly mature and noble sophistication. While it seems that Gatsby was not deserving of his vastly enourmous wealth along with the status that accompanied it throughout the book, on the contrary it is possible that he might in fact had been. One could argue that in reality he was a nobel character, deserving of his status in elite circles . Whether or not Gatsby had indeed inherited his sum or had invested legally or illegally, he truly did acquire an enormous sum of cash. Gatsby had come into life with almost nothing to his name, and had left it with enormous wealth. He was an honored individual who served his country and truly can be referred to as the epitome of the American Dream throughout his life. Gatsby ‘represented everything,’ Nick says, for which he feels â€Å"an unaffected scorn.† Even when he tells Gatsby, on their last meeting, that he’s ‘worth the whole damn bunch put together,’ Nick continues to disapprove of him on a social level. Gatsby has redeeming qualities, however†¦ Parts of his fantastic story turn out to be true. He had been a war hero, and has the medal from Montenegro to prove it. He had actually attended Oxford—for five months, as a postwar reward for military service, and produces a photograph in evidence. Above all, there was nothing phony or insincere about his dream of Daisy (Donaldson, Scott). That being said, it is important to also reanalyze Hamlet’s position; Hamlet could well possibly have not been concealing his true self, but rather trying to develop his plan cognitively. Although the question remains if he had truly become consumed by his ‘madness charade‘ or if it had been an act all along, William Shakespeare gives no indication in his work. â€Å"Hamlet, a very unconventional hero whose eloquence and endless deliberation on why he cannot consummate the revenge his father desires underscores his essential rhetorical role in the play. While Hamlet so eloquently describes his feelings, the question remains as to whether he actually feels them† (Bloom, Harold). Although it may appear that he had lost himself, if not beginning with his escapade concerning his old girlfriend then with his seemingly drivel conversations, it is highly likely that Hamlet had just been playing a part. This is seen when Hamlet is able to not only save his own life from the decree put forth by his uncle, but to complete his mission in the end as well. While there are many germane ideas present in both literary works, their parallels to each-other regarding their willingness to achieve their aspirations are regarded as a main point to be extracted for further assessments. Both protagonists were willing to do about anything, including altering their destinies, in order to achieve some aspiration of theirs, regardless of how unrealistic it may be. According to Khalil Gilbran, â€Å"To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.† (97) This being said, both Gatsby and Hamlet are intricate characters with much to delve and dissect on; though they both died tragic deaths, their deaths were not in vain for their legacies continue onward. Works Cited: Auden, W.H. Hamlet. qtd in Lectures on Shakespeare† ed. Arthur Kirsch. New Jersey: Princton University Press, 2000 Bloom, Harold, ed. â€Å"Background to Hamlet.† Hamlet, Bloom’s Guides. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2003. Bruccoli, Matthew J. New Essays on The Great Gatsby. Cambridge: Cambridgeshire, 1985. Donaldson, Scott. Fool for Love: F. Scott Fitzgerald qtd. on â€Å"On Gatsby and the Historical Antecedents for Gatsby.† Bloom, Harold, ed. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2006. Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretations of Dreams. qtd. as â€Å"Hamlet’s Deepest Impulses† Harold Bloom, ed. Shakespeare’s Tragedies, Bloom’s Major Dramatists. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 1999. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print. Gilbran, Khalil. qtd in A Toolbox for Humanity ed Lloyd Albert Johnson. Victoria, Canada: Trafford Publishing, 2003. Hazlitt, William.Characters of Shakespeareâ€℠¢s Plays qtd. as â€Å"Hamlet’s Power of Action† in Harold Bloom, ed. Shakespeare’s Tragedies, Bloom’s Major Dramatists. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 1999. Lewis, Roger. Money, love, and aspiration. qtd. in â€Å"New Essays on the Great Gatsby† ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK. 1985 Lhamon Jr, W.T. Style and Shape in the Great Gatsby.† Critical Essays on F. Scott Fitzgerals, Cambridge. ed. Scott Donaldson Bostom: Hall, 1984 Schlegel, August Wilhelm Von. Hamlet’s flaws. qtd. in Shakespeare’s Tragedies, Bloom’s Major Dramatists. Harold Bloom, ed. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 1999. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992. Verderame, Carla. The Great Gatsby. McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011.

