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For the first time, go inside the high pressure world of corporate presentation design. Chex Lankershim is the world's greatest slide designer, but he is due for a fall....

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“10 minutes until show,” said the brown skinned young man who was wearing a headset. “I'm doing my best,” Chox barked. He was furiously working his way through the slide deck trying to make all of the changes. “Well you need to work faster, vato.” “And who the hell are you?” Chox snapped. “My name is Cholo Marquez and I click the slide deck for the speaker onstage and I also maintain the show computers that project the slides,” he said gravely. “I am also a Mexican.” Chox slammed his fist on the desk. “I hate Times New Roman. I'm changing the font.” “To what?” said Cholo. “Comic Sans.” “Ay yi yi!” Cholo gasped. “Ain't nobody ever used that font in a presentation before, papi!” “Well I am.” “They gonna fire you.” Chox looked at Cholo. “If they are gonna fire me, then I will hand them the match.” “You got big cojones, I give you that Gringo.” Chox made his final change and then handed Cholo a floppy disc. “Here you go.” “It was nice working with you, pepino,” Chox said as he began copying the slide deck to his system. Chox rubbed his weary eyes. “Yes.”...

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periodical

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A glimpse in the life of the poor in the mid-20th century's Delhi (India), where poor Krisana declared a criminal because of his poverty, shares his destiny with a girl about which he had heard....

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Collected poetry reviews from 2004-2013.

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I faced the painting. I stared at it. There was the great eye and I concentrated on it. The eye, the great eye, the eye of the abstraction, the enigma, “what nonsense!”. And then, to my amazement, it happened: the great eye abstracted me, and the universe that we know now, seemed finite to me. The ethereal at the disposition of one unique imperative will, mine. From my hands emerged, at my whim, entire worlds, forms, beings, things, space, time and destinations, that my will governed, and all in only one point. I was almighty! Time laid dead in a languid clock over an infinite horizon, populated with floating mountains. There was Lucrecia, radiant, waiting my resolution...

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I faced the painting. I stared at it. There was the great eye and I concentrated on it. The eye, the great eye, the eye of the abstraction, the enigma, “what nonsense!”. And then, to my amazement, it happened: the great eye abstracted me, and the universe that we know now, seemed finite to me. The ethereal at the disposition of one unique imperative will, mine. From my hands emerged, at my whim, entire worlds, forms, beings, things, space, time and destinations, that my will governed, and all in only one point. I was almighty! Time laid dead in a languid clock over an infinite horizon, populated with floating mountains. There was Lucrecia, radiant, waiting my resolution...

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This study examines the influence of empiricism on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poetry up until 1800, at which time he deserted it for transcendentalism. This is not to suggest that he was completely an empiricist before 1800, but that his empiricism was somewhat tempered by transcendentalist influences. Therefore, the relationship between “empiricism” and “transcendentalism” in his thinking with regard to poetic composition is problematical. Coleridge became a transcendentalist poet and thinker, whose Biographia Literaria was partly intended to demonstrate the malign effect of the Locke tradition on poetry. Even so, that book is partly a work of self-correction. There is ample evidence of Coleridge’s immersion in empiricist philosophy in the 1790s, as well as in the kind of scientific enquiry that was thought to be congenial to that philosophy. The sway of David Hartley, in particular, over his thoughts is prominently demonstrated by the choice of a name for his son....

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Post existential humanist writing, creative photography, in depth look into the chaos of human relationships, with a side of Gonzo Journalism.

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Driving through the low plains which led out of Denver, Colorado I noticed a certain change in the scenery. It was obvious that the snow here would fall and melt almost instantly or remain in slush like state, while the city blanketed by it would remain white until the winter spell broke. It was the New Year week of 2014, and the entire state was celebrating the legalization of Marijuana for recreational purposes. There had been a special New Years celebration put on by The String Cheese Incident, and I had attended. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any pot until the last day of the shows, and by then I had already been bored just hanging out on my own. Hippies, although welcoming and loving, at their core were very clique inclined, new faces were often thought of and treated like outright outsiders, and can you blame them?...

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Literature Page 1 Fear and Loathing in Woodward, Oklahoma 19 Disjointed 21 The Alcoholic One 22 Just a few questions if I may 24 Credits Images Page 8 War On Drugs (See Credits Page) 9 Last Shot of Freedom 12 Incarceration Nation (See Credits Page) 16 Left-Overs of the American Dream 18 Into The Wilderness 20 Daydream Nightmare 23 Shapes And Texture (Solarized) Back Cover Train in Texas...

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Overview of Lower Saxion dialects and the future of literature in these Dutch dialects. State of the art.

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Dialect is not a vehicle of culture, as Latin was. Dialects are for conversation in the rural area about agriculture and food, not to discuss philosophy or economics. The vocabulary is not sufficient for new technology....

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Examples op literature in dialect and its future. Illustrated.

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This is the story of the rise and fall of an ambitious man, the decline and decay of his conniving wife, the trials and tribulations of their wayward son as well as the grit and gall of a spirited girl, who comes into his life. This depiction of their life and times not only pictures the facets of ambition and achievement, intrigue and betrayal, compulsion and compromise and sleaze and scandal but also portrays the possibilities of repentance and resolution, love and empathy coupled with compassion and contribution, leading to the spirituality of materialism, and that makes it the saga of our times. ...

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“If not for my disorientation, there was no way I would've gone astray,” she said with an apparent regret. “Gautam was no mean a lover for all that. If not a victim of circumstances, I wouldn't have ended up the way I did. Surely, I shouldn't have. True, I am amorous but not amoral at all. Whatever I had undone myself, hurt my man and ruined my son. Now, I think it’s time I help my son at least to get a chance to undo his past.” “I know how hard it is for you,” said Dr. Gupta as he got up to leave. “May God give you the strength to handle your predicament.” “Let's hope so,” she smiled wearily seeing him off. “I can never thank you enough for your concern to my son. Had I shown him a fraction of that, perhaps, things would not have come to this pass. Well, it is time I show him that I care. How I wronged the man I married and the son I bore. Sadly, there is no way I can retrieve the shame I heaped on my man. But it’s not the case with my son, let me see. Thanks for coming and goodbye to you.”...

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Book One - -Artha and Kama -Party Gone Sour -Trauma at Tihar -Mind of the Maligned -Twist at Tees Hazari -Trial in Camera -Dilemma of Qualms -Moment of Reckoning -End within the End -Vestiges of Prestige -High on Rebound -Bellows of Delhi -Dicing with Life -Spidering Spadework -Loss to Order -Daring Fate -Victims of Deceit -Baring the Soul -Garland of Guilt Book Two - -Dharma and Moksha -Bliss of Being -Collage of Crime -Domain of the Devil -Renaissance of Life -Sprouts of Love -Despair of Hope -Turn at the Bend -Amity of Empathy -A Day to Remember -Spirituality of Materialism -Sense of Reincarnation -Epilogue ...

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In a stream of consciousness mode this is the self-account of the life and times of a man, who liquidates his immense wealth only to consign it to the flames. The agony and ecstasy of his life as he makes it mundanely big, even as he loses his soul, only to regain it when tragedy strikes him leaves one to ponder over the meaning of success in life. This philosophical ‘novel of a memoir’ makes a compelling read that is conducive for contemplation about the nature and scope of human relationships in our materialistic world. ...