Human expression

The need for human beings to connect and to communicate seems innate; if they were not, mankind would not seek out others with whom to forge bonds.   One of the basic forms of human association is via communication, and the ways in which humans have learned to communicate are as varied as the individuals involved.   A quick glance into any history book will reveal that during the early periods of humankind’s existence, while people struggled to keep themselves clothed and fed, they took time to create works of art—be it on the walls of caves or via carved figures.   As modernized as our society has become, art remains an integral part of the means by which humans communicate and relate to one another.Alfred Jensen’s series The Number Paintings (2006) â€Å"looks at how the artist used Pythagorean theory, the Mayan Calendar, and other numerical systems as well as Goethe’s color theory in his work,† but this description of the exhibit is devoid of the complexity that is present within Jensen’s pieces and the ways in which they may touch a viewer (Joy, 2006, Alfred).The painting Demonstration VIII (1961) was my favorite piece from The Number Paintings (2006), but my attachment had little to do with math or Mayans, and while I admit that part of my being drawn to this piece was due to its colors, this had far more to do with personal preference than with Goethe.   I made a connection to this piece because it reminded me of some of my favorite childhood things: pie and crayons.   Admittedly, this reaction is less-than sophisticated; however, the fact that I made these initial connections with Jensen’s piece caused me to spend a good deal of time examining it, and once drawn to the piece, the numerical sequences and their meanings fascinated me.While Jensen may have set out to create an artistic commentary on â€Å"clockwork,† â€Å"circumference,† and â€Å"diameter,† this would have bee n meaningless to me had I not been drawn to the pie shape and the colors of the piece.   It seems then, that one element of the way in which people manage to communicate (i.e. to express themselves and to be understood) is through similarities in taste: in this case, the primary factors were shape and color.Elizabeth Murray’s series Paintings 2003-2006 (2006), â€Å"are vibrant abstractions, sometimes of figures and everyday objects, combined to create visual metaphors of the world around us† (Joy, 2006, Elizabeth).   This statement was easier for me to attach myself to than was the statement regarding Jensen’s exhibit.   The description regarding Murray’s show gave me permission to enjoy what I saw while gently seeking a connection between each piece and the way I view the world.   I found myself particularly fascinated with Muddy Waters 8:05 A.M., because of the green and yellow hands I perceived in the piece.   The more I looked, the more wha t I saw reminded me of Sylvia Plath’s poem, â€Å"Metaphors.†Ã‚   Plath’s piece is often referred to as a riddle to which the â€Å"answer† is that she is describing her pregnancy (Comley, et al, 2004).   As I continued to view Murray’s piece, I could not help but see the image of a pregnant woman—whom I imagined to be single—as she struggled against the current of society.Given the title of the piece, I presume that I have mistaken what Murray created; however, what I did see certainly fits with the description of what her work is supposed to convey.   Based on the artwork of Murray, it seems as if another means by which understanding and expression are accomplished are via works that spark the imagination.Jerome Robbins’ ballet Fancy Free is set â€Å"in New York City on a hot summer night,† and involves â€Å"three sailors on shore leave [who] pick up two girls [when] a fight develops over which sailor is to be l eft without a partner†; however, without experiencing the dance and music of the ballet, it simply cannot be fully appreciated (Notes).   While the comedy of the story-line was entertaining, the magnificent dancing was the reason this piece was memorable.Through their jumps and twists and turns, I was drawn into the competition as if I were part of it.   As each sailor took his turn, I urged him on while holding my breath that his performance would stand up to those of his competitors.   Having real people acting out a series of events in a live performance is clearly a powerful form of communicating.   A solid performance brings the actors and the audience together in a way that few other experiences can, and when the show is successful, the participants have expressed themselves and the audience has understood them.When I was younger, my best friend and I used to make up all kinds of things to do.   Sometimes we’d pretend we were from a foreign country and m ake up accents all afternoon.   Other times, we’d pretend we were grown ups and act out the lives we imagined for ourselves.   