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He had the soul of our times, and is the namesake of many. He tamed success by the scruff of its neck, only to fuel envy in our neighborhood. When it seemed there was no stopping him, fate dealt him a deadly blow in his early sixties. Besides losing his wife, son and daughter-in-law with their children in that fatal road mishap, he found his leg mangled in the debris of their Ferrari. The intensity of the pity all felt for him seemed to match the magnitude of his loss, but as he became a recluse, his thought eluded all, and in due course, his tragedy became a thing of the past. But, in time, his intriguing behavior brought him back to the top of the page three in the local media - why he had disposed off his lucrative real estate for a song that left the realtors in the lurch. And as if to create a newsflash in the business world, he had off-loaded his considerable stockholding, which sent the bulls running for cover in the country's bourses. Soon, even as the scrip was crunching in the bear hug, the closure of his umpteen bank accounts earned him the national headlines, as it heralded a first rate liquidity crisis in the country's ...

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1. Glaring Shadow 2. Pains of Regret 3. Cradle of Life 4. Outlook for Re-look 5. Humbling Reality 6. Orgies of Love 7. Pangs of Remorse 8. Villainy of Innocence 9. Couple of a Kind 10. A Character of Sorts 11. Moments of Poignance 12. Enigma of Being 13. Vignettes of a Village 14. A Teacher of Note 15. Brink of Incest 16. Love-less Love 17. Flights of Heart 18. Gaffes of Youth 19. Pats and Slights 20. An Emotional Affair 21. The Harlot Zone 22. A Lingering Longing 23. Smallness of Bigness 24. Disown to Own 25. Sentiment of Ruin 26. Enigma of Attraction 27. Veneer of the Vile 28. Swap for Nope 29. Goring Syndrome 30. Back to the Basics ...

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Involution & Evolution is an anti-war novel focussing on Alfred Freeman, a World War One conscientious objector whose character is based on Jesus and Buddha. It stabs away at the hypocrisy at the centre of modern religion and politics, in a uniquely rhythmic and colourful manner....

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These Details in Preference to Nothing is the story of a relationship, or rather it’s a meditation on one, that is, a mediation on love, faith and an existence caught in transition told from a perspective not fully capable of seeing all angles. The narrative is in the first person and in the present tense as is every love affair between very young adults. The title sums up a lot—These Details in Preference to Nothing—a line lifted from Becket. To quote John Barth “heartfelt ineptitude has its appeal and so does heartless skill; but what you want is passionate virtuosity.” A story told in intense moments of meditative stupor, it sometimes reads more like poetry, and so it began as an extended sonnet sequence, but emerged into this record—to be added to all the others throughout history--of the truth in the sincere and authentic passion of the young, or at least some of the relevant and more illustrative details. ISBN: 978-1-932023-36-7. https://www.facebook.com/williamralpheditions...

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I have begun every impulse to speak with hesitation, suspended on the edge of doubt, mindful of my inability to say how it was. It was the year of the roar of lions, humid nights, the soft breaths of waterweeds and kisses. It was the first year alone with my son. I had always had enemies of my sleep. I had come to know them. My response was always hesitation. The world was very large. It was true that a specific combination of things often conspired to lead my telling what happened back to an ecstasy of memories of melancholy and through a long, long night. Saudade the Portuguese say, the sadness inside each joy. All my life I have been haunted by a dream of heaven.  It was true. For me, anyway, for the way I told things, and the way I have always told them. I was somewhat absent of myself where the words came to carry the telling from me. I was touched by the words the way the butterfly wants to be still in the hands of the breeze, to be untangled from the air that makes the soft current, carries the preliminary push, something unformed and unclear, to be unsnarled from the waft, to be unfurled as the sound from the trees, to be...

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These Details in Preference to Nothing About the Author Also from William Ralph Press

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Cupertino Story is a vivid and mesmerizing tale of troubled adolescents and misfits - a harrowing and perceptive fiction debut from a promising new literary voice. This raw and ominous portrait of a lost generation traces the lives of teenagers and their experiments with vices of all kinds, struggles with family and one another, as they succumb to passivity, self destructive and often heartless nihilism. Stevo lives in a world of casual privilege, acute moral entropy and reckless abandon. The weight of his older brother’s mysterious disappearance begins to permeate through his everyday life. After writing a disturbing school essay he’s put into therapy and given anti depressants. He’s continuously entranced by a mysterious new girl at school named Holly who may or may not be a high class call girl. His best friend Drake’s repressed homosexual bent becomes more evident with their drug induced adventures. The dizzying whirlwind of desperation takes Stevo through relentless parties in dot com villas, seedy bars, Santa Cruz bonfires, and also into the lesser known world of Silicon Valley after dark. Set in Szymanowski’s hometown,...

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I swallow two Ritalins and see dark circles under my eyes in the reflection. Foam is forming and spilling from my mouth, splashing in the sink and getting on my jeans. The TV says the winds have pulled trees from the ground and flipped over cars, and roofs of houses have been torn off. They advise people to stay indoors if they can. There is too much danger outside in these harsh conditions, they say, and then a commercial comes on about ten dollar oil changes at Jiffy Lube. The branches of the tree outside the bathroom are swinging and whipping at the window and house so loud that my mom screams. In the reflection, my mom passes with a coffee mug in hand and a long coat on. She says this is the worst time to be remodeling and is complaining about the cold, about how the heater should work soon but the workers keep rescheduling because of the weather. Where is the remote? she yells. I can’t remember where I put the damn remote. The foam keeps collecting and spilling out of my mouth. I open my mouth wide and spit it all out so it splatters on the mirror and the sides of the sink and onto my stomach and in the foamy spit there are s...

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Introduction by Cosey Fanni Tutti, legendary performance artist and founding member of Throbbing Gristle ​ Nightmares never seem to make sense when we try to describe them. Neil's genius is that he's written a book in a way that puts you back in that mindset by tapping into the primeval in all of us as a kind of catalyst for the telling of this story. This is a story told in the way that we live out life changing events - it's full of movement. It steps us back, sideways, takes us into seeming irrelevance - maybe as a means of escapism, and all by unpunctuated expertly crafted emotionally evocative (and) beautiful sequences of words. It's akin to poetry, or song lyrics at times. Words are used rather like musical notes, arranged in a sensitive, sometimes aggressive ways, constructing and deconstructing, effectively facilitating your own unique 'nightmare reading' of this story. The words are a means to an end, elements which collectively create a composition, the purpose of which is intrinsic to its completeness.  You should approach this book by abandoning any established preconceptions of the role of narrative or role...

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...  The awful shadow of some unseen Power Floats though unseen among us,—visiting This various world with as inconstant wing As summer winds that creep from flower to flower —Percy Bysshe Shelley ​ it is dark all around listen I say can you hear that she is gone I hear Firefly move uncomfortably in his bed across the room no he says that’s the sound of knives I cannot say he doesn’t hear that it’s not what I hear  Firefly is sleeping that is falling in and out of sleep so many of the people we have known are dead we have not seen each other since I left I’ve ignored him while considering what to do about meeting them and before them a hundred other thems he is caught in a trembling he can’t ascend out of and he lies there cursing resting smelling of illness which is the smell of neglect calling someone every couple minutes to fix or adjust what is wrong in him or what he needs in him what consumes him is unnatural rebuke beg whimper like collecting into a tear that never fully falls as he settles again into a nauseated waiting a concentrated breathing and an occasional ironic chuckle after every stroke my dad threw ...

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A Book of Nightmares About the Author Also from William Ralph Press

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This novel is based on the plot that describes the life of a young lady having worked as Assistant Professor at the University level. These days, she is engaged by a Trust, interested in promoting `mental illumination through peace of mind and self-confidence. She is going places to deliver lectures, keep in mind the aims of the organization as well as the composition of the audiences. In fact, since her infancy she is on the move from one part of India to another, even having no idea of the identity of the couple who parented her. Having been reared up by a domestic maid, she was obliged to inherit this type of job to earn for her livelihood. The onset of puberty in the proximity of unrelated men was to be withstood with caution and care for her chastity. These tours of lecturing around, once make her find a known lady in her audience in Delhi. This incident opens her the way to meet many people in this big city and take her to the person who fathered her. Here, she also gets the truthful information about her mother....