One of the funniest things we ever did was to spend an entire afternoon communicating without talking or writing.   The rules were simple: anything one of us wanted to say had to be conveyed through the use of gestures and expressions.   As you might imagine, it was far more difficult to â€Å"talk† than we thought it would be, and while it was fun, it was extremely challenging.   The truth is, we spent more time laughing over not being able to understand one another than we did â€Å"communicating.†Things became especially silly when I realized I had to go to the bathroom.   While it might seem that I could simply get up and go, this would have been rude: no one leaves a room without telling the person he or she is with where he or she is going, and because we took our games seriously, it was up to me to communicate to my be st friend that I needed to go use the restroom.   Initially, I approached it like a game of charades.I figured it would be easy to act out the word â€Å"rest,† and once I’d gotten that far, I could simply point to our surroundings to get the word â€Å"room† out.   Keep in mind that while I was trying to act out the words, I had to GO.   I suppose that I was squirming a bit, and perhaps my clues were not as well planned as I originally believed—after about three minutes, when I was still working at â€Å"communicating,† I became desperate.   I did the little kid thing: I crossed my legs together and pointed in the direction of the bathroom.   Something in that last attempt worked, and my best friend understood me.   I rushed off to relieve myself to the sound of laughter.The means by which people communicate are as varied as the participants.   Whether viewing a work of art, attending a ballet, or playing games with friends, communic ating is all about making certain that one’s expressions are understood by one’s audience. ReferencesComley, N. R., Hamilton, D., Klaus, C. H., Scholes, R., & Sommers, N.   Introduction.   Sylvia Plath.   Metaphors.   (2004).   Fields of reading: Motives for writing.   (6th ed.).   Boston: Bedford, 2004.   p. 377.Jensen, A. (1961).   Demonstration VIII.   The Number Paintings.   Pace Wildenstein Gallery.   Retrieved December 1, 2006,   (2006).   The Number Paintings.   Pace Wildenstein Gallery.   Retrieved December 1, 2006, fromJoy, J. B.   (2006).   Alfred Jensen: The Number Paintings.   The Number Paintings.   Pace Wildenstein Gallery.   Retrieved December 1, 2006,(2006).   Elizabeth Murray: Paintings 2003-2006: The Number Paintings.   Elizabeth Murray: Paintings 2003-2006.   Pace Wildenstein Gallery.   Retrieved December 1, 2006,Murray, E.   (2003-2004).   Muddy Waters 8:05 A.M.   Elizabeth Murray: Paintings 20 03-2006.   Pace Wildenstein Gallery.   Retrieved December 1, 2006, fromMurray, E.   (2006).   Elizabeth Murray: Paintings 2003-2006.   Pace Wildenstein Gallery.   Retrieved December 1, 2006, fromNotes on Fancy Free.   Robbins, J.   (Choreographer).   (1944).   Fancy Free.   [Ballet].   American Ballet Theatre.   Retrieved December 3,The need for human beings to connect and to communicate seems innate; if they were not, mankind would not seek out others with whom to forge bonds.   One of the basic forms of human association is via communication, and the ways in which humans have learned to communicate are as varied as the individuals involved.   A quick glance into any history book will reveal that during the early periods of humankind’s existence, while people struggled to keep themselves clothed and fed, they took time to create works of art—be it on the walls of caves or via carved figures.   As modernized as our society has become, ar t remains an integral part of the means by which humans communicate and relate to one another.Alfred Jensen’s series The Number Paintings (2006) â€Å"looks at how the artist used Pythagorean theory, the Mayan Calendar, and other numerical systems as well as Goethe’s color theory in his work,† but this description of the exhibit is devoid of the complexity that is present within Jensen’s pieces and the ways in which they may touch a viewer (Joy, 2006, Alfred).The painting Demonstration VIII (1961) was my favorite piece from The Number Paintings (2006), but my attachment had little to do with math or Mayans, and while I admit that part of my being drawn to this piece was due to its colors, this had far more to do with personal preference than with Goethe.   I made a connection to this piece because it reminded me of some of my favorite childhood things: pie and crayons.   Admittedly, this reaction is less-than sophisticated; however, the fact that I ma de these initial connections with Jensen’s piece caused me to spend a good deal of time examining it, and once drawn to the piece, the numerical sequences and their meanings fascinated me.While Jensen may have set out to create an artistic commentary on â€Å"clockwork,† â€Å"circumference,† and â€Å"diameter,† this would have been meaningless to me had I not been drawn to the pie shape and the colors of the piece.   