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Dear Madhu Ji, On my way back home I recapitulated, as my routine exercise, the discussions at the Coffee House. Can you recall the reaction of Mr Malik to Lal's outburst against the final outcome of Dhananjay Chakrovarty's legal battle to ward off the Capital punishment pronounced on him for rape and murder of a minor girl, when he himself was just 21 years? ……………..." I suppose Mr. Malik came out with some amusing retort, which made almost the entire group at the table giggle and I could not make out anything but only observe Mr. Malik move towards the toilets. Respected Sir, I clearly heard your `Guruji`, I mean Mr Malik, murmur aloud, “Is there any punishment available to your civilized society to punish an errant woman who voluntarily and actively seduces and commits rape on an innocent, uninitiated and in the prime of his youth?” “Do you mean a rape amongst a Lesbian fraternity?” Mr. Lal Singh speaks out smilingly. Mr. Malik simply hung his head down and spoke in his normal pitch, “I mean, on a companion belonging to the opposite sex.” Having uttered these words Guruji peacefully got up and moved in a gentle pace towards pu...

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This story whirls around plot that opens up when two ex-classmates happen to meet inadvertently, one on his official duty, while the other on past-time, enjoying holiday touring alone. Their next meeting, brings a female classfellow of theirs at the hill-station to make them enjoy one another’s company. This re-union continues to grow further during the years that follow. The author portrays just an account of certain events taking shape in the social sectors of these persons, making, breaking or remaking a marriage based on the choice of the persons involved into matrimony. ...

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Hemant's intention in going to the H.P.T.D.C. hotel was, at the moment, influenced by the desire to meet Mr. Manmeet Malhotra, the manager. He also wanted thereby to express his gratitude to Mr. Malhotra who had arranged accommodation for him last night. Hemant was already under obligation of Mr Malhotra for his kind and affectionate treatment of Hemant when three years ago Hemant happened to meet him at the H.P.T.D.C. hotel at Manali where Manmeet Malhotra was working as an Astt Manager, those days. They were seeing each other after almost a decade since their graduation as students of S.R.C.C., Delhi. …………………….. "Well, how is `Bhabhiji`?" Hemant asked. For a few moments Manmeet held up his tongue tightly and only stared at Hemant with a smile on his face. Hemant thought that he had made a mistake. Perhaps, Triplem is still a bachelor like him. "But when I met him in Manali, he had told me that he had got married only three months before.” But Manmeet was quick enough to read the signs of perplexity in his friend's face and lost no time in explaining his position. ……………. He was not interested in knowing more about Ma...

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This is the philosophical novel that was my Master's degree thesis

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Steven, you should DEFINITELY continue to give your life to . . . literary novels (notice I omitted “obscure”).  What you have produced is a phenomenal work.  Others, in the past, have attempted to do something like you have done, but they did not come close to creating a work with such breadth and depth as you.   I apologize for taking so very long to complete the reading of your work, but it is very densely written in some sections, while others seem to be as lucid as anything I have ever read.  Your vocabulary probably exceeds my own (“fulgurant”), for which I am thankful, as I always enjoy being taught the existence of words I have not yet incorporated into my own lexicon.   The most successful parts of your work—for me—were the interactions between Luk, Aus, and the central character, as those passages moved the story along.  I think using the unrest and waging of police action in Bangkok sets up the intellectual discontent in the rest of the novel, but I would wish for a more balanced unfolding of the story with the intellectual ruminations.  The least successful passages for me were sometimes extremely lengthy sen...

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A literary novel that touches on drug addiction, domestic violence and coming of age.

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Los Angeles 2017 Letter to My Parents Contest Award recipients and letters.

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Chicago 2017 Letter to My Parents Contest announcement, award recipients, and letters.