It seems then, that one element of the way in which people manage to communicate (i.e. to express themselves and to be understood) is through similarities in taste: in this case, the primary factors were shape and color.Elizabeth Murray’s series Paintings 2003-2006 (2006), â€Å"are vibrant abstractions, sometimes of figures and everyday objects, combined to create visual metaphors of the world around us† (Joy, 2006, Elizabeth).   This statement was easier for me to attach myself to than was the statement regarding Jensenà ¢â‚¬â„¢s exhibit.   The description regarding Murray’s show gave me permission to enjoy what I saw while gently seeking a connection between each piece and the way I view the world.I found myself particularly fascinated with Muddy Waters 8:05 A.M., because of the green and yellow hands I perceived in the piece.   The more I looked, the more what I saw reminded me of Sylvia Plath’s poem, â€Å"Metaphors.†Ã‚   Plath’s piece is often referred to as a riddle to which the â€Å"answer† is that she is describing her pregnancy (Comley, et al, 2004).   As I continued to view Murray’s piece, I could not help but see the image of a pregnant woman—whom I imagined to be single—as she struggled against the current of society.Given the title of the piece, I presume that I have mistaken what Murray created; however, what I did see certainly fits with the description of what her work is supposed to convey.   Based on the artwork of Mur ray, it seems as if another means by which understanding and expression are accomplished are via works that spark the imagination.Jerome Robbins’ ballet Fancy Free is set â€Å"in New York City on a hot summer night,† and involves â€Å"three sailors on shore leave [who] pick up two girls [when] a fight develops over which sailor is to be left without a partner†; however, without experiencing the dance and music of the ballet, it simply cannot be fully appreciated (Notes).   While the comedy of the story-line was entertaining, the magnificent dancing was the reason this piece was memorable.Through their jumps and twists and turns, I was drawn into the competition as if I were part of it.   As each sailor took his turn, I urged him on while holding my breath that his performance would stand up to those of his competitors.   Having real people acting out a series of events in a live performance is clearly a powerful form of communicating.   A solid perform ance brings the actors and the audience together in a way that few other experiences can, and when the show is successful, the participants have expressed themselves and the audience has understood them.When I was younger, my best friend and I used to make up all kinds of things to do.   Sometimes we’d pretend we were from a foreign country and make up accents all afternoon.   Other times, we’d pretend we were grown ups and act out the lives we imagined for ourselves.   One of the funniest things we ever did was to spend an entire afternoon communicating without talking or writing.   The rules were simple: anything one of us wanted to say had to be conveyed through the use of gestures and expressions.   As you might imagine, it was far more difficult to â€Å"talk† than we thought it would be, and while it was fun, it was extremely challenging.   The truth is, we spent more time laughing over not being able to understand one another than we did †Å"communicating.†Things became especially silly when I realized I had to go to the bathroom.   While it might seem that I could simply get up and go, this would have been rude: no one leaves a room without telling the person he or she is with where he or she is going, and because we took our games seriously, it was up to me to communicate to my best friend that I needed to go use the restroom.   Initially, I approached it like a game of charades.I figured it would be easy to act out the word â€Å"rest,† and once I’d gotten that far, I could simply point to our surroundings to get the word â€Å"room† out.   Keep in mind that while I was trying to act out the words, I had to GO.   I suppose that I was squirming a bit, and perhaps my clues were not as well planned as I originally believed—after about three minutes, when I was still working at â€Å"communicating,† I became desperate.   I did the little kid thing: I crossed my legs to gether and pointed in the direction of the bathroom.   Something in that last attempt worked, and my best friend understood me.   I rushed off to relieve myself to the sound of laughter.The means by which people communicate are as varied as the participants.   Whether viewing a work of art, attending a ballet, or playing games with friends, communicating is all about making certain that one’s expressions are understood by one’s audience.